Carbon Fiber Bodywork

After some arts and crafts time, I completed the paper flange:

Next will be filling the small gap between the paper flange and the sidecover

I spent quite a bit of time filling the gap and making the transition from the sidecover to the flange as smooth and contoured as possible

I had used a small amount of clay on my first mold, underestimating the importance of a smooth transition from part to flange. As a result, I spent alot of time repairing/filling/sanding the mold which is FAR more time consuming than proper prep prior to mold layup. Just like when you're painting, the foundation is everything guys!

Now it's off to be coated with PVA

Tomorrow, we'll get started spraying gelcoat!

glad you got your materials!
following along on this thread is pretty exciting stuff :ohmy: .
keep up the good work,

leon

I did Leon, thanks I sprayed the first coat of orange tooling gelcoat on the right sidecover this morning:

I learned that gelcoat specific sprayguns were invented for a reason :dry: While I was able to spray the gelcoat, it was boarderline too thick to spray with the gun I had :huh: Perhaps an issue with gun setup, but I digress. I also had to mix more gelcoat than I required (16 oz mixed) to allow for waste/overspray, pickup tube loss and container inefficiency. The bigger pain was cleaning the damn thing after I was done. What a BITCH! It took me longer to clean the gun than to weigh, mix and spray the gelcoat :blink: For that reason alone, I think I'll just spray the first coat, then brush on the remaining coats. I have high hopes the mold quality this time around will much improved over my first attempt. Gotta go, its about time to start prepping for the second coat!

It sounds like u have learned a lot the first go round. this 1 should be a lot quicker.Good luck

Lets hope so Mark.....Lets hope so...... :laugh:

2nd coat of tooling gelcoat on the mold. One lesson I learned on the left side was to be patient, and put at least 2 coats of gelcoat on the plug before adding any reinforcement. I was patient where it counted here :laugh: I applied the second coat over the entire mold/flange surface, then added chopped strand mat ONLY to the flange. I'm not concerned about any possible imprinting on the flange area since that just gets cut off. I also learned a trick with the chopped strand mat. Instead of cutting it into pieces, you tear it into pieces. The frayed fiber edges lay down and conform to the compound curves much easier than a straight cut edge.

3rd coat on the mold, this time with a layer of chopped strand mat over the entire mold surface.

It really doesn't look much different, and it won't from here on out. I plan to add 2 more layers, one more of chopped strand mat, and another of standard woven fiberglass cloth. I thought about adding a layer of coremat, but I really don't think it's necessary

The dredded bolt on sidecover hardware..... :whistle:

I refuse to use this crap on my pretty carbon covers

I think I might be done with the mold layup, but I won't know until the last layer sets up. I decided to go ahead and use coremat to increase the cross sectional area of the mold to increase mold rigidity. The problem with coremat is it does not conform to curves. So you have to cut it up into pieces to avoid all the curves. So then it looks like this when you lay it out:

Piece by piece, I pulled off a section of coremat and brushed on gelcoat, then put the coremat back in place then brush gelcoat over the top. After I did half of the mold, I placed another layer of chopped strand mat over it and more gelcoat. I had to do this step in 2 parts because it was so time consuming, the gelcoat would kick off before I could finish it.

I decided to trim the edge of the mold (I don't like getting stuck with fiberglass). A jigsaw with a metal blade makes quick work of it. This is where I learned another valuable lesson, this time regarding coremat.

When you use coremat, make sure you stop short of where your final piece will be cut. Coremat only works if the layer of fiberglass (or any cloth reinforcement for that matter) laps over the edge and bonds with the layer of reinforcement underneath. If it doesn't (like for instance, if you cut through the coremat while trimming a mold...) it doesn't reinforce properly because the fiberglass resin does not bond to the coremat like it does to another layer of resin. All it means is that I'll need to coat the edge of the mold with resin to bridge the cross section.

I startedstripping the mold by removing the paper flange

Lesson number...... well, I've lost count. Another lesson I learned about using paper as a flange material. No matter how much PVA you spray on the paper, it doesn't release very cleanly. It would be good practice to cover the paper with a thin sheet of mylar, or to just use mylar all together.

After stripping most of the paper, I scraped out the rest of the modeling clay and removed the plug. I was pleased the plug released with minimal effort

and the mold.....well the mold turned out.....