Removing swirl marks from paint(now messing with composites)

[march109]

mmm sugarpuffs, but fortunatly no sharing for me, 8 years of that and if I live with any one else I better be married to the bitch or they better be the fruit of my loins.

[march109]

Alex can you PM or email me your suppliers and kit your purchasing for the boot please? want to compare it because I used to buy mine off a company in poole on the side but they won't sell it to me now on the basis I may kill injure or maim myself.

I think they saw my car.

[Turbo-Brown]

will PM you now dude!

Here's what I've just ordered if people are interested:

1 x 5mt - Carbon Fibre plain weave tape - 200g x 50mm. () = £9.50
1 x 1" x 3" - Deluxe Aluminium Finned roller. () = £5.52
1 x Black Diolen ”“ 200g SQ MT - 2 Linear mt. () = £9.80
1 x 1" Polyurethane Foam Sheets - 4 sheets - 1 ft x 1 ft () = £7.50
1 x 1/2" Polyurethane Foam Sheets - 4 sheets - 1 ft x 1 ft () = £5.00
1 x SP 106 Multi purpose - 3.02 KG Pack - Slow () = £43.98
1 x Calibrated Cups 550ml - Pack of 5 () = £2.95
1 x WEST SYSTEM Roller pan - 10" () = £1.33
1 x 120mm Nylon Resin roller + frame () = £2.06
1 x 4 mt Carbon Fibre 2x2 twill weave - 1 mt width. () = £100.00

That lot came to £230 ish which really makes you appreciate what good value the bonnets Demlot is selling are, especially as the above list there doesn't factor in for labour or the cost of making the mould in the first place......and from what I've seen the quality of his bonnets is awesome whereas my bootlids will almost certainly be a bit shite

However, I reckon I'll save about 6kg in the boot alone so as long as it's not too shocking to look at and it keeps the weather out I'll be happy

[Turbo-Brown]

We have stuff! Just need nice weather to make a start on it now!

[march109]

Goood News Everyone!

hahaha, I'll be placing an order with them I think for a few bits and bobs, liketosee what the quality is like. I have been offered some coloured CF/Kevlar weave too.

[Turbo-Brown]

I'd quite like to do something with carbon/kevlar, but seems you can only get plain weave which might not lend itself to the more complex shapes as well as twill.

Think it would look really cool to have a load of carbon/kevlar panels just because of the pattern of the weave, only thing which puts me off is that UV light destroys the kevlar so it'd all be a bit futile.

Would be interested to know whether kevlar is more flexible than carbon when you get some dude

Have learned that using epoxy on a rainy day isn't necessarily a great idea as it goes a bit cloudy! Tis a shame as it means the envelope of opertunity for getting my panels done is closing up fairly rapidly.

[Turbo-Brown]

The boot lid mould is trimmed as is the sunroof mould, will do their release coats tonight and then let the CF fun begin!

Gonna start with the boot lid I think just because it's a more interesting shape!

[Turbo-Brown]

Well, boot lid is laid up in the mould, I know the weave's all gone to cock, but it'll be interesting to see how bubbly the surface it!

Who knows, might be alright, but not holding my breath!

The process of laying up the CF in the boot has given me some ideas about how the moulds need to be constructed. The main thing for me is getting a decent line to trim the finished panel to and I think the best way to do that is to give the mould a tiny and fairly sharp upstand which runs the perimeter of the panel, that way you've got something to sand down to.

The Diolen turned out to be a royal pain in the arse to cut! My (admittedly crap) scissors make light work of CSM and CF, but this Diolen stuff was just having none of it! Took about 20mins to cut 1.2m of the stuff!

[Turbo-Brown]

Well how about that!

It's not too bad as a first attempt at a full scale carbon panel.

Definate thumbs up for the 106 epoxy resin from SP Systems, I tried West System epoxy for the charge cooler part there and not only does it not mix as cleanly, but it went milky white and cloudy whereas the SP has stayed really clear. Did both on rainy days which does have a large effect on epoxy resins so SP wins as a more usable system for the DIYer!

My housemates reckon the plain weave border I put on looks weird, but I actually quite like it myself. Whadda people think? should I do the same for the bonnet?

Just gotta laminate up some reinforcements on the back including the hinge and lock mounting points and it's done....once it's been trimmed.

It's just SO light too, and pretty rigid despite the very large unsupported areas it has. Will try and get it properly finished this weekend and make a start on the sunroof

Here's the overall thing. The torn looking bits are just release agent which I've not cleaned off yet, whereas the almost dented looking bits are just my poor laminating technique causing distortions in the weave:




The slightly bubbly badge rebate:




And the 50mm wide border the whole panel has. Interested in people's opinions in this as I quite like it, think it adds a little detail to the panel.

[Turbo-Brown]

Ooooooh, will this one have worked?!





Fingers crossed that it comes out reasonably bubble free!

[d6dph]

Alex, If you fancy making some sunroof panels that will bolt onto the std mounts I will buy one.

Maybe then I'll know it wont rust

[Turbo-Brown]

Shouldn't be too dificult I wouldn't think, but we'll see how well my CF bits are coming out before I start getting ideas

[Turbo-Brown]

Ooh, checked on it this morning before work.

I picked up the wrong catalyst for the resin (cleverly!) so I was a bit worried it might not set.

I've been using a super-clear surfboard resin to do the very outer skin, and then laminating up the rest of the panel using epoxy as it's a lot stronger than polyester but can go a bit cloudy if the weather's bad (as it always is!)

Guess the mould must've been on a slight slope or something as the resin has kinda run to one side....very slowly. It's probably only half a mm thicker, but it probably just goes to show I used too much resin.

[Turbo-Brown]

Put some reinforcement structure on the back of the panel in addition to an extra two layers of cloth so with any luck it should be quite rigid. Gotta leave it for about a week before I'll know though!

The good news is that the panel and mould combined weigh less than the original sunroof! And with all the motor and other gubbins gone it should represent even more of a weight saving

[Turbo-Brown]

Ooooh, I've finally managed to track down a pre-preg supplier willing to deal in small quantities!

The best bit is that, once you've factored in for the costs of epoxy resin and carbon fabric, it actually only works out about £4.50 more per square metre to use pre-preg!

The key advantages are that you should be able to make much more efficient laminates with pre-pregs where you waste less resin and don't have to carry the weight of additional resin in your components, and the resins used are much tougher in themselves so your panels become more efficient still!

Going to be making a mould for a front wing over the next couple of weeks and think that's when I'll start using pre-pregs. Due to the complex shapes of the front wings with lots of tight corners and the like, vacuum bagging is gonna be absolutely necessary, and having up to five days rather than about 20mins to lay up the carbon in the complex mould is again a big bonus!

Should make it easier to achieve good looking panels where the weave isn't all distorted too with any luck!

[Turbo-Brown]

Next question is how to make an economical oven to bake the pre-preg panels in.

I was thinking something along the line of a few, say 10 or so, 60W lightbulbs arranged in rows in a box made from something fireproof like plasterboard which can be skinned in polystyrene insulation for good measure.

That way the distribution of heat should be fairly even, and it shouldn't cost tooooo much to make an oven big enough to cure a bonnet in.

Question is, will it be able to reach somewhere in the region of 70degrees C?

Any thoughts anybody?

[march109]

Test it! Build a small 1m^2 unit as described and find out how many bulbs are needed to heat it to 70degrees C,obviously allow it to heat up for a few hours before checking.

But I'm 100% sure it would with fewer than 20light bulbs. Space heater not an option? in a lagged room, carpet on the walls could easily be removed ect.

Christ I'd offer you my ex girlfriend she could get the house to tropical temperatures with just the central heating, but we don't talk anymore.

[gepetto]

this thread is quality!! enjoyed reading up as i love learn yourself!! best way. just to add, my mate has a spray booth that bakes about 74 degrees, anychance you could ask a local spray shop to hire their booth for an hour?? i know when he sprays it takes about 45 minutes to cure and costs him around £12 an hour to run in electricity. just a thought. keep up the good work lads!!

[Turbo-Brown]

Made a little bit of swirl-mark removing progress over the weekend

I had bought one of those crappy "random orbital polisher" things which of course don't work very well at all. So first thing I tried was modifying that so that it was just a rotary polisher.

This worked reasonably well, but it doesn't have much torque so you could only apply the lightest pressure to the pad....sooooo.....

I modified the spindle of a buggered old angle grinder so that it could be held in an electric drill. The spindle accepts proper polishing foams and even using just 1500grit wet and dry to flat back the surface of the paint and then T-Cut, I've got a looooovely shiny and swirl free paint finish!

Will post some piccies up later

[bobbin1982]

so are fiberglass wings bootlids and bonnets legal then? or just for track?

[bobbin1982]

oh and best way to get good heat are flood light, like in the back garden , they are HPS (High Pressure Sodium) and they produce a good amount of heat.Maybe get a 1000w and put it in a box .Make sure its fire proof material tho

[Turbo-Brown]

Can't think why they wouldn't be legal for use on the road, plenty of cars have GRP bodywork too.

Would say that people should really tell their insurance companies if making the switch to composite panels.

That's a bloody good idea about the floodlights, I thinking that I could probably just shine one or two onto a wet-layup to speed up the cure process as they radiate quite a lot of heat don't they?

[E30Mark]

If it's heat you want then why not use some Infrared lamps?