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How can I make carbon fiber

119K views 37 replies 22 participants last post by  Whelk 
#1 ·
I was thinking of a color for my interior to go with the color of my truck (orange), then I seen a Eclipse that was orange with a carbon fiber dash, it was SHARP!:p I have a 51 ford f1 and want to make a head liner and door panels. I know you need a sheet of carbon fiber cloth and an epoxy or resin., but does any one know the procedure. I have a friend that works with and builds molds for fiberglass, so I could do it if it had to be vacumed down. Any website that sell the material I need would also help:drool:
 
#3 ·
It is not strictly true that you have to put carbon fiber cloth in an autoclave to produce it.

For non-structural carbon fiber, mostly for things like what you are doing, (dashes, panneling, trim) it is not nessesary to use structural Pre-Preg type carbon fiber. Most of the time, to get a carbon fiber look piece, (note, when using a female mould) the clear gelcoat is laid, then the carbon fiber, then (# depending on the strength required) layers of either fiberglass for normal applications, or kevlar for higher strenght applications. This will give the look of carbon fiber without the high cost of just using carbon fiber. I can't remember wich resin works best for the carbon fiber "look", I think it is epoxy. One of the two (vinyl ester is the other...) clouds the finish.

For carbon fiber that is used in formula one and other manufacturers products (mostly monocouqe construction) carbon fiber is used in a pre-impregnated format. This is the carbon fiber cloth pre-impregnated in resin. Now, since this resin is already added, it can't be cured by normal mean with the hardener, or else it would cure in the cloth before it would even be useful, so the resin is activated by baking it at higher temperatures under pressure. Since this type of carbon fiber is already impregnated with resin, there is a weight savings because there is never any extra resin in the weave, just enough to properly cure the part. Also CF is stronger than glass fiber, so it will take less sheets to lay up a part. But because of the costs needed to purchase and cure Pre-preg, it is almost exclusively reserved for manufacturers and race teams, or people with outragously large budgets.

HTH
 
#5 ·
Well... air dry is the wrong wording... Yes it cures at room temp (or lower...) since you are using the same resin as for normal fiberglass... but the resin used cures by chemical reaction (thats why it produces heat).

Oh and a tip that I forgot to mention is if you are planning on doing any perfectly flat panels, you can just use a sheet of glass for your mould.

Vacume bagging wouldn't hurt, but you don't strictly need to do this. It would make sure there are no bubbles (or help, most of that is up to you when you are laying it...) but other than that it is not nessesary. Treat the carbon fiber as you would fiberglass essentially... and you WILL need to back the CF with fiberglass or kevlar at least a couple layers, since it would break if it is not reinforced. YOu could use CF, but it is not nessesary, and frankly quite expensive.

Oh and FYI, you can get fiberglass (strand/mat/weave), CF, and Kevlar from Http://www.aircraftspruce.com

Others have done it without a mould... but because you want to have the CF patern on your stuff, you CAN NOT sand it at all, it would sand through the CF layer, and then destroy the weave patern. so I think that A female rather than a male mould would be the only way to go about this.

Note that I am in no way a composite expert... Just saw you were getting no insight what so ever, so I thought I would chime in.. Most of my "knowledge" comes from doing lots of research into moulding some custom pannels for cars... I just ended up with a good solid car, so that wasn't needed. Though I am considering taking a mould of the fenders once they are nice and straight.

HTH

Matt Watson
 
#7 ·
The easiest method is simple wet layup of CF on existing parts. I have done this extensively using epoxy resin. If you are fabricating something, then it gets very pricy as far as making just one plug of the part... the supplies for building a mold are better invested if you're planning on doing multiple plugs in some sort of production environment.

Take a look in my gallery and you can see some shots of my Kawasaki I did wet-layup on. After you polish the epoxy, it looks pretty fantastic. The only thing to be careful about with epoxy is that any moisture in the air will cause a cloudy effect in the final product... its difficult to avoid, but minimally noticable if you are careful and don't use multiple layers of resin.

Your best bet:

Build a model of what you want to install. Leave some space for buildup if you're mounting it and need a specific dimension to make it fit. typically a single layer of fiber and epoxy will build about 3/32" or more depending on how liberally you apply the resin. Next. Paint your model part black. Use flat black, and leave the surface rough so there is good adhesion. Next, mix up some resin and paint it over the surface with a brush. Let the resin tack up (toward the end of its pot life, and beyond) and then apply a sheet of fiber. it will stick easily and mold to the surface if your resin is appropriately tacky. now, ideally at this point you would have a buddy who's prepped another batch of resin for you for the final lamination. using a glasskoter brush, apply the laminating layer of resin to the entire object. obviously it is best to do this in a dust free environment. use a fast curing epoxy. if you get a good buildup you can then polish the item until you can see your reflection in it.

pm me if you have more questions. this is not an easy process, you'll ideally want lots of practice before you do something as blatantly cosmetic as a dashboard.

another factor is you'll have to UV-proof the dash... some sort of clear coat. Not really sure, I haven't made it that far.

Good luck

tbw

i take it back, the photos in my gallery suck

don't go by those as what the end product of wet layup looks like. its much more attractive in person.

i'll see if i can post some better shots.
 
#9 ·
I don't know how to make carbon fiber panels or anything but I work around it everyday on military aircraft and something we stress ALLOT to all my folks is that you must wear a respirator to protect your lungs. The fibers will mess up your lungs in a very nasty way. Just becareful.

David
 
#11 ·
carbon fiber

probably the best source for carbon fiber and info is www.shopmaninc.com they have all the supplies and info you could want for carbon fiber and fiberglass to marine floatation foam to sculpt new dashes and door panels , you may also search the internet for fishman products they sell fish fabric which is used to build free form fiberglass speaker enclosures and door panels
 
#12 ·
More carbon fiber info

Another good site with lots of information on carbon fiber is: fiberglast.com

I bought some carbon fiber fabric from them to make new dash inserts for my son's '74 Dodge Dart Sport and replace the old woodgrain. I haven't figured out which resin to use, yet. I'm hoping some of you work out the details before I get to that point.

Jerry
 
#16 ·
carbon fiber

hey guys carbon fiber isn't that much different than laminating fiberglass, the biggest difference is that you need to use epoxy resin instead of poly resin. as long as you have a good shaped and smooth substrate . use something in the range of 6 to 12 oz cloth and be very careful to lay the cloth evenly using a bondo squeegee to spread the resin thoroughly into the cloth , let it set up overnight ,(be shure not to disturb the cloth too much by spreading it too hard) and then follow with a good coat of clear gelcoat( clear will take forever to fill ) trust me on this we have a 65 ac cobra replica that has a 73 pound carbon fiber body on it with about a 7500 dollar paint job on it.dont skimp when doing carbon fiber unless you want it to look like you did.
 

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#17 ·
I don't mean to jack this thread, but to say that car looks awsome is an understatement. Lowdown99, is there a possibility that you could start another thread, or post an article walking us through the basic steps on how to make parts like those for the Cobra? I am trying to convince myself (and my son) that I can make a hood scoop for his car. It sounds like several of us can benefit from your experience.

Jerry
 
#18 ·
Re: carbon fiber

lowdown99 said:
hey guys carbon fiber isn't that much different than laminating fiberglass, . . . .
Very true but if this is a first time in doing laminates, likelihood is that it won't come out in the pristine knockout look you are after. Like any skill, building laminates takes practice and a few junk parts. On a high profile item like a dash, mistakes will bug the peewadden out of you!
 
#19 ·
For a flat panel or even gentle curves, I used a sheet of perspex (to make a car audio enclosure look like carbon fibre) and found some 'carbon look' contact. Once complete, it looked a million bucks and fooled many people that saw the finished product. Sorry, I have no photos. The contact was from a hardware store here in New Zealand, but I have seen it in automotive parts stores.
 
#20 · (Edited)
There is a web site that has a self adhesive carbon fiber that is sold in sheets which may proove valuable to many of you http://www.machv.com/cafiplsh.html this is some pretty nice stuff to work with as well as rigid sheets for flat surfaces

i meant to add this to my last reply but forgot untill i had allready posted it. one neat look i have done for a local rice rocket honda was instead of him buying a real carbon fiber hood fascia and fenders was. i ground the entire front of the car with 36 grit roloc disc, covered the sheetmetal with a layer of resin then rolled out the carbon fiber and smoothed it with a large squeegee getting as little resin as it took to saturate it then after it dried i quickly went over itwith some 240 grit sand paper to knock off the lumps then added a coat of surfboard gelcoat (crystal clear) then after a few days when it was totally cured i laid out flames as a negative outline masked inside the flames and painted the rest to match the car, the final effect was a set of flames which were carbon fiber, this was awsome looking ! he won all the recent shows he went to with this thing including best of paint at three events, ill try to find some pics to get on here. just thought i'd give some ideas and allways remember , just because you havent seen it doesnt mean it cant be done .
 
#22 · (Edited)
Graphite(Carbon fiber),Kevlar, and glass

If you really want to duplicate a part then you must use a bagging technique (unless you have a industrial 200 to 350 oven. Its actually quite simple if you want it to be. Really all you need to do is know that scissors are the main tool for forming other than your hands to push the material flat. I would use some latex gloves to keep the material from splinting in my hand. If you are not experienced in this Field then do a experiment. Take a bowl or maybe even a old cell phone cover (If you can do this properly then you should be alright) , and try laying it up. For this application use a thin sheet of material (.050 or smaller), and lay the cloth on a flat surface (precut to fit with enough cloth to hang off the edges of your part). Next use Vaseline or a film release and apply it to your part. Then take you resin (premixed) and pour a little on the cloth. Then use a very smooth linear edge squeegee and press the resin into your material. Once the material is properly soaked (you will have to judge this on graphite) lay it in the center most surface of your part. If you are using the bowl idea you will need to use your scissors to cut the material up to almost the center so the material will lay flat on the sides of the bowl giving it the required contour. You will need to do this all the way around the bowl until the material is flush with the surface. Remember if you want it to look stylish then lay it up stylish.Repeat the procedure until you have acquired the thickness your part needs. Next You may want to use peel ply yo acquire a smooth sand-able surface. Applying peel ply is the same as applying your material (don't worry if you have hang over on your peel ply as long as it is touching most of your lay-ed up material.There is a wax release paper (used to keep your part from sticking to your bag and cotton cloth) you can use but its not necessary when you use peel ply because the ply should separate every thing anyway. Now you can bag your part. To do this you will need some sort of bagging material, tacky tape, Cotton cloth (used to allow even suction across the part), Vacuum orphas, and a venture (Used for if you do not have a vacuum then you can use an air compressor ). Cut the bag leaving a generous amount to work with. Put the part in the center of your bag. Tuck your bag in under your part so when it is under suction it will lay flat. Now lay a strip of cotton across the part (Leave a little hang over for your vacuum orphas). Depending on the type of vacuum orphas you use lay the lower section on the cotton. Now complete the bag using the tacky tape (Only use one side of the tape at a time. There is a technique for doing this preventing any leakage. If you decide to try this just E-mail me. Once your bag is complete cut a small hole over you orphas to connect its counter part (razors work best). Connect the venture to the orphas and a pneumatic line to the venture. The bag should suck down shortly. Once the bag is sucked down you may hear air leaks( You can fix these by pressing firmly in the area of the leak or by using more tacky tape to reinforce the leak. Now allow your part to set up for the require time of your resin at the appropriate temp. (unless you have a oven to cook it in> However when using any type of plastic I would not recommend a oven because the part is likely to warp). Finally after the part has set up pull all of your materials apart (carefully to avoid VOIDS) and use a dye grinder or whatever you have to cut the extra material off, and sand you part to perfection.
REMEMBER THIS IS EASIER DONE THAN SAID
Once you have the process down you can move on to more bold lay ups. I assume if you have access to a autoclave you already know the procedures, and probably have access to prepreg.

LOWDOWN 99 is right about the resins (you cant shop around for your resin, and if you have any questions about a resin just E-mail me.
 
#24 ·
select products is where to go if you have a problem like too much money to blow , or cant do a little searching for info on the net. you can purchase th esame exact items at half the cost at shopmaninc.com, as for speaker rings and such , if you cant rout out a set yourself , you probably shoulnt be attempting this kind of stuff anyway, you'll probably end up bonded to your project for life . as for the autoclave and such , unless you are building structural parts and such all this is just appearance stuff which doesnt need the bagging and autoclave.use senseand you will do fine
 
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