carbon fiber

Jon
you first- Please be careful of laminating steel with an epoxy matrix. This goes for carbon or fiberglass. The two materials have very different thermal expansion properties. Since the dash will get very hot it is entirely possible the lamination may pop off the steel. I have thought about doing the same thing and I still want to get together with some of my industry contacts for technical help regarding the issue. I will let you know.

Tyler-
I dont know where to begin.
I agree with Jon about the roll bars,Carbon fiber has one big drawback, unless it is combined with another type of fiber it has poor impact resistance.This is why it is very often paired up with an arimid fiber such as kevlar. Since kevlar and wet applications dont work well together I use a special S glass and carbon fabric with coremat to make my windsurfers.
A carbon roll bar will offer you no protection and you will never be able to make it look seamless unless you paint it. It will also never be accepted at any sanctioned track with a tec inspection.

Vacuum infusion- was invented by Symen Composites- they called it SCRIMP for symen composites resin infusion manufacturing process. It was developed for building very large structures such as boat hulls where wet layup or chopper gun use didnt give them the flexibility to include sub structures in the final part. Through scrimp they could more accurately place the ply schedule and inserts then deliver resin to mutiple points on the one sided mold all at once. The process was still very simple they have a very large vacuum sorce many hoses and plastic five gallon buckets with the mixed resin to draw from.

In making fins I use a similar process but I use a two sided closed mold. First I create a plug (a perfect fin miced to better than .001" in tolerance), then I cast it in a special low exotherm non shrink aluminum filled epoxy system, one side at a time.I also cast in regestration pins to be able to realign it when in use. I then create a support structure for the epoxy which would crack if not supported when you try to bolt it together.

I then developed a propritary sprew system to get the resin in and out the molds other side. I fill the mold with dry composites of various weights and weaves ( this is called the ply schedule) I draw a vacuum on the entire system which includes the interior of the mold and then inject a very thin special application resin into the miold until it comes out the other end.
This process is called vacuum assisted resin transfer molding VARTM.

I will spend $500-$600 to make each mold it takes a week and the finished parts are .625" at the thickest part and anywhere from 10"-16" long. I went on line and found Ricer Hoods for about $600 and up. Think about the cost of the tooling. If you are going to do this as a buiness the major start up cost will be the R&D for the tooling and the tooling it self. There are also special software packages to figure out ply schedules and resin flow within the mold. You will need these also.

When I said mold making was an art, the art is in making a mold that seperates and releases the part well and one in which the resin fills all the voids fully. Even with vacuum this is not always a given.

Now to vacuum bagging. The beauty of this process is that you are using a one sided mold ,or you are just bagging a freestanding part. Check out the arm rests in my carbon door panels post. They are a complex curved part that would suit itself well to a mold but you would still need to shape the foam or contract it out to be shaped in volume quantities. It was so much simpler to shape them and just bag them with a simple bag.

There have been a few requests for me to make others carbon dash pads. The challange is in making a mold that I can use for the carbon and then later fill with the steel core and a rigid foam. Hand shaping the first one was relativly simple in comparison. The choice of resin is also very important. Some resins will 'blush' without warning. The dash pad has a very small amount of this. so I will not use my thin resin for the finish layer on any more parts. I have a more viscous (1000cps) water clear UV resistant resin I will use from now on.

As far as material suppliers go to my web site www.a-c-designs.com click on the composites portal ,then go to the links page, go to materials they are all listed there. I dont get anything from these companies in the way of a refferal, I put the site together as an informational resource. You can get a vacuum pump at harbor frieght for about $70.

I did go to dragonplate and they have material that could be used to veneer with contact cement onto flat surfaces. But if you are going to set up a vacuum system you could make the same stuff by bagging a peice of cloth on to glass, for much less.

I think you have to decide what is the motivation here. Are you going to be racing for serious money or is this a look good thing. If it is for looks I would stay with the interior parts. The loss of weight= serious money.
I hope this helps.
Andrew