carbon fiber sheets?

[turbo98eclipse]

hey just wondering if anyone here has any experience working with sheets of carbon fiber..i kno that you need to use resin and a bunch of other stuff much like fiberglass..i was planning on "wrapping" some of my interior pieces with it ad wanted to know how hard it would be to get it to contour with some of my pannels. thanx for any help!

 

[Red Recluse]

If you have ever used fiberglass it's virtually the same thing. I will make a reccomendation though, say you were to lay a black/grey kevlar down on your tan interior... krybomb it black first, because the way the kevlar stretches, you will see tan spots here and there...

 

[turbo98eclipse]

thanx for the heads up! but what is krybomb? after all is dried, should i (can) spray the whole thing or take it to a shop and get it clear coated professionally?

 

[4g63swap]

krybomb= krylon spraypaint I think what he is telling you to do is to vynle dye the interior black before the carbon. it won't show the tan . But KRYBOMB is just a term used by Red Recluse to discribe Krylon Paint. my boss calls spray cans paint bombs kind of the same thing.

 

[VAGRNT]

This might sound like a cool thing to do but i bet its gonna be a pain in the you know what...

-V

 

[Red Recluse]

Krybomb = krylon paint...

Basically anything of a lightercolor then the kevlar will show through in areas...DEPENDING ON THE WEAVE. If you buy a real real tight weave you might be able to get away with it, otherwise, dye the vinyl, paint the piece etc first.

As far as laying it down, make sure the surface is clean using wax and grease remover. After the surface is clean there are a few ways of going about laying the glass down. If you want to keep the part and make a shell, put either a lot of masking tape down, or seran wrap or even tin foil to make a mold first. Otherwise either A) lay the carbon down, then put the resin over it or B) *preffered method due to adhesion reasons* lay a coat of resin down, lay the kevlar over it, then put another layer of resin and let it cure and add coats accordingly.

 

[turbo98eclipse]

yea i pretty much figured that alright..let me get the steps right...basically, i take my interior piece, put some resin onto that piece, place the kevlar down on top of that, get it to lay the way i want, and then add more layers of resin? after i lay the initial coat and put the kevlar on top, am i supposed to wait for that to harden before i put the remaining "top" coats on? after this, it should dry shiney correct? i.e.: no clear coat needed? thanx for your help guys im going to try to do this within the next 2weeks so ill be sure to take pics!

oh yea...is there any preferred brand of resin to use? i know some dry brown-ish...

 

[n0c7]

If you go to all that work yourself why let someone else clearcoat it in the end? Clearing will probably be the easiest part of the project.

 

[Red Recluse]

After you sandwich the kevlar with resin let it cure, then lay coats after that till you get a good sturdy thickness. You'll have to sand it to get out any imperfections, and after you do it will look horrible, but as soon as you clear it, it's night and day...

 

[turbo98eclipse]

thanx guys! ill keep you updated!

 

[turbo98eclipse]

im sorry, 2 more questions...1st was: i never got an answer about which brand of resin to use (does it matter THAT much?) and 2nd: what grit sand paper should i use while sanding? thanx guys

 

[Mik]

Fiberglass and Carbon Fiber or Carbon Fiber Hybrid (kavlar and or Colored Cf ) do not react the same way Fiberglass does. Fiberglass streches alot more, so you can easily hand lay it on parts, convesly CF is a lot more 'dense' and will work the best if you vacum bag the part(Unless the part is very flat ) in addition use an actual vacumm pump not just a vacumm cleaner (It dose not produce a good vacume) your part will be 1000 times better. 1st time I worked with CF a friend and I treid to just wrap CF on interior peice he had and it came out looking like crap (we were both highly familar with Fiber Glass ), we later tried bagging the kick panel and it came out looking pro.
IF you can't afford a Vac pump heres a link on how to build you own and at the bottom are some tips on using it
http://www.dream-models.com/eco/vacuumpump.html

and to answere the questions: 1. Resin matters alot and is a pretty big factor of quality of the produced product so check out https://selectproducts.com/html/frame2/frames2.htm or if you know of a local company ask them (save you money you won't have Hazmat Charges applied for shipping). and 2. If you Bagg the part Correctly you usally don't have to sand much. When you do sand out small inperfections a wet sand paper will work great 500 - 1000 grit. For larger imperfections start at 120 and work your way up to 1000 grit wet for show quality, and sand by hand once in the 300 - 500 grit range.Sanding Stages general look like this 120, 250, 500, 700, 1000 (sumthin' like that)

 

[Amazin' Wasian]

If you have ever used fiberglass it's virtually the same thing. I will make a reccomendation though, say you were to lay a black/grey kevlar down on your tan interior... krybomb it black first, because the way the kevlar stretches, you will see tan spots here and there...

Yes it is alot like using fiberglass, but its hard to make a good looking weave, and if you plan on showing the carbon it will ###### look like shit.

-nick