ive used this do it yourself article for carbon fiber/carbon kevlar wrapping some things for my friends (a set of a pillars and a fiberglass pickguard i made for my friends guitar) and it definitly is a helpful thing to know. heres the link but i will just copy and paste everything into here so you dont have to click the link and open a new window and wait for it to load. enjoy! http://diyautomods.com/2008/03/03/hello-world/


from link:
Supplies needed
Carbon fiber cloth
Clear resin
Spray glue
sandpaper varying from 100-1000 grit
This technique is referred to as overlay. Usually used to cover interior pieces with CF. This can be used for exterior parts but the technique uses the stock piece and you mold the CF over the piece. The stock piece remains in place, so the finished piece is slightly larger than the stock piece. This involves considerably more hand work. The concept is covering the piece with carbon and resin. Then more resin to build up the thickness. Most of this resin is sanded off until a smooth surface is achieved. This is time consuming but the end result is worth the effort. After all, you’re doing this to make your car look great.

The part I’m going to demonstration is a B-pillar from a VW.
The technique-
If the piece is hard plastic you can sand the piece with 100 grit sandpaper. If there is a fabric covering you have two choices. The first is to remove the fabric and sand the basematerial with 100 grit paper. The second approach, although I don’t recommend it, is to cover the fabric with masking tape and then spray on three coats of clear Krylon. Allow the Krylon to dry and then scuff the surface with sandpaper.
The procedure is the same from this point on.
Before we go too far you will need to cut the material to fit around the piece. To help in how to make the cuts I’ve provided the following illustrations.

The technique-
If the piece is hard plastic you can sand the piece with 100 grit sandpaper. If there is a fabric covering you have two choices. The first is to remove the fabric and sand the base
material with 100 grit paper. The second approach, although I don’t recommend it, is to cover the fabric with masking tape and then spray on three coats of clear Krylon. Allow the Krylon to dry and then scuff the surface with sandpaper.
The procedure is the same from this point on.
Before we go too far you will need to cut the material to fit around the piece. To help in how to make the cuts I’ve provided the following illustrations.


Leave about 1/8” extra material to fold around the edges. This varies with the thickness of the piece. You will need to experiment here.
place the piece on the carbon and tape the edges.

Lay down a coat of resin mixed with hardener over the surface of the piece. Because the part is a light gray I tinted the resin so the gray would not show through the carbon. Tint is very cheap and a little goes a long way. It won’t bleed through the carbon fiber. Let the resin dry enough so that when you touch it with your finger it leaves an imprint but doesn’t come off on your finger.

Spray the back of the piece with 3M 77 adhesive and let it tack. Place the carbon over the piece. Fold the fiber over the edges and press into the adhesive, it should hold. For extra security, use masking tape to hold the edges in place. For the top coats on the carbon use clear resin. Use your brush to coat the edges of the part. Set it aside to dry. Don’t worry that things look messy at this point. This first coat is to adhere the carbon to the part and form a solid base for the remaining resin coats.

Once the part is tacky you can brush on the next coat of resin.
Allow each application of resin to tack before laying more on.
Continue brushing on more resin on the part until the fabric is covered and there is no sign of the twill weave showing through. This is important, you will be sanding these top coats of resin and don’t want to sand into the carbon. If you do the part will be ruined.
once the resin is solid and dry sand to level the resin. I know this looks horrible and you think you just ruined everything! Don’t worry just apply more resin to build up the low spots. Add a layer or two and sand again. Soon there will be a level surface.
Once the surface is level sand with 220, 400,600,1000 grit wet sandpaper.

Clean with soap and water then allow to dry. The surface will be dull. Now spray on several coats of clear Krylon. Urethane is superior! Isn’t amazing how instantly the twill appears and the depth. To achieve a deeper finish, spray on more Krylon.
Admire your work.


Overlays are simple to do but do take time. The resin needs to be completely dry before sanding. The steps are just as outlined. The most difficult part is wrapping the edges. You should practice the cut techniques I outlined. Try these with some inexpensive fabric so that mistakes won’t ruin the carbon fiber.

__________________
myspace / powderheads powdercoating
1 sr20 and another on the way

Nice! Thanks for the post.

__________________
SHU188mph

pics are bad =(

what do you mean by the pics are bad?
showing up as red x?

__________________
myspace / powderheads powdercoating
1 sr20 and another on the way

They work now =D

if anyone wants to order fabric this is a good site to order from. their prices are really good and they have both carbon fiber and carbon kevlar. http://store.thecarbonshop.com/fabrics.html
theres also other information on the site

this is the site i got my fiberglass from
http://hobbyshack.com/category/98216...Fiberglass.htm

and resin can be picked up at autozone or any auto parts store.

__________________
myspace / powderheads powdercoating
1 sr20 and another on the way

great post! a vacuum bag makes it a lot easier and uniform too. great for making skins of motorcycle body panels that are only a few pieces thick. you can also get the "dry" carbon effect...

__________________
Swim RJ swim!

I should experiment with this a bit.
The porsche factory carbon fiber job is such crap. So many of my pieces need to be re-done.

you can actually use one of those food vacuum packers or w/e you want to call them to vacuum bag them. they work for smaller parts only though. some parts like pillars are just easy to do with just the method posted above but other parts like dash trim or parts with alot of shape to them would be easier to do in vacuum bagging.

im going to be trying that with some smaller parts and then doing fiberglass over the inner part of the vacuum bagged part to make a mold of it.

__________________
myspace / powderheads powdercoating
1 sr20 and another on the way

I'm not sure what you mean Justin as prepreg is a whole nother boat on it's own....

Nice writeup for those looking to do overlays!

__________________
-Mike
Suede Headliners United Member

www.blowneuros.com

oh shit i missed the part with the dry carbon. for that you need alot of special machines and such. its not something you can do at home.

thanks
ill post up a how to do custom fiberglass thread when i get some more fiberglass and ill also do a mold making thread.

__________________
myspace / powderheads powdercoating
1 sr20 and another on the way

oh no not prepreg stuff. thats a pain. and i dont think its technically "dry" as ive only started messing around with injecting the resin. errr using the vacuum to draw the resin in. i was just talking about using a layer of batting, cotton sort material that has plastic on one side with little holes, to draw off the excess resin on top...

__________________
Swim RJ swim!

dry carbon fiber has resin in the carbon fiber already and its heated up and vacuum bagged to make it into a shape.

__________________
myspace / powderheads powdercoating
1 sr20 and another on the way

Vac Bagging is still wet layup.

__________________
-Mike
Suede Headliners United Member

www.blowneuros.com

i thought that was prepreg? i meant dry as in it doesn't have all the extra layers of resin on the top. you can still feel the weave of it, not shiny, "dry"

__________________
Swim RJ swim!

Dry Carbon is prepreg Justin. Same difference. Now if you really wanna see what kind of quality you're dealing with, after you vac bag/oven the parts... weigh them, then throw them in a fire, and weigh them after all the big black smoke stops coming out and check your carbon to resin content

And uhhh don't let anyone with a badge or lights on their car see you doing this.

__________________
-Mike
Suede Headliners United Member

www.blowneuros.com

anyone know the best place to get supplies to try this?

I think I'm going to try some simple projects then do something cool(haven't decided yet maybe my garage door or something)

__________________

chris got some of the CF fabric from someone a couple years ago. I htink we stil have a bunch of samples laying around the house somewhere. Ask him about it.

i posted this in post 6 but ill post this again
http://store.thecarbonshop.com/fabrics.html

you can always just google carbon fiber fabric.
ebay sometimes has good deals on it.


if you want to try something first then i suggest going to a crafts store and buying a little bit of regular fabric first so you dont potentially fuck up the good fabric

__________________
myspace / powderheads powdercoating
1 sr20 and another on the way

Sorry I don't know how I missed that, when you say regular fabric what type do you mean?

__________________

like sewing fabric basically lol
just plain fabric. they sell it at walmart too in the crafts sections and its on like the big cardboard spool things if you know what im talking about lol.

__________________
myspace / powderheads powdercoating
1 sr20 and another on the way

Anybody know of a good way to create a mold from the parts so that you can replace them with carbon vs. wrapping the parts?

Nick

__________________

wrap part in aluminum foil, lay a coat of resin down and let it get tacky, start putting fiberglass matting over it. put 3-4 layers of fiberglass. let it dry and then seperate it. the aluminum foil acts as a non stick surface so it can be easily removed from the part.

__________________
myspace / powderheads powdercoating
1 sr20 and another on the way

cool thanks.

I have a few parts that need to be done. Hummer needs to loose some fat Maury style.

Nick

__________________

http://compositeenvisions.com/index...._cart&sort=20a

^ less exspensive site for carbon fiber fabrics. Also the best deal I have seen on resin, they have a clear resin that comes with hardner, mixing crap, and measuring stuff for 37.00