working with carbon fibre

[30psi 4agte]

These mabe dumb questions but i have never worked with carbon fibre before and have only a rough idea about the construction process.

Im looking at using carbon fibre for my radiator shroud and as a heat shield on my bonnet to stop the heat from my extractors stuffing my paint.

the sheild on the bonnet is fairly straight forward it is basicly just a straight sheet of fibre ( rectangular shape ) with all the ends folded up.

Basicly looks like an oven tray

My questions are

can i just get a sheet of the stuff the attach the sides with resin or is it better to do the whole lot in one hit and do it in a mould

can the stuff be cut easily with an air saw?

[oldcorollas]

not sure on your questions but make sure the resin you use has a high enough temp rating... the carbon is great for temp, but the resin is not so good.

there are many industrial heat proofing solutions around, just not at car shops

[Youngy]

Hi,

Well the process is exactly the same as fibre glass (there are slught differences but these are more like nuances than anything substantial). Just use a good epoxy resin - with good heat ability like Stuart has said - and go from there.

There is plenty of info on fibreglassing on google - just follow one you like and whenever it says fibreglass you think Carbon Fibre.

Next is vacuum forming or bagging

[30psi 4agte]

the only thing i could think of was the resin being unable to withstand the heat also!

Wonder hw much heat it can handle ??

[RA23]

These mabe dumb questions but i have never worked with carbon fibre before and have only a rough idea about the construction process.

Im looking at using carbon fibre for my radiator shroud and as a heat shield on my bonnet to stop the heat from my extractors stuffing my paint.

the sheild on the bonnet is fairly straight forward it is basicly just a straight sheet of fibre ( rectangular shape ) with all the ends folded up.

Basicly looks like an oven tray

My questions are

can i just get a sheet of the stuff the attach the sides with resin or is it better to do the whole lot in one hit and do it in a mould

can the stuff be cut easily with an air saw?

A few tips:

- what everyone else has said about high temp. resins

- If it looks like an oven tray, use an oven tray as a mould. In other words, find something that is close enough in shape to be used, even if you may have to do a cut-n-shut

- whatever you use as a mould: wax it several times to prevent it from sticking! (remember wax-on, wax-off and don't forget to breathe) don't leave wax remnants, wax off is as important as wax on. Use 2 or three rags, so keep a clean one.

- First wet the mould with resin, then lay the cloth over the mould and use a brush to gently push the resin through the cloth, apply more resin ir required, but don't use more than necessary to fill the cloth. If you want to apply more layers, it may be best to do them one by one (depending on thickness). Paint rollers are very handy to use for wetting out. Make sure you get rid of any air bubbles (show up as white spots).

- You could do it without a mould, but this is much more tedious. In this case lay up flat sheets (e.g. on a board of laminex - note: use wax!), cut the sides separately and bond them on the main sheet with a bit of hot glue, then make up some thick bog (think peanut butter) with epoxy and microspheres and run that in the corner with your finger (wear latex glove)

- You can use a 4" angle grinder with a diamond blade (e.g. tile cutter) to cut the stuff when it has gone off, but it is much easier to cut it with a stanley knife, just after it has gone off, but not hard yet.

I hope this helps...

[30psi 4agte]

yeah i was thinking of using an oven tray for a mould !!

[RA23]

yeah i was thinking of using an oven tray for a mould !!

OK, in that case one more tip: if you want to be able to re-use the oven tray after using it as a mould: tape off all the areas that you don't need with masking tape. You'll make sure you don't get drips and sh*t all over the tray, and also it gives you a start for releasing the part. Cut a softwood wedge and jam that between the part and the mould for releasing the part from the mould.