[HARDEIGHT]

Heres a project I'm working on .This mirror was just a practice piece to get me ready for bigger and better things . After seeing pics of that orange cuda that was at SEMA I just had to try doing it . I always loved the look of carbon fiber now that I know I can do it, so LOOK OUT ! I might even try wrapping one of my dogs if he would sit still long enough(lol)

Plan is to build a dash, center counsel,and door panels out or glass then inlay CF in diffrent areas.I'll make sure I take lots of pics during the process.

I know it should go in the interior section on the forum but there will prob be enough clear on the parts to cover a MAC truck!

Happy holidays

Dave

[ckucia]

Can you post any details, like the prep that was required, what products you used, etc.?

[HARDEIGHT]

Started with a mirror shell off an 88 chev pu.Sanded the shell with 400 to clean up the surface.
Cut a piece of cf cloth extra large to be sure it would extend past all ehe edges.

Sprayed a coat of 3m adheisive on the shell and let it tack up .Heres where I learned my first lesson. started to lay the cloth down and you guessed it ,it bunched up and bridged all over the place. After ripping the cloth off I decided to spray the glue wet so I would have at least a short window to slide the weave. That worked fine with the exception of the pattern being a little crooked.

Once the cloth was stuck down I let the glue dry for a few hrs and went on to resin. I used WEST SYSTEMS epoxy and worked the resin in with a brush.

After about 24 hrs I lightly sanded the resin wit 120 on a da then applied another coat of resin. 24 hrs sanded again with 120 then applied another coat.

I sanded it totally flat the third time ,cleaned it then shot 3 coats of urethane clear. Sanded next day with 500 then 3 more coats of clear. Sanded and buffed 2 days later.

Learned a lot on a site (FIBERGLAST.COM)

This is called an overlay ,I am currently building a vacum system that I will be trying out next week on another practice part.

Let me know if I left anything out.

Happy Holidays Dave

[ckucia]

Thanks Dave.

I would have thought that the resin would have been used as the original adhesive, but it sounds like the 3m stuff would make it a lot easier.

Forgot to say before that it looks great, especially for a first attempt. There are probably a whole heckuva lot of applications for this process.

[HARDEIGHT]

Thank you. The biggest problem with using the resin first is on a complicated part air pockets can form in tight bends. Using a vac bag system should eliminate that. We'll see?

Dave