Carbon Fiber Bodywork

Once satisfied with the foam core, I decided to go ahead and prep the mold for another layup. I rubbed on 2 more coats of release wax and 3 coats of PVA. I used the heat gun to speed up the drying time of the PVA between coats..intil I saw little hot air bubbles forming under the PVA film in the pinholes of the mold I got everything squared away, drug out the remaing bit of carbon fiber from my last roll and cut it up. I mixed up some epoxy resin and went to work. I placed approx 3 layers of cloth. The first layer completely covered the whole mold for cosmetic reason (it IS why I'm doing all of this after all). I am relieved that the carbon cloth conforms much better than the fiberglass I have. All I had to do at the mounting points was cut a vertical slit in the cloth down to the mold and fold the ends over. I added a couple extra patches at the mounting points to beef them up, and I used smaller pieces of cloth for the remaining layers as it is easier to get the material to conform to the molds' contours.

lookin good porchev,i can't wait for the next round of photos .

leon

Thanks Leon, when are you going to start on your Z1R side covers?

As for the sidecover, I stripped the bleeder and perforated release film this morning, but I left the laminate in the mold. It was horribly tempting to strip it out to see what it looked like, but I mastered my urges :whistle: :pinch:
I had to sand the inside of the laminate for adhesion. One drawback to using the perforated release film is that is leaves a smooth (relatively) surface. Thats good for a finished part, but its bad for a secondary lamination. They make a mesh fabric called Peel Ply that is designed to leave a rough finish for secondry bonding without any addition prep. I'm going to need some of that....

Then I whipped up some epoxy resin and spread some around on the laminate, then spread some on the back of the foam core, and set it in place. Then I took my remaining resin and mixed in some low density filler. Mix in enough to make a peanut butter like consitancy (or slightly thinner in my case). I used a mixing stick to fill in the edges of the foam:

I mixed up more resin and placed 3 more layers of fabric, with additional reinforcement placed at the edges and the mounting bosses. Now we just have to wait and see how it turns out. Just a few more hours now........ :evil:

Wow , you have some serious patience, Keep up the good workB)

I don't really have that much patience. I am praying to Ala that the first layers of carbon turned out OK. If it didn't, this mornings work (and expensive materials) will be for nought.

OK fellas, the moment of truth :ohmy: After allowing my autoclave to cure my laminate (small space heater and a piece of cardboard...works suprisingly good) I couldn't wait any longer. I stripped the baggin material and....

First the bad news-
There were 2 odd shapped bubbles on the backside of the laminate, one in particular was spongy to the touch.

I cut into it with a razor blade and found an air pocket underneath. I'm not sure what caused it, but I believe it had something to do with trapped air pockets that expanded under the heat. I also noticed an excess accumulation of resin. For some reason the excess resin was not pulled through the perforated release film and into the bleeder material. I have NO idea why that happened :huh: :dry:

This is the defect close up, and cut open.....

Now for the good news :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:
The face of the part came out relatively umblemished. I say relatively becasue there are still the marks left by my less than perfect mold. But I'm sure you guys want to see the results right?


(drum roll)

And from the top :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:



Now I need to figure out what went wrong with that secondary laminate. Once I get that solved, I'm practically home free! That is, until I decide to try and replicate the valve cover or points cover in CF..... :laugh:

That looks really awesome! Even with the blem it is still a very usable piece, after all it's on the back lol!

I wish I could help you out with why it bubbled. The only laminate I've had experience with is nomex honeycomb. That stuff is VERY expensive, luckily it was free lol! The only times we had problems with delamination where due to failure of sealing the vacuum bag, I doubt that's the problem in your case, your setup is much better!

The only Idea I would have would maybe be the extra filler, but I have no experience with that so just a guess.

Keep up the good work!!!

very cool...

were you at ducati island this weekend???