Screwin Around With Carbon Fiber

[Racey]

Never really had much interest until i saw what Mike Patey did with Scrappy.

I needed to make an intercom/radio mount so i figured it would be a good test to see how big of a mess and failure i could make.

Positive mold:

Laminating the layers:

Dried and trimmed, and on to flow coat:

Satin Clear:

 

[Racey]

 

[Racey]

 

[n2otoofast4u]

Badass!

 

[HNL2LHC]

Nice and clean.

 

[dspracing]

Wow. Nicely done! Always thought it would be better to have the radio mounted up there

 

[coolchange]

Can for a mold, genius. Built in radius. I’ve used Tupperware before. Looks good!

 

[Racey]

Can for a mold, genius. Built in radius. I’ve used Tupperware before. Looks good!

I actually used the radios themselves for the mold the fit is perfect slip.

 

[Backlash]

Epoxy or vinylester?

 

[outboard_256]

Looks good.,

 

[spectra3279]

Epoxy or vinylester?

Gorilla glue

 

[Racey]

Epoxy or vinylester?

Epoxy

 

[SLT Kota]

Nice! How many layers of carbon fiber did you use? It looks like just one.

 

[BUDMAN]

Nice work Looks bad ass.

 

[Racey]

Nice! How many layers of carbon fiber did you use? It looks like just one.

3 across the entire part, and 4 in some parts as reinforcing strips mainly to see how it worked layering and laminating.

I literally have ZERO experience working with it, i haven't even done much glass work in my life apart from small alterations like v-drive bulkheads or radio cabinets in schiadas, which is more about wood working than glass work.

So this was all mainly a learning exercise to just see how it works and get a feel for how it can be used. It just happened to come out nice enough to actually be usable.

My experience is 100% based on watching Mike Patey's aircraft videos building his carbon cub over the last year or so on youtube.

 

[FlatNv]

Nice ... watched Mikes entire build also so bad ass

 

[Racey]

Nice ... watched Mikes entire build also so bad ass

He has single handedly made the entire professional GA industry look like clowns with the development/advancement he has done out of his own hangar. The guy is legendary.

 

[Racey]

Guess i never posted a finish pic of that radio mount with the radios all installed

 

[Racey]

I had installed an S&B particle separator but noticed that my stock airbox didn't seal for shit, basically rendering the S&B useless as it was just sucking dusty air through the leaky airbox lid right to the filter.

So i wanted to pull the airbox out to inspect and see if it was a lid problem, or the box itself, and what i was going to do to fix it.

Well on the RZR to get the airbox out there are two bolts that go into the rear firewall crossmember, you cannot access them without removing the cage and ALL of the rear plastics (fenders to firewall). An absolute nightmare just to remove the airbox.

So i measured out where the bolts and decided just to cut access holes through the firewall so i could get a socket on them, but before i did i pulled a molded part off the firewall so i would have a perfect cover to close the access holes back up.

Covered the section of firewall in clear tape and laid up the carbon.

I wasn't sure how big i would need to make the holes so i made the panel much larger than it needed to be.

Trimmed and cleared and installed with plastic rivets like the rest of the car uses.


After i got the airbox out it was apparent the lid was molded incorrectly (had a banana bend across the entire part) and leaking on the left and right sides about a 1/8" gap.

Bought a new airbox lid and installed the extra clasps on the left and right side (6 total instead of 4) problem solved.

 

[Racey]

Shifter and Intercom and Button console for a sand car for one of DaveH's customers.

Had an aluminum one that wouldn't fit the button keypads and intercom.

Took some tracings and made a wood box fixing the necessary dimensions

Bondo and Cabosil shaped to get the radiuses etc

Primary laminations for structure covered with peel ply

After this cured i removed the peel ply and then used some cabosil thicked epoxy to fair out the surfaces where several layers of the underlying lamination cause thickness variations. This way the final layer will lay smooth on top leaving the carbon grain perfect for clear coat.

Once this cures i will sand it all flat and smoooth and be read to lay the top layers of carbon that will be visible.

 

[02HoWaRd26]

I have a small carbon naca duct, in my radiator scoop, would love to get a second that’s about 50% bigger to put in the roof of my car, what do you think about building one of those? I could easily drill the rivers out and send you this one if you’d be interested.

 

[Racey]

I have a small carbon naca duct, in my radiator scoop, would love to get a second that’s about 50% bigger to put in the roof of my car, what do you think about building one of those? I could easily drill the rivers out and send you this one if you’d be interested.

Send me some Dimensions in a PM

 

[Racey]

This definitely would have been easier if i had a vacuum bag setup, which is something i will probably buy in the near future.

So many complex corners and cuts and folds, the peel ply helps but very difficult to keep those outside vertexes tight.

Sanded and faired it all out this morning, laid in a couple underlayments in 2 areas were sanding broke through the lamination, then sanded again and laid the final sheets.

I didn't take many pictures as my hands were either covered in sanding dust or epoxy.

Not too concerned with the air bubbles as it will get flow coated after the peel ply is removed, then sanded and shot with urethane.

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

I had installed an S&B particle separator but noticed that my stock airbox didn't seal for shit, basically rendering the S&B useless as it was just sucking dusty air through the leaky airbox lid right to the filter.

So i wanted to pull the airbox out to inspect and see if it was a lid problem, or the box itself, and what i was going to do to fix it.

Well on the RZR to get the airbox out there are two bolts that go into the rear firewall crossmember, you cannot access them without removing the cage and ALL of the rear plastics (fenders to firewall). An absolute nightmare just to remove the airbox.

So i measured out where the bolts and decided just to cut access holes through the firewall so i could get a socket on them, but before i did i pulled a molded part off the firewall so i would have a perfect cover to close the access holes back up.

Covered the section of firewall in clear tape and laid up the carbon.

View attachment 1079836

I wasn't sure how big i would need to make the holes so i made the panel much larger than it needed to be.

View attachment 1079837

Trimmed and cleared and installed with plastic rivets like the rest of the car uses.


After i got the airbox out it was apparent the lid was molded incorrectly (had a banana bend across the entire part) and leaking on the left and right sides about a 1/8" gap.

Bought a new airbox lid and installed the extra clasps on the left and right side (6 total instead of 4) problem solved.

View attachment 1079839

Awesome. And such a dumb airbox mounting design. Actually the entire bed removal process was incredibly short sighted. And why the F they didn't just add the 2 extra clasps they provisioned for is beyond me. Those lids fit like crap. Some bean counter at Polaris probably got a raise.

 

[Racey]

Awesome. And such a dumb airbox mounting design. Actually the entire bed removal process was incredibly short sighted. And why the F they didn't just add the 2 extra clasps they provisioned for is beyond me. Those lids fit like crap. Some bean counter at Polaris probably got a raise.

No kidding, as soon as i realized that's what it was gonna take i was like "F That, I'm cutting holes in the thing"

 

[monkeyswrench]

@Racey , Is the peel ply there to smooth out and form the laid sheets? or is it for pushing the resin in?

 

[rivermobster]

Very cool projects!!!

 

[Racey]

@Racey , Is the peel ply there to smooth out and form the laid sheets? or is it for pushing the resin in?

It's main benefits are pushing the uneven thickness of the resin through to the surface to keep a more uniform surface layer, and more importantly in most cases to move the amine blush above the surface so that when its removed the surface is already perfectly prepped for another coat or resin or lamination without any sanding etc.

It works really well when vacuuming bagging, or on flat parts, it works ok in this application, but would have been much better if this part was bagged. My current vacuum bagging setup is literally a FoodSaver, which works pretty damn good on small parts, obviously this wouldn't fit.

I'm like stage 1 of all this, i think mainly the peel ply needs a very thick coat of out rsin if you aren bagging, but on vertical surfaces that is hard, its also hard to squeegee it down if it means pulling the slack from an inside corner when you are trying to squeeze it out.

Mainly what i have found is that at a certain point, and a very early one, you have to stop touching the lamination, the frayed edge, the corner that wont fold perfectly, the imperfect strand, as you can very quickly make an unhealable mess of the cloth, which doesn't have the luxury of being clear or hidden by gel coat like normal fiberglass does.

 

[MPHSystems]

great looking project!!!

 

[Racey]

Wetted out and the light is at the end of the tunnel, but probably at least one more sand and coat before putting the satin clear on the part.

 

[fmo24]

A little trick is to wet out your material on a piece of bagging film or even polyethylene sheet. Helps keep the fibers from distorting and is easy to handle when locating ply on mold.

 

[Racey]

Off the mold and ready to have the bottom trimmed, and all the holes etc put in, then it will get a final sand a urethane clear.