Carbon Fiber Bodywork

Very nice Leon! Thanks for sharing :woohoo: A dash without the indicator lamp box and blockout would be MUCH simpler :laugh: As for the fairing, it looks good, but I'm wondering why fabricator sectioned the fabric the way he did half way up the windscreen wing. Interesting......

OK Vic sounds good. Make sure that your final sand on the mould is at least 600 grit before you polish it, preferably 1000. I had to use 600 on my tail mould because the graphite powder impregnated epoxy resin is SO DAMN HARD.

One more thing though: Are you going to vacuum bag the laminate, or is this a basic wet layup? If you are going to bag it, then carry on. If not then there is another consideration and step with regards to the coremat. 2mm doesn't sound like much, but your fiberglass isn't going to conform to that tiny 2mm tall right angle. Its going to bridge down to the layer under the coremat and leave you with an air gap all around the mat. The simplest solution will be to take a sharp razor blade, and cut a MINIMUM 45 deg. bevel along the edge of the coremat. Next is the size of the coremat section. You don't want it to go all the way to the edge of the part. When you trim the edges of the part, you don't want to expose the coremat in the crossection. I'll post a pic later to show you what I mean with the coremat template that I made for a Z1 tail. Keep it Up Vic!

Adam

Here is the initial coremat template I made for the tail piece


Here it is laying in the mould


You'll notice how much smaller the coremat piece is vs the size of the entire tail. You don't need to fret with getting it everywhere. Coremat is supposed to add crossectional area without adding weight, so as long as you cover the majority of the open area, it will do its job. In the flange areas (like the mounting points) where you need your part to be thicker, put additional layers of reinforcement, not the coremat.

Here is a closer look of the coremat in the mould


You'll notice cuts in the coremat as well. Coremat does not conform to compound curves, so you will need to make cuts for convex radii, and cut a wedge out for concave radii. Also, please notice the distance from the edge of the coremat to the edge of the finished part. On a part this large, I'll leave at least an inch, maybe more. You'll be surprised at how stiff the finished part is. As far as weight, most of the weight is in the resin, but there is substancial savings to be had in the reinforcement.... if you are into that sort of thing Let all of us know how it goes Vic

Adam

hmmm go to know about that core mat, i was just going to lay it in there. I'm just doing a standard wet layup with fiberglass, no vacuum bagging for me. right now I'm planing on doing gelcoat, followed by 3/4oz. chopped mat, followed by 6oz cloth, followed by 2mm coremat followed by 1.5 oz chopped mat, followed by 6 oz cloth.

To be perfectly honest, you could go without the coremat. Coremat is really to increase laminate stifness, without a weight penalty, but since you're using fiberglass, that little bit of weight won't matter to you. It's not worth the added complexity. I would recommend you do a layup with the materials you have, and omit the coremat. See how it works, and how the layup turns out. Since you're using gelcoat and CSM, not having some 6oz cloth or using the coremat won't make too much difference except in a little weight penalty.

Alright gentleman, I did a fiberglass tail layup last night. I'll say this: despite some obvious issues I had laying up and infusing the part, it turned out ok. Not what I would consider a usable without some finish bodywork, but worth the effort in terms of learning the critical points of this specific layup. One troublesome area is getting the fiberglass to conform to the mould. I could not do it. Carbon fiber conforms soooo much better, especially when cut on a 45 bias. The other lesson was something that is standard - making sure the vacuum bag is big enough, and has enough pleats to put pressure in all the deep corners. As it was, I didn't get ideal consolidation in three areas. The base of the lip at the back of the tail, the front side mounting points, and the front top of the tail. It reinforces the importance of previous lessons. I'm glad I used fiberglass this time, I would have to get drunk to make the pain go away if I commited these mistakes in carbon :whistle: I'll post pics later today.
Also promising was the use of 3M 77 spray adhesive to hold the cloth in place in the mould. A light spray tacks the cloth in place and holds it so the the remainder of the layup an be completed, especially helpful when you have large vertical areas....like, say a tank mould Also promising was the relatively easy release of the part from the mould.

Doctorot- when using your cloth, cut it into 3"-5" circles or semi circles. This will help the fabric conform to the corners and curves. I used single pieces of cloth like I would have if using carbon, and it didn't work out so well.

I am excited to try a carbon layup after I get the mould cleaned up and prepped. :woohoo:

i feel like i'm blind! :woohoo:








i mean i missed the pics right ? :huh:




hehe,glad you are making progress man.
you are nearing the summit ya know.

this is a monumental task you have takin on and for you to still be with it,and making progress,puts you ahead of 95 percent of folks.


keep up the good work buddy,i can't wait to see watcha done.

leon

Leon,
You are the wind beneath my wings!! Thanks bud.

So the layup went like this:
2oz cloth, 4oz cloth, 7.5oz cloth, coremat, 7.5oz cloth, 4oz cloth.

First layer of 2oz cloth


the inner layer of 7.5oz cloth


the core mat


the final layer of 4oz cloth

Then came the peel ply and green flow media. On the right is the resin feed line/spiral wrap, on the left is the vacuum spiral wrap. I quickly found that larger resin feed lines don't distribute resin any faster, they just take up more resin!


Here is bagged, vacuum pulled and ready to go


And the finished (albeit defective) part


the tail tip bubbles :blush: All my fault


the top leading edge bubbles, again, all my fault :blush:

In summary: except for what I did wrong, the first tail turned out pretty good :woohoo:
And with pics, just for you Leon :kiss:

Very nice. Your tenacity is paying off sir.

do u know how u will resolve this bubble issue ?

mark1122 wrote: do u know how u will resolve this bubble issue ?

Yeah Mark, It's called making the bag bigger! :laugh: That was it.....that and making sure the cloth was pushed down into the corners well enough. Those two oversights are what caused my bubbles. I knew betted but it was late and I was in a hurry :blush: