My suggestion is to just buy it already made. It is cool to make it yourself but I did it for a business for many years and the amount of time it takes to make one off pieces is insane. After that you end up with alot of molds just laying around cause you can't compete with china on prices of...

When I've made sunroof panels in the past with carbon and fiberglass we made L brackets and bolted it into that. We used nomex honeycomb for reinforcement but you could just as well use the foam to make it stiff.

Own a used car lot/wholesale dealership.

If you want to stand out from the crowd of carbon guys I suggest using some different weaves as well. Also carbon/kevlar looks great for spark plug covers. Not sure what suppliers you are dealing with but if you want any names or anything like that of great people to do business with send me a...

The key to solving that problem is to make a jig that holds it all in place. When we made a few hoods that needed hardware in a specific spot we made a jig that bolted to the mold that allowed us to place the hardware in the correct location. Now it may be a little different because we would...

Here is my two cents. I've been in the compsite industry for many years now and the one thing I can tell you is that for the most parts it's impossible to compete with china as far as producing carbon parts and selling them retail. I used to make some hoods and trunks for some street cars but...

You should contact your local dmv. They will have answers or be able to point you in the right direction. You can almost always get a title but it's a matter of how determined you are. Call the local police and give them the vin and find out if it's on the stolen list. Thats how I started at...

I've delt with this type of situation before. Find another one. It's not worth the hassel of waiting for the next few months, years or forever to try to get a title.

It's pretty much impossible to have a sleeper dsm in nj anymore. Maybe back in the early 2000's you could but now everyone knows these things. Car looks really good though. The welds look like they will hold up but it's tough to say if they are cold or not with the pics that are up. It looks...

No problem. If you can dig up the money to start out a wholesale business i'd suggest doing that. You don't make as much on every car but the volume is where you make a ton. There are a lot and I mean ALOT less headaches doing it that way. Since dealer to dealer deals are alot easier and...

Yes the more dealer plates you have the more expensive insurance is. Adding 5 more plates adds another 1400 a year to my policy. The advantage of the salvage auctions are the fact that if you need a motor or trans out of a car you can buy one there for almost nothing depending on salvage...

They sell everything at the auctions running, non running, salvage, theft and everything in between. I belong to both salvage and regular auctions. Both have their advantages. The insurance is expensive but the abiltiy to put it on any car you own makes it nice. My surety bond costs me 100 a...

Its not that bad really. It's pretty similar to NJ. You need a office which you would expect any business to need. A bond which isn't that much ( mine costs me 100 a year and is for about 30K), no criminal record, the classroom thing is a little wierd but if it helps here in nj they give you...

About 7 years ago me and a buddy started doing this. We started with a 500 dollar neon. Rattle canned the roof and sold it that weekend for 1500. We were hooked. We did this for about a year before we realized we were just waiting to get busted for somthing stupid. I got a dealers license...

I always liked west systems stuff. We used it for a long time. We just switched back from us composites brand for the latest set of world challange car bumpers we are doing. Forgot how nice it was.

The way to do this is take a mold of that section of your rear bumper. This will give you the proper shape you will need. When the mold is done you lay in the carbon add resin and if you want vacuum bag it down. They make resins that are made for high temps and will hold up no problem to the...

Cool cars. I always liked the 2 door camrys. I worked for toyota at the time when they were new. The only problem I remember about them was that they were sludge engines so keep an eye on that. They do drive great though.

If you want it to look professional don't use wire hangers. I would just weld on a nice bracket with a rubber insulator between the chassis and the bracket. I'm sure there is a factory bolt hole you can even use so you don't have to drill a new one. Aluminum flat stock is cheap so that's what...

We use 3m full face masks. I forget what filter it is but I can get you the part numbers off of the case we have. I have a few other parts that we took pics of that we vacuum bagged down and I will see if I can find enough to put a how to on that as well.

We use a mixture of epoxy and ester resin. Alot depends on what we are making. The epoxy is more expensive but it does not shrink like the ester resins. There are down sides to the epoxy such as being sure you mix it properly and try to avoid putting air bubbles into it.There are uv...

I made a mold over the weekend and figured it would be a nice how to. It's for a 2010 camaro trunk insert. The factory one is carpeted. I didn't have pics of the begining so here is how I made the plug. I put resin down over the carpeted piece and sanded it smooth. The key here is your mold...

Looks pretty good. How many layers and what did you use for core?

Hey if you want a deeper looking part I suggest using a clear gel coat before you lay down the carbon. You will have to be careful though if you are using epoxy with it since gel coats are usualy polyester and it will react with some expoy resins. We have done it tons of time but we always to...

Since it's not a weight saving mod I would do it as a overlay. You take your stock wing scuff it up put a coat of resin on it and wait for it to start to gel. At this point you take some either plain weave or 2x2 3k twill and lay it over the wing and gently pull the sides under the wing and...

Noticed you are in NJ. If you want send me a pm and I can bead your pipes for you. I've got a bead form tool we use on all of our ic pipe jobs.

Just a tip not sure if you ment to say aluminized steel instead of galvanized steel but if it is made from galvanized steel make sure you grind the coating off before you weld. It will create toxic fumes which could make you very sick.

Looks pretty good. One suggestion I would make is that on the one piece downpipe where there is that sharp angle I would suggest trying to get a mandrel bend or make it with a few pie cuts. You will get a smoother exhaust flow in the end. The welds looks good for someone who has been only...

Looks good as always but you are nuts to be welding without at least long sleaves. I am way to paranoid about getting skin cancer.

I own a fabrication shop. We mostly do carbon fiber work for local race teams. I also have own a used car dealership but things have been pretty slow with that for the past few months.

Wow I haven't done the copart salvage auction thing in about a year. This is going through right by me. I think I will stop by and watch it go through.

I've never done a roof overlay on a dsm before but on the honda's I have done we took off all the molding. The drip rails made a nice place to hide the edges and gives it a very clean finished look. We also took off the rear window and front window molding to give it the same look. In the end...

Head flange is great. Sch40 is some pretty thick stuff. Glenn is right about the welding. I always have a huge assortment of backcaps and gas lens for the tricky parts. It's always like a big puzzle to make sure you don't get caught with a area you won't be able to get the torch into. I...

The 165 really is a great little tig. I have used it a few times and it gets the job done. It's not crazy fancy but for the money it's hard to go wrong. Another option is to look at a used welder that is a year old or so. I see a decent amount of people that end up buying tigs for home and...

Looks really good. I had my battery in the same spot with a very similar setup.

Wow that sucks. Hope everything heals up. I had a similar thing happen about a year ago. I was making a exhaust for a buddy and put a pipe in the bandsaw and wasn't paying attention like a idiot and the end of my right pinky finger got caught. Looked down and thought it ripped off my nail...

From what I remember ss weld els are cheaper than mild steel ones. It's been forever since I have priced both out since I only order the ss ones.

I buy all my sch10 weld els from ace stainless. Great guys and prices are good. I actually just ordered some for a 65 mustang turbo manifold I'm working on. Weld els are probably the cheapest way to make a manifold. If you are planning on making the collector as well I suggest making the jig...

The secret to bonding to aluminum is to wrap the part with a layer or fiberglass first. This will keep the reaction from happening. We do this for our one of our trunks that uses core instead of the underside skeleton where the stock hinges bolt to. Also another thing I have noticed over the...

ALWAYS use a automotive clear coat on parts that will be exposed to uv light. Even though alot of resins you can buy have a uv protection after a while they do break down. I have tried almost every kind of resin with no clear on it and after time it will yellow.

If you have worked with fiberglass already than you have a big headstart when working with carbon fiber. The resins you use are the same(epoxy or ester based). The only downfall is the material is very expensive compared to fiberglass.

Looks really good. Spots like where it says TALON are tricky somtimes to get perfect. Another trick that we do is paint the entire part black before you put on the resin layer. We test all of the paint we use by spraying a small test part and letting it dry and than putting on some resin to...

If you don't feel like figuring it out yourself and you can afford to take a week away from home I suggest Lincoln Motorsports class. It cost about 800 for everything like hotel and class and food but it's a pretty intense week. There is about 20 percent class time where you learn the how and...

Well we are just finishing up a bumper for a guy and the bill for the one off will be in the 2000 dollar range. Cost is high because of the mold that is needed. Fenders would probably be 1500 for the very first set.

Yeah I forgot that the talon center had letters. That will make it very tough to do. Even though the epoxy has a uv protectant in it I would suggest when sanding the epoxy to go to 600 grit and than put a auto clear coat paint on it since I have seen every type of epoxy and ester resin with uv...

So you want to overlay the tail section? If so the way I always do it is scuff up the part after cleaning it. Put on a light coat of resin(on overlays since there is no need for strength I suggest a vinylester resin since it's cheaper than epoxy, both will work just if price is a factor) and...

I work in toms river and am staying in brick nj this week I can just stop by and give you a hand real quick. If you want give me a call I will pm you my number. I have done tons of ic jobs on 1g's. Even if the stuff need's to be welded I can take care of it for you.

Here is a pic of my old tig. This thing is a monster.

I don't think anyone was trying to make fun of your welds but most of the people on here seem to just want to help one another. I always welcome help cause there is always someone better out there who has done it longer. I know when I started I sucked really bad couldn't get a bead going on...

The center console is from a mold we made. What type of mold release did you use? When I make molds I always wax and use pva. The pva messes up the finish on the mold alittle bit and you have to spend a few hours wet sanding the mold but it beats the part getting stuck to the plug. I had it...

If that is 304 try tuning down the amps some or move alittle bit faster, when it is that grey it's usually from to much heat. Also not sure if you are using a gas lens but if you are not give one a try it will help bring up some color into the welds since you will have better gas coverage...