Carbon Fiber Bodywork

1 step further. Keep it up.

It does take a significant amount of patience, but a ship in a bottle is not on my to-do list. I can say that I should be able to reduce the molding time in half on the other side, with much better results to boot. But sanding the inside of that mold with 1500 grit seems to take forever! :laugh: it didn't take me this long to sand down an entire car when I was 18... :huh:

porchev914 wrote:

it didn't take me this long to sand down an entire car when I was 18... :huh:

:laugh: Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt. Sanding is not one of my favorite activities.

Glad to see it's coming along nicely. Wasn't trying to bust your chops or anything, and as hard as it is to imagine having a life outside of playing with our bikes and BS-ing about it online, I do understand such a scenario is possible :laugh:

Keep fighting the good fight man! We're all pulling for ya!

omaha.craigslist.org/tls/1854336754.html whats this thing worth? doing my daily cruise through tool section of omaha craigslist and this popped up.
i probably cant afford what he considers a reasonable offer,but think of the side covers and tail pieces i could crank out! :laugh:

says it was made in late 60s-early 70s,whats a reasonable offer for this thing?

Wow, that is a cool machine with miriad uses. A reasonable offer though? I would put it on par with a newer used Tig welder which is (might be?) a similarly complex machine....so... $1000? $1200? 1200 lbs is a beast to move too...could be part of the price negotiations You could use it to make polycorbonate molds of of any Kz bodywork and send them to me...

that sounds like a reasonable enough price,maybe ill call him today to kick the tires a little! i was expecting a wholw lot bigger number than that :laugh:

11 or so years ago, I used to work in an aftermarket Harley parts distributors warehouse. Twice a year we got a shipping container delivered from China that was full of the familiar cheap, cream colored boxes ala Harbor Freight. Inside the boxes were thousands of cheap Chinese oil coated chrome parts for Harleys. One of my jobs in the warehouse was to repackage these parts using a cheaper version of that vacuum forming machine. An overhead heating element softens a sheet of thick polyurethane film, which is then lowered onto a big piece of preprinted perforated card stock with the parts in place. The sheet is sealed around the perimeter and the vacuum pump sucks the film down around the parts. In a minute the film cools and viola! You have vacuum formed and packaged retail display cards. With a heavy duty industrial machine like that one(with corresponding industrial heating element and vacuum pump) you could use much stiffer plastics vacuum formed over plugs....

Alright, back to business. I have been procrastinating getting back to the sanding on this because....well, it's a PITA! Tooling gelcoat is used because of it's higher durability compared to standard polyester resins, and when it comes to sanding it, it is VERY resistant, especially when using fine grits like 1500. But, after sitting down for a couple hours I have the sanding generally complete:

Now during this time I went through the 4 stages of loss:
1: Denial "Ooooooh, It looks like some of these patches aren't quite as good as I had hoped....I'm sure it'll all turn out just fine.....I'm sure of it :dry: "
2: Bargaining "Awww, come on! Oh please oh please! Let this be the last time I have to sand this mold, and I swear I'll stop drinking OR chasing women...."
3: Anger "god damn P.O.S.! Why coulnd't I have done this the right way from the beginning and saved myself hours and hours of sanding imperfections and patches?"
4: Acceptance "Well, it was my first mold, I was bound to make some mistakes. Even if this mold isn't perfect, I can still use it to experiment with, and by the time I do the other side and the tail piece I'll have the process ironed out. Then I can redo this one "

Now I had finish sanded with 1500 so that I had as smooth a finish as possible without buffing, and so that I could buff it with the least amount of effort to get it nice and shiny. I decided that I would forgo polishing for the time being. The first couple of parts will be prototype pieces anyhow. I'll be looking more at the structure than the surface finish. With that decision out of the way, I followed the instructions on the mold release and applied 3 coats, allowing each coat to haze before buffing off (just like normal automotive wax). The wax made a noticable difference in the luster of the mold surface

Tomorrow I will coat the mold with PVA and laminate my first part
Same bat time, same bat channel :laugh:

So, are you guys ready?

Lets see how this little experiment is turning out... :whistle:
First things first, I put 2 more coats of wax on the mold, let it sit for an hour and sprayed 3 coats of PVA:

It looks a little more shiny now. Remember, when spraying PVA, it's very thin, so you need to spray thin/light coats at a higher than normal air pressure. Don't worry if it looks a litte grainy after a coat, it will flow together on its own. If you try to make it flow together, it will run, and if you get it too thick it takes FOREVER to dry

Then I mixed up 6 oz of polyester resin (I only used 4, but you don't want to run out)

This really doesn't add much to the thread.. :huh: