So i have been working with carbon fiber and glass for awhile now but i still have some questions that maybe some people on a forum can answer. I was thinking about doing a complete carbon fiber car, based off of appearance. see when you work with CF for a little while you start to want to do harder and harder stuff to kind of push the envelope. So my first step is im wondering if you can wrap an entire car in CF. i know it is possible, but will it remain on there for an extended period of time. the other part i was wondering is whether i should make complete CF parts or just wrap them. cause when it comes down to it i am just doing the car for looks, or show quality for that matter, and because i have never seen a car that appeared to be completely carbon fiber. So ya just post your comments and questions if you have any. i am looking for ideas for the project and i want to do something pretty cool.

The project that i was planning was a boosted b18 into a 99 ek, complete with kevlar interior for the seats...kinda goin for the durable bullet proof thing, then carbon fiber interior for all the paneling and such, full exterior would appear to be completely out of carbon fiber, 2 12" focal subs with a pair of focal speaker, plus amp in custom FG box, with rear seats and carpet removed replaced with CF wrapped flooring....you guys probably get the picture now...i have my own shop so i want to do something that i can use as advertisements.....so i am completely open to comments and suggestions...thanks

oh and if i screwed up with this post and its in the wrong place sorry about that.

 

A car can easily be made cf...

Lets just make sure you're ready for this. Im going to use some terms that im hoping you'll understand.

-Do you own a vacuum bagger?
-Do know you how to do vacuum infusion?
-Have you done large items yet? ie: hoods, trunks, fenders, roof caps.
-Are you willing to cut out the 1/4 panels and door skins?

If so, the easiest items would obviously be the fenders, side skirts, gas lid, front and rear lip. Then a hood and trunk are fairly simple. Bumpers would be tough to do unless you just wrapped the stock ones. You would need to find a way from the bumper deforming while making the mold. The hardest parts would be, 1/4s and door skins.

To do the door skins and 1/4s i'd remove all of the glass from the car. Then buff and wax the panels youd like to replicate. Next use some pva mold release, sprayed on with a gun. Then use tooling gelcoat with a cup gun if you have one. Next start glassing on top of that. Once thats all dry you should be able to pop it off and wet sand and buff the mold. Then just make replacement panels out of the mold and cut the metal ones out. Glass them to the car or use cf tape... If this seems a little tedious, it is. Youd be better of wrapping them if you dont mind a little build up.

 

i know how to do all of that but i am also trying to think cost effective. time and money arent really the issue. i guess i should have asked what would give the best results. i mean building cf products is nice but practicality kind of goes out the window. i want something where people ask how i did that i can say it was easy and tell them to come by my shop and we could do it for them. making cf molds is something that anyone can do if they have the time...i want to do something that yes, anyone can do, but i want it to have that show quality to it. ya know...i think wrapping is the best way to go about doing it but i just wanted to hear what people have to say...thanks alot for the input

 

i saw a rx7 or rx8 last yr at carlisle,pa 2 yrs ago i beleive that was done to look like complete cf. that was sick looking!! if you do this take lots of pics!

 

well i am in a debate with myself...i either want to do it to my skyline or the ek that i am getting...think skyline would look crazy..but ek is a much more practical car and alot more people will see it...

 

honestly, if you really want to show what you are capable of, you will not do an overlay. making parts from nothing would be show your abilities.

 

yeah dude...overlay would be a waste of time...do the actual body out of CF. honestly like fav said...it would definetly show your abilities alot better

 

There are many cars that are all carbon but very few that are in raw carbon. Since your car is for show only, I think you shouldn't invest the time and money in making molds and casting carbon parts unless your pockets are deep and have plenty of time. It takes us a couple of weeks to months to mold up and cast every part on a car and that's pulling 8hr shifts. If its only you, it might take half to a full year to reproduce all the parts in raw carbon.

Heres an all carbon Lotus

 

yeah this is definitely not a two week project. if you know what you are doing id say a couple months.

pictures of your current work? you make everything you do seem easy. im curious to see your quality.

 

well the molds i dont think would be to hard...i mean fenders hood are simple...how do you make up your molds...cause the way ive been doing it varies..ya know like either FG molds, or the puddy rubber ones.. but i have been getting essentially the same result..the thing i was wondering is the rear part of the car...i dont know how i would go about doing that...that is what makes me wonder if i should just wrap...or actually go through with it and do all CF...cause what i was thinking i would have to do is actually chop her up, make molds..piece her together again and then CF...i mean there is way more steps into it obviously but im sure you get the point...the other thing is that i actually just want to test it out on a honda...and if it goes well ill do the real thing on my skyline...

 

the other thing i wanted to say was that overlay is way more cheap....and im not sure i want to spend that kind of money....on a honda..

 

Personally I do not like overlays. In my line of work we make carbon parts to reduce weight and not to add it onto preexisting parts. you should skip the honda and go straight to the nissan. much more props. if you are trying to do the A pillars and such, you should just forget it unless you are turning the honda into a tube chassis. we usually charge up to 40k-100k for a complete carbon body. majority is labor. that includes master pattern work, molds, and castings. our products is very high quality.

 

ya understand overlay is kind of meaningless...i guess i am just more afraid of spending all that money and then screwing up, i am still pretty new to the CF stuff....ive been doing fiberglass for awhile now, all interior and exterior stuff...i started as an installer and slowly but surely am making my way into the business ya know....so skellator do you have any pics of how you do those cars...in particular the rear ends, cause they are all one piece...thanks alot..

 

I am confused on what you mean by the rear ends. do you mean rear bumper, rear deck lid, or the C pillars itself.. you should show me a photo.

 

ya the C pillars. i think i just need to do it. i guess thats the difficult thing of doing stuff that not many people have done....ill be sure to take pics so that people can see whats going on...

 

ak, pics of anything youve done?

 

Hey man, no not at the moment i dont really think about doing pics when im working...but when i work on my car ill be taking pics...its just i dont know when ill be doing that. im open to suggestions, i kinda want to do some stuff thats ****in hard but will be crazy when im done....i kinda wanted to do a completely carbon car...like all of the interior, sub boxes, dash, exterior, all of it...accept for the engine bay..i was thinkin of doing like a matte black with a little bit of silver flakes to color the engine bay...and then do all piping and covers in a porsche indian red...if you have read project car or super street they paint a car with that color and i think it looks pretty sick. then i was going to get two recaro, or sparco carbon seats with red padding....i think that i am going to be looking at probly 3-4 grand for the whole project. and i think it should take me about 2 months to do it...so ya give me some input

 

hey so i stumbled across this today, i was actually looking for a watch that mugen made....really really rare, still havent found it...im a watch collector so it just seemed like something to get...but anyways...i found this which is just as cool...upsetting on my end but sick nonetheless... so here are some pictures mugen put together an all carbon honda and it looks crazy...

http://image.superstreetonline.com/f...ead_lights.jpg

http://image.superstreetonline.com/f...ime_attack.jpg

http://image.superstreetonline.com/f...en+fenders.jpg

http://image.superstreetonline.com/f...gine_cover.jpg


well this is what i want to do....hahahaha but considering mugen did it i think i am in for a long ride...

 

sorry bout that, here are the pics..

 

You say you can make fenders and hoods no problem? But you're new to the game... and you dont have ONE picture of anything you have ever made?

Good luck with this.

 

ok thanks man...new to the game as in i havent been doing it for 15-20 years...i have only been doing CF stuff for a year and a half...and honestly once you get the mold making down and the bagging down its pretty easy..

 

So in a year and a half you dont have one picture of something you have made? You dont rock ANY of your own parts on your cars to show what you can do? None of the people you have done work for have sent you pics?

You make it sound easy. Im just trying to see what kind of quality you can produce.

 

Don't do overlay, it may be cheap but that thing will rip or scratch off eventually. My friend did it once and it was peeling after 2-3 months.

 

aaahhh see thats some good info...i didnt know what would happen if i did overlay..i mean with my experience i always left some around the edges so you just fold it over or under and you would just resin those pieces...kinda like they are hooked on there...what i was thinking of doing was removing all the windows and then doing the overlay...so the excess that was around the edges would look rough but they would be covered when the windows were put back on...