mikstr

Honda VTR1000 Firestorm Superhawk Fairing Moulds make your own carbon fairings! | eBay

autoteach

Its the vacuum pump that makes the difference. You too could be good, with the right vacuum system. Get a venturi with a decent compressor.

1971allchaos

Tell you "who" knows someone that is a magician with Carbon Fiber.... Partsman has a friend that made a Fuel tank completely from carbon fiber.. Truly a master piece, one of a kind...

mikstr

We should get him to whip up a bunch of CF bodywork for the forum.....

nuhawk

When I bought my cf hugger from a member here Eric looked at and said, they just did a cf overlay of somebody's hugger. I don't remember whose but he might be right. It's about as thick as 5 sheets of typing paper. It hovers in the air flow around the tire but never touches it. After several kmiles all the holes are in good shape and the struts are showing no signs of wear. It was the chainguard-hugger combo. A lot of creative people hang out here. This was a jewel. $84 or $48 dollars -?- it was a good deal.

autoteach

The cost of materials really kill any possibility of mass production with profits. sorry to say it, but I don't think that most people here would pay for high quality cf parts. that might be why carbon is cool, not everyone can have it.

nuhawk

Bill, walk me through this. I understand how fiberglass structures are made and I would like to understand cf better. Mechanically, is it's structure/molding similar to fiberglass but because it uses a different fiber it has such different dynamics? There seems to be different grades of cf for certain applications. Some can be beam grade material above what is possible with steel.

autoteach

The process is basically the same with glass, cf, and kevlar. Kevlar being the easiest to make complex tight corners, carbon the worst. Carbon the easiest to cut, kevlar the worst. Carbon the most stiff, kevlar the most flexible. So on, so forth. As for the grades, you will want a higher grade for surfaces, you can use lower grades for the underlayment, or even glass or kevlar where it wont be exposed. vacuum bagging it a must, and you have to have a good mold to start (solid structurally). You need a breather and an absorbent mat to suck up extra resin. Getting a good vacuum and not getting holes in your bag is tough. Once you have all the supplies, you need to produce a lot of units to cover your costs or you have to charge prototype level costs, which make it tough. After all my material expenses, it was tough to make it worth while. I can have the local shop here do rear seat cowls in there autoclave for $150 a piece, no mounts, just raw part. So, that would put the lower rear fairing at probably $350 or more, full front fairing at 1500 or more, mold costs much much higher (resin costs along with glass). Pain in the butt, and all trimming and sanding that you do (if made by you) should be done with proper dust collection, as the dust can cause cancer. Hope this helps.

mikstr

What about the pre-preg stuff?

mikstr

While I most certainly don't have Bill's expertise, I visited a shop that worked with the stuff and penned an article a few years back in an attempt to de-mystify it. Here is the link in case anyone is interested:
http://www.fcmq.qc.ca/userfiles/file...op_2007_01.pdf

autoteach

Sure, you can use it. You will need an autoclave, or heat through steam and pressure in addition to the vacuum bagging (which now must be sealed perfectly).

aamikah

I made a CF rear fender using a wet layup. Came out fine but needed a lot of sanding on the inner surface after it came out of the mold.

https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...-bike-1241.jpg

Ive had it on there over a year now and its not showing any cracks. It went with me to Luguna Seca 2011 and back.

rocker4488

as said, its all about the vaccuum pump, prep and the mold, and post-work/cleanup. In my opinion, anyone can do it, as is the case for most body work and the like. After that its really about experience for better efficiency and perfection. I did some CF work with a buddy back in e-school and made a basic electric car body and a skateboard.
it could be cost effective to mass produce, just not by a shop. it depends on what you want to pay yourself per hour of labor. 50-100 an hour + overhead compensation gets pricey.

Wicky

Also the fairing and tail mouldings are for race style bodywork without a headlight/taillight opening slot and mountings to allowing fitting. So they'd have to be cut in and mountings crafted separately on top.

Tweety

Well, unless you do ABS, no mouldings for CF/fiberglass fairings will ever have those... They are not on the "pretty side", so it's always going to be a second lay-up to add those mounting points...

nuhawk

Thanks for the info guys! No wonder the stuff is so expensive.