Carbon Fiber Bodywork

All of the aircraft manufacturers are suffering badly. Homebuilt aircraft have always offered superior performance at a much lower aquisition cost than Certified aircraft. Homebuilt aircraft like Lancair have much less stringent rules for construction, equiptment and materials. For example an altimeter for a Cessna is about $800 (certified instrument) The same altimeter without a certification for a Lancair would be $300...and everything is like that. Mooney's aren't any more expensive than Beechcraft, Cessna or Cirrus aircraft of similar performance, but you're looking at $400K-$500K for one......not the kind of money people a throwing down for personal transportaion in this economy!

I'm a firm believer of bullet proof Kawk pieces for our bikes :laugh:

Now I have a legitimate question about your molding project. Does the vacuum pump actually pull excess resin from the layup, or are you stuck with what you put on there? From my small boat building trial project, I discovered that I tend to err on the side of using too much resin. The first time that I laid up something and didn't wet it out thoroughly was disappointing. Next time I made sure that I fully saturated my glass cloth. As I understand, this is the natural course of development for an person new to composite lay ups. The whole point of vacuum bagging a boat hull is to keep it as light as possible. The finish is achieved by fairing the hull, and painted with bottom paint, but both of the hulls that I am interested are intended for shallow water use, and as such need to be light weight.

So does the vacuum help to remove the excess or does it allow you to fully wet out your laminate by applying less resin. The quantities of resin necessary to complete either of those hulls are significant. The TX18 kit includes 15 gallons of resin, and that stuff ain't cheap. When I do build it, I don't want to waste.

Here's my first canoe that I built using the same methods:

Sweet little canoe Josh! To answer your question, yes the vacuum pump removes excess resin. You always want to use a little more resin than you need to insure your fabric is fully whetted out. Once you've whetted your last layer, you place a layerof Peel ply which is essentially a course nylon fabric that's been treated so as not to bond with the resin. Then you place your bleeder layer, which is a non woven polyester batting material. This layer does 2 things; it soaks up the excess resin pulled through the Peel ply and it provides a path for the vacuum to reach the entire laminate. Your vacuum pump acts like a giant weight putting even pressure across the entire layup, squeezing all the excess resin out of the fabric to be soaked up by the bleeder layer. The amount of compaction pressure exerted by the vacuum pump is huge. I'll pull 20"HG on a sidecover which equates to 10 psi. Over the area of the laminate thats over 1800 lbs of force. And that's only 20" of vacuum, I can pull 26.5" on my pump and get a few more psi out of it. Does that help?

Just out of curiosity, would anyone (Leon) care if I made a mold of a Z1/900 tail instead of the Kz1000 tail? And if there are no objections, is there anyone that has a spare Z1 tail I can borrow to mold off of?

Ive been lurking and following your posts for a little while now.And was wondering if you would consider doing some Z1R side covers?Im in the middle of making a set out of aluminium.But Im not home that much and I think that the carbon fiber would look way cooler.I can tell you that there would be a definite market for some of these covers.Especially with the crowd that likes to chop the back piece of em off.I cant bring myself to do that so thats why Im doing em with aluminium.
For your consideration Jeff

Jeff, could you post pics of the back and side (profile) of a Z1R cover please? I have never seen a Z1R cover in person. The tricky part (for me anyways) is the push pins. It is one of the main reasons I used the bolt on covers are mold plugs. I have at least two ways to try and recreate those pins. Are the pins on the Z1R covers in the same plane? That would definately make it easier :whistle:

ye gods! your feet woulda been sliced something awful if that didn't work. You made it strong! good work

call me a heartless wretch but i have never liked one tail piece better than the other when it comes to z1/kz tails.
i have both tails and could ship one to you for use in the tail piece mold.i can take some pics of each tailpiece for comparison if you need help deciding which you prefer.

leon

oh yeah,and i'm with jeffasaki on the z1r side covers .i was going to wait and hit you up after you got the kz stuff done :laugh: .in my opinion(take it for what its worth,from a know nothing lemming :silly: )the z1r side covers would be easier than the kz's.i do believe that all the push pins are in the same plane.bonding the pins to the backs would be the best way to attach to the bike.i can get some pictures of the sidecovers for you to see.

leon

Yeah Leon, if you could post a few pics of the Z1 tail, that would be great, as well as some of the Z1R cover. If the pins are all in the same plane, then the jig to properly locate the pins would be pretty simple. I'll let you know if I need the Z1 tail What kind of shape is it in?

i will get the pics.it may take a couple days as my pc at home is down,and i managed to highside my z1r friday the 20th and broke my collar bone.nice huh ?
the z1 tail i have has been repainted and never mounted.

leon

DUDE :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy: You highsided your Z1R??? Is she ok? Bummer about your collar bone, but it'll heal but the bike :X Post the pics whenever, and if your Z1 tail has a fresh paint job, I'll take it. That makes it soooo much easier and faster for me. All I have to do is a quick hand polish, glue on the flange, spray it with PVA and then make the mold. Take care of that shoulder bud, no hurry on the pics or the tail. I'm not going anywhere