I just gave an offer to other rtoc member regarding outer skin-hood. If you're interested pm me and I can send you details & price of Glass fiber hood which would be only cost-wise alternative if you are going to paint it anyway.Originally Posted by Andrew Cooke
I'd be interested in lightweight doors/bonnet, but would paint them, so if you get some parts that aren't suitable to leave bare, but are structurally sound keep me in mind
Thanks Harri, keep me posted.
Amazingi personally cant wait to see the doors
this is bit off-topic but I had my clio stored outside during storm which came last Sunday, I have to say that I had some luck with the tree in the picture.
Phew that was close!
WOW!! Lucky guy!!
First one came out to be ok. It has few minor air bubbles so I'll propably try to do it again. I've aligned the fibers in 45deg orientation, this way CF will bend better to shapes. It will also look better with 0deg oriented tailgate panel.Looks great. Looking forward to seeing the first one out of the bag!
your project looks fantastic !!!!
i really love carbon fiber !!!!!!!!
I'm really excited, it took me 3 tries to get the GTTurbo mould perfect and 3 tries to get the actual part perfect. Edges are still untrimmed.
I changed my plans with the finishing. I will paint the top of the letters red and leave the bottom unpainted showing pure CF surface.
I managed to get result better by adding some clear polyester gelcoat in the surface before laying CF, this smoothed the tight corners. The downside is that CF is not that visible in the areas where theres plenty of gelcoat. That's why I will paint the letters.
From left to right 3 tries:
1st has minor air bubbles in some areas, I didn't use any gelcoat with this. SOLD
2nd has some air between clear gelcoat and CF. SOLD
3rd is the perfect one, also the heaviest due to extra gelcoat.
I have no use for the first two, if interested send me a message. For the right price I could sell the 3rd one as well since I now know how to make them right.
Last edited by Harri; 22-01-2012 at 08:05.
Harri, it has been said before but wow what a thread! Keep up the good work, and if you make any light weight parts that are rejects then let me know, or if you are planning on doing doors in glass after you've made the moulds post up as i am sure a few of the racers out there would love to save some weight - the doors are really heavy!
Awesome thread! Cant wait to see the finished car!
Thanks again for the compliments. I really enjoy doing this since the I hate the quality of OE renault plastic parts and amount of rust in the metal parts.Harri, it has been said before but wow what a thread! Keep up the good work, and if you make any light weight parts that are rejects then let me know, or if you are planning on doing doors in glass after you've made the moulds post up as i am sure a few of the racers out there would love to save some weight - the doors are really heavy!
Awesome thread! Cant wait to see the finished car!
u fancy making me a shell?
Loving your work Harri. Impressed by your perseverance!
You will always have trouble getting into the tight corners unless you have some kind of vacuum to pull it together. I have what we call a 'Hot Bonding Controller' at work that we use to add controlled heat and vacuum to a repair. Awesome bit of kit but a little expensive at around GBP15000!!
I need to do some experimenting myself!
You're absolutely right on the vacuum part. I have used vacuum with every part so far, even the moulds. It helps a lot but doesn't do miracles. Normally I use about 0.1 bar vacuum with the moulds and 0.4 - 0.6bar with the parts.
Last edited by Harri; 07-01-2012 at 12:53.
I have some experience on those, but you should win a lottery first.u fancy making me a shell?
I have some experience on those, but you should win a lottery first.
Will a cheque do ??
There seems to be a curse with these f***ing badges, I need to do everything three times to get them right.
I may have set goals a bit too high when I decided to get perfect finish with two different surfaces glosses, one having brushed finish and one having matt finish.
First I did three "GTturbo" moulds to get perfect one, then three "Renault5" moulds to get perfect one. Same for the parts, third "GTturbo" came out perfect and by the way things are going I will have some small imperfection on the second try of "Renault5" as well.
Here are some pictures from the first "Renault5" which came out good but not perfect.
On the panels I settle with "just good" or even "acceptable" quality since you can sand and repolish the surfaces. But I really want these to be spot-on.
3K twill weave pattern just isn't right for this kind of part.
I scaled 2nd "GTTurbo" and 1st "Renault5" yesterday before posting them, they weighted 11g + 20g untrimmed. Does anyone have OE badges which they could scale, mine are bonded to aluminum plate for mould making.
Third carbon fiber "Renault5" done and it looks perfect. I've changed the clear gelcoat to another one which gives really clear results. I also changed the whole way of manufacturing them. Results speak for themselves.
In fact they are so good that I'm not going to paint the letters as I previously thought.
Ah, these look a bit more like it
Ah, these look a bit more like it
I bought silly priced door repair kits from CGB. They should solve my hinge issue which I'm going to face when I get the doors laminated. Progress with preparing old doors for mould making has been slow lately due to badges eating all my time but now I'm going to focus on doors and making CF side skirts. LH outer door panel is sanded and ready for painting and I just started working with inner panel.
I finally did LH skirt yesterday, epoxy curing is like waiting for christmas on 23th. You can already see all the presents but don't really know what's inside before you have opened the (vacuum-) bag. Also, opening too early will definetly spoil the presents.
I just released the LH skirt from mould, it looks really nice even when skirt moulds were the ones which had originally most problems with my old gray gelcoat. It weights 540g w/o trimming or fixings.
oooooooooh lovely
Mate I'm looking at all these carbon bits and having a crisis
I just checked your list of parts on the first post of the thread.
You're getting to the point where you can't put off the doors and bumpers any longer
Yes, it's starting to look like my outer panel-project might actually finish one day. For every £100 spent on CF, I'll save £10 on painting
Luckily interior has few panels as well. And then we have roof.. the list of poor-quality renault parts is endless really.
I made the second carbon fiber side skirt last weekend, result looks as good as the first one. There's picture from the b-side as well, I use this special peelply which gives really nice surface.
I'm running out of parts in my to-do list which means I will need to start working with either making door moulds or bumper parts next. I'll start with the doors since I'm almost out of CF and I need to save some £'s to buy more.
Cant wait for the doors
Top work as always Harri.
Work in progress with the LH door inner donator. Today I started closing holes in the inner door surface. I marked the ones which will be filled completely and the ones which will be filled just partly. There must be close to 50 holes which I need to fill. Also I will smooth as much of the unnecessary surfaces as I can. I'm running carbon fiber sheet door cards so I don't need most of the stuff which is there.
The idea is to bond aluminum plate under the hole, then add filler and sand the hole smooth. This should be good enough for mould making.
I've just read all 4 pages of this awesome thread!
Keep up the good work
Almost there now, First I finished bonding too many small aluminum sheets to fill every hole. Then I poured about 2kg of 2K PU foam inside the door. Now I will just have to fill and sand everything.
Really cant wait to see the outcome
Harri,
This guy seems to be able to make all shapes and sizes of stuff with CF to an amazingly high quality. How similar are the techniques he's using to yours bud? Is there anything you can glean? The varnishes look interesting. Or are you a grand master at this stuff now?
Just thought I'd mention it when I saw it.
https://www.rtoc.org/boards/showthread.php?t=26686
They're not that similar. They look good, but it seems that he's actually covering wood and filler with CF and resin, lots of resin. After curing you can sand the resin, maybe add some more, sand a lot and finally add clear coating to achieve high gloss. Basicly hes making parts without any molds..and gaining a lot of extra weight. Normally you should try to make master model with those materials, then make mold and finally part.
I'm definetly not grand master in this (yet
this is certainly offtopic, but the 5GTT has been lately disturbed by my other laminating project. We just did master model milling which will be coated next with paste (filler) and remachined then. After that I'll make six similar molds out of the model and bolt them together to get the final mold for part making. Who can quess what this will be when completed?
Two hints;
-it's not car related
-I have two small daughters who will get this as a present when completed. I wont be using CF with this just plain GF.
I tried today both badge finishes on my tailgate. "Renault5" has matt look and "GTTurbo" has sprayed clear coat (not proper PU-coat). Tailgate trim, as well as other panels, will have clear coat so it should reflect more when done. I think high gloss badge version looks better actually. It might make the text bit difficult to read though.
Also the driver door inner surface is finally quite ready for painting. I'll try to paint them soon for mould making. Already started to work with prepping RH door aswell.
Door looks
No, it will be located on my yard, and kids are the only ones who actually have any use for it.
Badges - Difficult to say which is better based on those pics Harri. It might be easier in natural light and in context (i.e. from further away and when the rear of the car is complete).
Or, maybe it would be worth experimenting painting the letters in the OE style (or in any contrasting colour), just the raised letters I mean. Or perhaps just the badge background, so it's easier for the eye to pick out what the letters are??
Yeah, taking pictures in my garage was a bit difficult. The car is currently surrounded mainly by moulds and other related stuff. I think I will need to do the bumper first (and maybe the tailgate, I haven't decided on that yet) and then I can see if the rear has "enough" CF gloss and what to do with the letters. Painting just the letters was also my original plan but it somehow feels a waste of perfectly good CF surface.
Quite true, I just spent a fortune and ordered 30sqm of twill woven CF. With that amound I should be able to complete my list even if the tailgate is included. Started prepping rear bumper mould so I can make the part as soon as CF arrives.I just checked your list of parts on the first post of the thread.
You're getting to the point where you can't put off the doors and bumpers any longer
I made nice progress today. I painted both LH door mould donor parts. I use 2K acrylic spray paint which does the job quite nice with polishing. After polishing they are ready for mould making. I also trial fitted LH panels, they seem to fit just like (or better) the OE ones. Sorry for the poor in-garage pictures but it's finally starting to look like the CF car I want it to be. After the doors I really need to do something with the tailgate though. Unfortunately I already drilled quite lot of holes when fitting it which I need now fill before mould making. Can't wait to get the car on scales again.
You should see I nice weight change with the doors and tailgate! Lovely work Harri
Looks super! It's all coming together!! Nice padlock on bonnet!
Yes, at least no one can steal my bonnet in one piece
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote