OK I just ordered 4 square yards of 3K X 3K plain weave carbon fiber and all the supplies I will need. I am gonna loose that heavy rear hatch of mine. I am going to use lexan for the window and make the window (lexan) piece a bit smaller. I am also going to integrate a little larger lip extension on there-don't worry it will look good! Lexan is 1/3 the weight of glass so I imagine the hatch will be down to 11 or 12 lbs. Does anyone know how heavy the stocker is?? Also have you ever heard of anyone selling this piece or will I be the first. Doors will follow. This is my first cf job but Ive done some research and will post pics when it's done. I may do another and sell it also. What would it be worth to any of you if I did build a nice piece?

 

would be cool .. good luck with it

 

i was gonna make the whole hatch lexan, didnt wanna waste the money on fiber glass and lexan would be free cause i could get it at work. then something happened and the whole hatch idea died down . but do post pics when u are done i deff wanna see it

 

i seen someone make a cf roof for a crx, definitely take lots of pics.

 

I figure it will be done by the middle of next month if all goes well. Parts should flow faster after I get the hang of things. I hope to start a business out of this so everything will be first class. I can't wait to do doors really since they weigh a ton. I will take pictures of the whole process for you guys to see.

 

Ok Carbon fiber is here --12 sqaure yards in fact along with my epoxy and tools so last night I took a trip to Home depot and bought some supplies to make the mold that I have designed. Will get alot done this weekend for sure. Also sourced the 1/8" lexan for the rear window. This thing is gonna be done right!

Stay tuned

 

what supplies did you use to make the mold? You definitly have to post pics once its done.

 

Oh ya I will post quite a few pics so you guys can check out the process. It's actually not overly complex as you might think. It's not to much different than forming fiberglass. Just so all you guys know the type of fabric that I bought is on par with the best cf hoods out there and most of product quality is in the design. This fiber, clear epoxy and all material costs me less than $200. The fiber itself is only about $25 a sqaure yard. These hoods that are like $500 and up are a complete ripp-off. After you make the mold you can make several copies for just the cost of materials and some hand labor. Somehow just saying your product is carbon fiber lets them rape people on price. Also there are many different weaves and thread counts you can get in carbon fiber and you can even get a carbon/glass hybrid now that is about half the price of full carbon with many of the same properties but closer to the cost of fiberglass.

P.S. I forgot to mention in that glass/carbon blen you can get a few different colrs like SI blue and red and I think they have a yellow weave as well.


[Modified by slowinslc, 11:41 PM 9/6/2001]

 

hey man, im lookin for a piece of carbon fiber to replace my climate control panel. i gutted a lot of the interior and want to put some guages in that location. hook me up with some scraps, i'll draw out the exact size of what i need, if you could cure it and cut it for me, i'd pay of course. lemme know!

i also want a plug for my sunroof, lemme know how much you'd charge me for these two pieces. if the price is decent i'll definitely pick em up asap. just remember when you're pricing though that i don't NEED this ****, so it'll be easy to pass, but i would like them. thanks man.


[Modified by akachef, 9:27 AM 9/7/2001]

 

If you dont mind me asking, where are you buying your CF from?

 

slowinslc - I too am in the Salt Lake area and I am currently undergoing a 1987 CRX Si project car. I am interested to see some of the work you got going for your CF pieces. IM me or msg on here if you don't mind showing me what you got.



[Modified by Alaskan98ITR406, 11:16 PM 9/9/2001]

 

I get all my carbon material from http://www.carb.com/carbon.html based in Paia, HI and resin and tools from http://www.Fibreglast.com. There are actually quite a few places to find this stuff though.

 

thanks a lot for providing the links. are you sure the second link is correct? a weather site came up when i openeed it??? i cant wait to see the finished product.

 

http://www.fibreglast.com/


tray that one , that should work.

 

Aka, I'm sure I could do these pieces for you but just so you're clear I am not out to screw people over or be a salesman. I believe that a product should sell itself. I don't quite understand your tone though??

I realize that you don't NEED these parts but I don't need to make carbon fiber parts for free if that's what your getting at. I'm not going to build custom molds and wet layup carbon fiber for charity. There is a reason why this stuff costs a lot. LABOR. I need to do some time and hard cost analysis before I do any custom parts for anyone. This first project will give me all that info and then I can give people the exact cost for any projects. Price and quality will be my main objectives.

I'll tell you what...If all you want is some flat panels cut to a pattern I can probably help you out. Reason being I can do a flat panel pretty easily ait the curves and elevation stuff that requires a custom mold. Give me your email and I'll be in touch. The instrument panel can be done easily I'm sure.

 

man this is cool. me and my best freind were gonna try and make some glass parts but i moved. more to the point. i hope to have a vinyl graphics company up and running soon and im looking at gettin a crx for a pomotional/street/strip/show car. this sounds really cool and i might be interested in some of your parts. ive been thinking of doing some of the same stuff and would love your input. i think it would be kool to have kustum parts on our advertising car, and if it were some other small business all the better. what do you think? let me know.

 

is this a full drag car? How are you gonna run the defroster crap on the lexan?

 

Nope it's for street even though it may not even be DOT legal. The defrost and wiper is going away. The mold is over half way done on this first piece. I'm gonna post pics this week.

 

Exciting stuff, I would like to try that someday also..learn how to lay fiberglas and carbon fiber also...

 

HOw much dose the sheet of CF cost, and where do you order them?, also do you have any pics, other cars with this I think it cool, could make you car way more tail happy, which is a good thing in my book (the next best thing to FR drift), good luck, BTW have you made hoods before?

 

damn, good idea!!! cut the costs of a project car down by a lot if u do this, I'm gonna look into it now!!!

 

Wow, I'm finally getting close to painting my mold but just wanted to let you guys see how it;s going so far. You can't tell much in the pictures because of all of the sanding I've done on this mold but the surface is almost perfectly smooth. I will send a picture after the primer hits it so you can see all the angles better. I just cut that hole out of the center to keep the mold lightweight. Also you can see the inner frame which is made of pine- that is where the lexan window will be sitting. and the area right around the pine is where the cf is going. This is not easy but it's my first one so it should get better from here on out. The biggest problem is all of the complex curves and angles which intersect at the seams. You'll also notice that the window on 1st gen rex's curve just barely which was fun to deal with, LOL! Since I am making a modified part and not an exact replica it makes the job quite a bit harder. Copies alot easier since you can take a part and pour a mold around it (latex, plaster paris). Anyway I will keep you all up to date until a perfect finished product is realized.

Oh one more thing, when you look at the mold it is really just the negative from which the part is molded so you have to really build in terms of the space your part will fill instead of an actual part which makes things tougher. the beauty of a mold is I could bust out 10 copies really quick. The time is all in the mold!


http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewP...p=55274666&f=0

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewP...942&p=55274669

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewP...942&p=55274672


[Modified by slowinslc, 1:41 AM 10/16/2001]


[Modified by slowinslc, 1:56 AM 10/16/2001]

 

Yah I am going to try and price my parts better than the others but still maintain quality.

 

ooohhhh, sounds neet

 

I'm strating on building a really cool tail for the mold tonight, should be subtle but sweet. Think Black widow kit style wing. Actually more of a semi angled lip with endplates coming down and following the body lines. Should be nice looking!