Hey guys. I have stopped building the mold for the rear hatch for now since I'm battling with issues on that. It has to be perfect and it's not right now. So I figured why not do something easier to start with. Well the good news is I've built part one of my hood mold and should pop it out tonight and lay the other side of the hood to pop out tomorrow. After that I will lay the cf on Sunday or at the latest Monday. Well here are some pics of my (CSM) or chopped strand matt fiberglass mold side A. The brown pieces you see there are in fact just corrugated cardboard pieces with glass laid over them to add in rigidity. Belive it or not this works. Anyway when this mold is complete I can pop out many copies. I will post weights of the before hood vs. after in carbon fiber.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewP...942&p=56444899

 

He how hard is it to mold carbon fiber? ive done lots of fiberglass stuff but no carbon fiber. How expensive is that stuff? Id like to make a carbon fiber lip to vent air towards the breaks, how hard is it to mold and how expensive is it?

 

Not much harder than fiberglass except it takes more attention to the mold. The surface has to be perfect or the product will be blemished and it can't be sanded and primered like glass unless your going to pint the cf part anyway and then its not big deal. A big difference is in price. If you include the price of epoxy the cost for decent carbon fiber is about $40 square yard vs fiberglass which is like $15.

 

Where do you order your stuff from?how can you get that nice glossy look to it? do all molds come out like that? i was thinking about using the si lip and just molding over it, but would it come out glosy and smooth?

 

I order from http://www.carb.com based in Hawaii. If you are planning to make an SI lip then you would first need to make a female fiberglass mold over the stock lip and then let cure, pull the fiberglass off the original part ind bingo - you got yourself something to lay the carbon fiber into. Assuming you waxed and polished the stock SI lip to a lusterous shine and used a release agent before you laid the fiberglass onto the lip then when you pull the lip out the fiberglass should be glass smooth. From there you would just polish the inside of that mold really nice and then lay your carbon fiber and then wait a day. Pop it out and cut off any rough edges. Thats basically what its about. I have read a few books on the subject but experience is really the best teacher.

 

Won't the resin from the mold screw with lip or any other plastic?
Mahalo

 

No clearcoat required. When you lay the cf down, assuming you lay it down on a perfect surface the actual resin seaps through the fabric and settles between the mold surface and the cf which leaves a perfect "deep" glossy look to it. The important thing here is make sure the mold surface is absolutely perfect and glossy and then your part will be to.

 

No the resin won't contact the actual part as long as you prep it with wax, polish and a release agent. This creates a layer between the resin and the part allowing no damage to occur when you pull the part from the mold. I used my stock hood to make my mold from and there was zero damage to it.

BTW I am going to pull the cf hood from the mold tonight so cross your fingers and I will post pics.