Carbon Fiber Layup (Tutorial)

From Nissan 350Z & 370Z Wiki

Introduction

Ok, here we go! Another fine tutorial by Daking on how to save some $$$ by doing your own Carbon Fiber interior parts!! The materials I got for this project cost me around $150. This price includes 3 yards of carbon fiber material, 1/2 gallon of resin and all the needed hardner and surfacing wax, plus brushes and what not..all this material is plent to do my subwoofers and amp rack (you'll see that later on) and all my interior accent pieces in the rear trunk area..

Materials

carbon fiber material (duh) resin hardner surfacing wax (added to the final coat of resin) some type of respirator (about $30 in Pep-Boys) multiple CHEAP brushes (you only get one use per brush)

masking tape sharp scissors razor knife small mixing pail plenty of rubber gloves wet sand paper (220,400,600,800,1000 grit assortment)

Procedure

Here are some pictures of the materials.I ordered the resin from US Composites in Florida. They have a website you can order from http://www.uscomposites.com. In the 3rd pictures is the hardener (on the right) and the surfacing wax (used on the last coat for sanding)

Ok. Here is the piece I chose to start with for this tutorial, its the rear trunk piece that houses the trunk lamp. It is fairly large and has simple curves so it is fairly easy to do. First you will want to sand it a bit to rough it up so the resin adheres a bit better. Plus if you're like me you have a shitload of Black Majic on your interior parts from going to shows!!Just scuff it up , no need to go nuts and take the texture off. Now measure up how much Carbon Fiber material you will need. You will generally need about an inch and a half extra on all four sides just in case so cut it a bit big. The trick to cutting CF and not having it frey all over the place is taping along the cut.You can use masking tape like I did or electrical tape if you want. Tape along where you are going to cut and make your cut leaving about 1/3 of the tape line on the piece your going to use.

Now you want to place your material on your piece and what I like to do is tape one end so it doesnt slide around as I apply the resin. Here I used som masking tape and taped the bottom of the piece, folding the CF material over.. Now mix your resin. Each resin has its own instructions and curing times. The stuff I used requires 10 drops of hardner per ounce of resin, plus or minus 50% depending on the curing time you want. If you follow the directions exact you will have about 15 minutes bucket life for the resin. So dont mix more than you think you will be able to use in 15 minutes!! Oh, dont forget to use your respirator at this point!! You will get a headache, trust me!!

Now start applying your resin to the CF cloth using a "dabbing" motion on the first coat. Make sure all the corners are neat as you go and try not to move the CF too much as it will pull very easily!! keep dabbing and applying the resin so it fully saturates the CF cloth and forces all the air out from underneat the cloth. You may have to keep working the same sections till it gets slightly tacky but you will see once the CF material gets wet with resin it starts to cling nicely to the material and takes form well...

You will have some stubborn areas like some corners, but just keep on them and work them over with resin. Let the first coat cure about 2 hours or so till its hardened. Now using scissors you can cut the excess CF material off. Now it's time to apply more coats of resin; it all depends on how much depth you like. Its all a personal preference but I like at least 3-4 coats of resin. On the next few coats you can use a painting motion and put the resin on slightly thick without getting any runs in it. Sanding at this point is not needed or reccomended. On your final coat dont forget to add the Surfacing wax to the resin. It requires twice as much as hardener.So if you use 20 drops of hardener you will need to add 40 drops of wax. Once it dries the CF will have a hazy look to it.At this point you will want to wetsand all the little bumps out of your piece. Now you can Either work your way from 220 grit all the way to 1500 grit then polish the piece using a buffer and compound then polish. Or you can do what I did and wet sand it then spay it with several coats of clear coat spray paint, wetsanding with 1000 grit in between each coat.Here is what your piece should look like. Good luck and dont be afraid to give it a shot yourself, whats the worst that could happen???