MX-3.com

ill easily be a test subject if either of you want/need a tester

Ryan wrote:
http://imgur.com/gallery/MbHp6

That girl was stuck up! perhaps there is a little bit of engineer within me cause I read that post and was like WTF are you thinking? then started crunching numbers in my head and read the post further down and was like "thank you", haha

wytbishop wrote:And yet I can find a hundred examples of good quality CF parts being made by do it yourselfers. There's a guy in my own city who has made a small but sustainable business out of it.

I have seen examples of beautiful parts that have been hand crafted without the use of any advanced technology.

Well let's see some then?? And will these persons make parts for the MX-3??

And just to be clear here. We are simply looking for fiberglass with a single layer overlaid carbon-fiber parts, right?

Yes

No

Maybe?

lol

That last picture is probably an accurate representation of what the car looks like up close. With a s--- ton of clear coat.

Mooneggs wrote:

wytbishop wrote:And yet I can find a hundred examples of good quality CF parts being made by do it yourselfers. There's a guy in my own city who has made a small but sustainable business out of it.

I have seen examples of beautiful parts that have been hand crafted without the use of any advanced technology.

Well let's see some then?? And will these persons make parts for the MX-3??

http://theprojectjunkie.com/bicycles-bi ... oject.html
Guy made a CF bicycle in his garage. Structurally significant and very clean work.

http://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/showt ... p?t=458551
Homemade CF hood, trunklid, floor, tunnel, rear tubs for a Chevelle. Not the best looking design but reasonably good work for a hack.

http://www.rollordrown.com/kayak/gstick.html
Guy made a pretty cool CF paddle for his kayak from a mold of a wooden paddle.

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.p ... 282&page=6
This is a great example of the sort of thing a smart regular guy can do. He made a skid plate for his dual purpose bike with a combination of CF and Kevlar. He fabricated CF mounting bosses and a CF bracket to fasten it to the bike. It's very simplistic but it's functional and strong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6aFfqbZZXk
A group of university students did a pretty cool resin infusion part for the body of their solar car. Why couldn't a person do this on their own? I don't know. Seems possible to me.

I could keep going, but I feel like this conversation has become sort of petty. That car pic that Mike posted looks like crap. If I can't make something that looks better than that I will pack up my stuff and never touch a scrap of CF again.

I refuse to believe that I am not capable of conquering this. I just refuse.

Again these parts are for show only there is no function. Anyone can do this in there garage. Not a lot of detail to the finish work on these parts. This would be called a CF overlay. Why would you spend your time to cover already thick @$$ fiberglass parts to make a stronger heavier more brittle product. and all they are doing is making a CF skin that they are attaching to the body, making the car heavier, these are not what I would look at as a functional piece its all show.

They way they are doing this is all wrong for any kind of real strength or functionality. And the middle one looks like a vinyl wrap. If it is truly CF they did a crap job trying to get a dry cf look. CF has a lighter strength to weight ratio than fiber glass, so if done properly you do not have to lay it over fiberglass, it kind of ruins the entire point IMO.

The body parts I had gotten from Knight Sports for my RX8 were 100% carbon fiber, no fiber glass whatsoever. maybe I am just anal but with the way they are doing this I would just assume throw a bunch of APC products on my car with some american racing chrome wheels. A proper skinned body would be a complete replacement panel for the OE steel panel.

Wyt
all those links are good ones, mold vid is very informative. The car, chevelle, and paddle are the only real ways to make proper pieces in your garage. I especially liked the paddle as that is exactly how I have made my fiberglass pieces in the past I am going to try vacuum bagging next. I have a killer idea in the works for the AWD car using texalium.

I found a self-portrait of wyt online:

Challange so..totally..accepted.

I agree that it seems that so much of what's available out there is purely cosmetic. The cosmetic stuff is easy...relatively speaking. The really cool s--- is being done with specialized equipment that's not so easily available. I am figuring out how I can build a forge and a large curing oven. I might even be able to come up with an autoclave.

I'm thinking about this in terms of career path to be totally honest. I am thinking about things like forging, multi-stage curing, co-molding...this stuff has really captured my imagination. I will obviously not be starting out with complex projects like forged control arms. I have a learning curve to go through. The mold making process is really an art form. Much like body work, the precision and quality of the finish are the difficult things to achieve and will take a lot of practice.

I'm not going to be posting up parts for sale anytime soon. But things will start to happen as time goes on.

I remember a while back in TV, there was a guy, artist that worked out of his home. I guess he wanted to create art in a clear material. I want to say plexiglass, but I could very well be wrong, but that's not the point. I don't know why I remember this so vividly, but he was told by everyone he can only go so thick, beyond a few inches because bubbles would be created; he wanted to go a foot and beyond in thickness. Everyone told him it was impossible, and it took him much trial and error, but eventually he got it and large companies and the government became interested, I think it was for space and submarines...

NIce^^

At one of my old companies they purchased a walk in oven from an out of business bakery. I also saw one where a guy used oven elements in a sealed off room. I think if you could get a room to 120-130 that would be kind of ideal for a home jobbie. I really want to start doing vacuum bagging, I have been looking into how to do it for some time. it is a rather straight forward process. but If I screw up I don't want to be our a $h!t ton of money wasting good CF I am eager for you to make some things.

Now I like where this thread is going

K. so now that the hugs have been electronically sent, IS anyone interested in any composite panels for their car?