Carbon Fibre

[sweetm3 180]

Had a go at laying carbon fibre won’t be giving up my day job

[thorburn 121]

pictures and details...

[Greg111 13]

Had a go at laying carbon fibre won’t be giving up my day job

What were you carbon fibreing?

[MLM 57]

Where did you get it? Im waiting for mine to arrive from the us. What method do you use? wet layup or vac baging?

[sweetm3 180]

Reason for project

I wanted to try out a high rear spoiler wing at the track to see if I could knock some more time off my laps.

So I brought a 2 piece low GT CF spoiler and a boot lid off trademe a month or 2 ago. The project was to try and turn the spoiler into a high 4 piece spoiler.

I tried to make the risers myself starting out by forming the risers from foam not very successfully so I gave up and just cheated, brought a pair of risers from the states.

I then had to figured out, how to connect the pieces together. Done

Now this was my first attempt at CF and I have never done FG either, so it was pretty ambitious to say the least.

With multiple angles, curves, sides and a join, laying out was fun. But the real fun started when trying to wet out the fibre.

Here’s my process for what it’s worth

Cut CF to approx size

Mix 4:1 resin with a bit of black pigment added, for the first coat for depth

Wet out riser,

Lay down CF over riser, attempt to trim to make a nice join (never happened)

Wet out top of CF x 3 approx 15min between coats, pour and brush coats on, turning the piece multiple times to try and stop runs and drips (as a dried drip has an air bubble under it)

Hit the piece with a blow torch between coats to remove air bubbles (only mildly successfully)

Let dry over night and then sand with 180, 400, 800, 1000 and 1200 to smooth

Another top coat of resin to get the last ripples or low points out

Let dry

Sand 180, 400, 800, 1000 and 1200

Things I did wrong or didn’t work for me

When first wetting the form piece with black pigment resin don’t over wet or it seeps between the CF weave and you loss the pattern

Don’t have any joins

They say to dab the resin coats on with a paint brush, I tried and caught the weave

Heat gun didn’t work on the air bubbles it didn’t get hot enough I think

Put enough top coats down so you don’t sand down to the CF when trying to smooth out

Conclusion

If it’s your first time CFing and it’s a smallish, simple piece your doing, go for it.

If it’s a complicated piece and for show give it to a professional

Or if you’re like me and don’t mind that it’s not perfect because you hope you will be going so fast no one will see it or maybe the rest of the spoiler is not perfect either go for it.

I purchased Carbon Fibre and resin from NZ Fibreglass.

By the way the extra boot and spoiler will only be fitted when I go to the track

Project remaining items Clear coats and working out an easy way of disconnecting the wire loom in my boot.

[Greg111 13]

All sounds very tricky, re the boot lid, you can always cut the wiring harness that goes up the L/H boot strut and connect the wires to a male and female connector plug, nice and tidy.

[sweetm3 180]

All sounds very tricky, re the boot lid, you can always cut the wiring harness that goes up the L/H boot strut and connect the wires to a male and female connector plug, nice and tidy.

My thoughts exactly

[sweetm3 180]

Hi Guys

finally attached spoiler to spare boot lid and fitted to car.

Looks good from a distance

[Greg111 13]

For a tracker i like! Very nice job indeed!

[Guest Ari Gold]

Looks bloody good to me!

[zeemax 0]

Looks awesome, maybe you should give up the day job?