hi
im still in the planning stages of my locost but i have got wishbones etc sorted and the chassis metal ordered so im starting to think about the body
the rest of the car i want to be something special rocker arm front almighty engine etc and so far i have sorted most of that althought the rocker arm
stuff is taking a bit of doing
anyway i got to the body and i thought ow can i do the rest of the car justice as afterall thats the bit you see first
so
i have found some companys are selling carbon fiber wet lay which after doing some research you lay just like fiberglass and alot of people are making
pannels for their cars from it so i thought that might be the answer
so the reason im on here is this
has anyone used this stuff
the last locost i built used bought body pannels so im ventring into the un known a bit making all the pannels including the side rear and bonnet
which leads me to my other questions
what is the best way to go about it
i have read alot on the forum about making bucks etc do i a find a helpfull locost owner and take profiles from their car
or do i make all the moulds i have had some ideas about plywood moulds for arches scuttle bonnet etc but the nose cone is bugging me
any advice about how i should go about this would be really great
sorry its a bit of a long post
At some point it lost the LO COST aspect of the build
The "sensible" way to do it would be to just buy a ready made g/f nose cone and take a mould off it. Cheaper and easier in the long run.
Do not underestimate the cost and effort involved in a project like this. You will produce a lot of expensive scrap in the process
Forget anything to do with LOW cost if you go that route. There are so many little details that it will not be a cheap car no matter how you slice it. It will always be cheaper to buy an MX5 or something for the same money as one of these. Yes, I know they're different...
I've made a lot of stuff using carbon fiber mat - usually 200gram 2x2 twill - and hundreds of `ordinary` fiberglass molding's .
Carbon is very difficult to get perfect - I do it with a thin clear gel coat , so just a single strand out of place or a single air bubble and
it's a `second` 
Out of about twenty pairs of cycle wings , I think maybe three or four were good )
Plus there's cost - CSM is a couple of quid a meter - carbon is £25+vat (and if it's going to be just carbon your gonna need
a lot , unless you use epoxy resin's (again , a lot more expensive than polyester resin )
And here I was thinking I could make my own dash out of the stuff - for at least the first visible layer...
Clairetoo - couldn't agree more. I do this for a living, and it has taken me 4 scappers to get a radiused dashboard I am happy to put on my car
(the scrap versions might appear on here FS soon!).
It will be a lot of work, and barely worth it IMHO. If you do decide to go this route, then I will happily give you advice where I can....
oh well so much for that, glad I find carbon stuff ugly 
Happily, I don't need radiused edging...
stick to the grp although a carbon dash would not be too difficult or expensive, I do this for a living as well and trust me u would trash more iems
that turn out pukka, nose cone would be possible but u wont have much hair left!!
Shug
hi thanks for all the advise especially claire and twybrow i may hold you to that offer of some info lol
i have a mate who works in a grp factory who can get me 200 gsm twill for £180 sq meter so at that price its gotta be rude not to lol
i think the sugestion about getting a cone to take a mould off might be the best way then i can also use that to line up the front end of the buck for
the bonnet then for the side pannels i can lay up some mat over steel plate to give me flat pannels for the sides
lo cost wise at the price im getting the mat its actually cheaper then most ppl pay for grp mat and besides driving a car you have built for scratch
is worth the extra few pennies
i have seen some sugestions on the net that you can sand back the final finished pannel with fine grade say 1000 grit abralons then laqure it to
produce the pro finish not sure if that will work but theres only one way to find out
quote:
Originally posted by clairetoo
I've made a lot of stuff using carbon fiber mat - usually 200gram 2x2 twill - and hundreds of `ordinary` fiberglass molding's .
Carbon is very difficult to get perfect - I do it with a thin clear gel coat , so just a single strand out of place or a single air bubble and it's a `second`
Plus there's cost - CSM is a couple of quid a meter - carbon is £25+vat (and if it's going to be just carbon your gonna need
a lot , unless you use epoxy resin's (again , a lot more expensive than polyester resin )
And I do this for a living too! Fancy that eh!
I don't have problems with radii, just crank up the pressure! But keeping the radii as big as possible helps a lot. The autoclave helps quite a
bit as well.
Gelcoat has no place in proper carbon work. If you are using gel, then you are using poly resin. Cheap alternative and nasty, and has little
structural integrity when loaded in conjunction with carbon, and fails catastrophically.
Prepreg is easy to use, and easy to get aligned and keep that way. If the resin content is right, and your process is right, then you will end up with
a finish the equal of a gel layup, but without the weight and strength issues.
The few on here who have parts from me or have seen my work, will know what I am saying first hand. But they waited a long time!!
Cheers,
Syd.
And I'm not looking for work. At least not until after next March!
[Edited on 15/9/08 by Syd Bridge]
Carbon fibre is a fantastic structural material. Why use it in a non structural way? Just for "High Tech" looks? There must be a
better way to spend the money, like on actually making it a better car! Are you having a limited slip diff? Running a modern motor with multipoint
fuel injection? Maybe a set of really good adjustable coil-overs? These would make a better car and the pitiful weight savings in a CF body would be
forgotten.
Spend your money how you want but you're better off setting up less roadblocks to finishing your project rather than more. I started building a
complete custom body for my Seven years ago. Another unfinished project.
in answer to that as i said in the first post yes im running msns on a 2.2 zvh turbo with an atb and hopefully inboard rocker arm suspenson hence my foray into the world of carbon fiber anyone can make a lotus 7 rep there are thousands out there and having been let down by a well known company in kit car circles i have this chassis and engine combo going spare which was destined to have a prototype body on it sadly this will now not be the case so instead of selling it for parts and building an ultima i decided it might be an idea to try and use it to produce something different hence the cf it will be used as sturctural reinforcing on the side pannels and a spin off glare (glass fiber reinforced ali will be used for the floor if i can pull it off it will be one of a kind if i cant i have alot of expensive scrap but at least i tried
quote:
Originally posted by RK
And here I was thinking I could make my own dash out of the stuff - for at least the first visible layer...
There was an all carbon fibre bodied westfield being used as a rally car (in Barbados IIRC).
Found a link:
http://www.racedandrallied.com/detail.php?siteid=61&show_still=1
Do we get university credits for reading such a piece? Very informative though, and let's you know just what's involved if you want a good result.