Carbon Fiber Interior Panels

[blue missile]

My next project will be putting together the interior panels which would be the door and rear side panels. I may also do the sail panels in a similar fashon. I wanted to give the panels an upolstered look with an eye twoard the original design of the panels. I put together a test panel of 1/4" ply and a lofting fabric called Coremat. I covered the panel with carbon/S glass fabric, I used a clear blue dye for the resin to simulate blue Kevlar which is kind of pricey. I also put up a small sample of carbon/Blue Kevlar that I had to compare the end results.
The blue dye turned out kind of blotchey, and made the panel very blue, verses the real thing which is much more suttle. I'm not sure I want that much blue in the color scheme. It was goiing to be an all black interior with the exception of white bucket seats. The first pic is of carbon/Blue Kevlar
Opinions?
Andrew

 

[Judge Mills]

cool, man.... how much does the vacuum set you back?

 

[longarm]

Blue Missle very nice!

Judge you can go to Youtube and search vaccum forming
for a boatload of DIY videos.
You'll be amazed.

http://www.palram.com/HTMLs/article.aspx?C2004=13363&BSP=13010

 

[Judge Mills]

Right on! Thanks!

 

[Judge Mills]

Woah... you can make your own vacuum kit pretty easily..... :idea:

 

[blue missile]

Judge,
You can go to harbor freight and pick up an AC vacuum pump for $69 that will fill the need. (Please dont rag on me about HF a high quality pump is 500-600 dollars and you dont need one) The rest is hoses, valves and materials. I use and old 40 gal. water heater tank as a reserve tank for the system.
You will find lots of DYI vidieos on line as well as material resourses.
You can also go to my composite site and go to the links page for material suppliers.
www.a-c-designs.com and click on the composites site.
If there is anything else I can help you with let me know.
Andrew

 

[Judge Mills]

so you just used your carbon fiber in place of the plastic, right?

Very cool.... I'm going to have to look into this..... :cool:

 

[blue missile]

If by plastic, you mean Vynal, than yes on the test panel. If you build a system you can even bag a panel with vynal and contact cement. It will apply 17lbs/sqin pressure to set the vynal on the panel. If you use carbon You will have to get the right epoxy for the application, domt use polyester it doesnt bond to carbod or anyof the arrimids. You will need bleeder and peel ply from somewhere and make your bag out of 3mil painters plastic that you seal with "tacky tape". The bagging films that you have to buy from the specility houses won't work any better for simple applications and they are very expensive.
Andrew

 

[blue missile]

Since the panels and the arm rests go together I thought I would up date this thread, rather than starting a new one, with the progress on the arm rests.
I do have the original arm rests but I need a place to put the switches for the electric windows and door locks. Adding on to them did not seem like a good idea so I decided to make a set of rests that would be large enough for the switches but be in the same general design as the originals.

The foam is a rigid foam called 'Divinacell" which carves and sands quite easily, it also is made to bond to the composite matrix very efficiantly.
I got the first layer of carbon on and will wait at this point untill I get the switches to finish machining the switch cavities and applying the final layer of carbon.

Andrew

 

[Dfnsmn34]

wow nice work!

 

[longarm]

Man you got the skills, Very nice!

 

[71dustar]

damn that looks really good. now i'm really wanting to get some 4x4 twill and ditch my plain weave to make some.

 

[blue missile]

Jon,
whenever you get some more fabric, go for a smalled denier size, like a 6k or even beter a 3k fabric. A 3 or 5 harness satin will bend around things a little easier. Also the sizing in the fabric can make a 3k fabric very stiff, get one without it if you want flexible. The reason you see all those after market pieces made out of the 50k fabrics is they are forced into a mold and the 50k fabric is much cheaper. The smaller the bundle (denier) of carbon fibers the more preciese the weaving machine must be, hence more expensive.
I use a 1k 3 harness satin in my fins that is about $70 a running yard. Oh, a herringbone will form around things easily and looks very cool.
Hope this helps
Andrew