I've done it a couple times and it's not that hard, but rchippie is right, your first couple will be considered sacrificial. You could practice on a cheaper fabric such as fiberglass until you get the feel for spreading the epoxy. Google it and there are tons of how to pages. You can build your own form from something as simple as wood and start with laying up wet (of course you'd need a release mechanism in place, etc.). From there, to experiment with vacuum bagging, you can buy yourself a used Foodsaver vacuum sealer at a garage sale for about ten bucks and use it to vacuum bag your own parts. The results are almost as good as the real thing, for a lot less money.

is it better to lay my own, or cut it out and "heatbend" it?:neutral:

Hmmm, depends how much confidence you have in yourself really... if you are good enough, you could make anything out of CF almost, and make it look good as well. But the more complex the shape, the less appealing it will appear just because of limitations on getting the surface epoxy just right.

I think there is a reason why not very many people have attempted a CF chassis, mainly because of getting the piece bent, namely the kick-up angle. I would think it would weaken the epoxy, and thus the 'composite' strength by the heating and bending.

I wonder if a Teflon mold would work for getting the angle of kickup right if laying your own CF fabric?

only one way to find out... thank goodness that ebay CF is "cheap":whip:

why could'nt you use the originale chassis as a mold if your going to lay your own CF ?. Just put masking tape on the chassis as a mold release .

I could... but then I have to make my own CF:drunk:

Maybe you can call a couple of the CF dealers & see if they can mold you a CF chassis of your aluminum chassis .

You could, but the bend radius would be just a bit off (either larger or smaller depending on whether you used the top or bottom). Plus you want to make your blank bigger than the final piece and cut to final dimensions--that would be difficult to do that way. It's fairly easy to make one out of wood. Assuming you're using MDF, with some lacquering and a mold-release coat the finish would be good enough in the CF (though not as good as these glossy ones--you'd need highly polished aluminum or glass for that), and it would be strong enough to hold up to the vacuum if you decide to try that out.

now there's an idea....



:sleep:

whats wrong with useing a heat gun?? its only the front kickup....:neutral:

yeah, but that front kick-up plays a big roll in the handling of the vehicle, you get it wrong, and it handles like bettie crocker on roller blades.

so I'll bend a pice of sheet metal to the exact angle....

It needs to be more rigid than just sheet metal. A nicely bent piece of 1/8" minimum (for wet layup, thicker for vacuum bagging) aluminum will do the trick.

At that point of expense, assuming you're trying to do it cheaply, cut and sanded MDF would serve you better.

Or you can just try the heat gun:lol:

whitrzac, I'd run with the CF advice you're getting here...all good from my 15yrs+ experience with the stuff

Depending on your manufacturing process, the mould doesn't have to be rigid at all. I've made an angled plate by applying two 2 mm steel plates to the original chassis with pieces of tacky tape (like chewing gum) put into the counter-sunk holes. The lay-up was CF prepreg twill and UD and the vacuum bag held everything together.

http://home.datacomm.ch/htrainer/CFRP_plate_side.jpg

If I was really serious about making a good CF chassis plate for an electric car, I'd use two angled steel plates for moulds and a sandwich lay-up with CF prepreg face sheets.

ok, ok... I'll try my hand at making my own CF...:sleep:

what resin, what CF fabric, how many layers, how to apply the resin, how to vacum pack, mold release, etc????:neutral: I have some 5mm alloy leftover from another project that I can bend, but not enough to make 2 "molds"

I think I can dig up our old vacum packer...


what about using one of those "space bags" that you hook a vacum up to and they shrink?

that chassis is off a TT eb4-S3, right??:lol: