Interest in Fibreglass Panels

[PukkaSilvia]

Originally Posted by t51rjohn

As for reinforcements, i would not like to trust a piece of cardboard rolled up for reinforcement on these bonnets.

its not the cardboard that is the reinforcement. it is the laminate structure that drys over them that becomes the reinforcement.

This method is used in the race car industry. Its light and It works

[30psi]

Is it possible to get some fibreglass pistons and conrods made up too?

[CNHSS1]

have to agree with Pukka re the cardboard, works well
i use proper PVC foam sheet, usually 6mm, between the laminates and makes it mega stiff with very little weight addition. cheap enough too from glass suppliers. in fact its less than cardboard as it doesnt really absorb resin (the heavy bit of the process).
another really useful product is 3mm foam core. ive made a couple of bonnets and panels using it now, very very light although about £5/m2. does help make the panel quite resilient too. its full of perferations so you have to be careful not to use excess resin and 'soak' the core, best to lay up the resin with a pound shop paint roller rather than a piant brush to get a thin even light coat.
as an example a std fibreglass scimitar bonnet is 15.6kg, the ones i made weigh 5kg with no aramid or carbon
Aramid fibre cloth (kevlar) is mega resilient but a bit of a bastard to work with. it doesnt 'wet out' easily, and doesnt go round curves easily and defo doesnt do corners! real sod to cut too, you need shears rather than scissors and when its had the resin applied and cured, its a cutting disc in the angle grinder really. doesnt sand either.

[CNHSS1]

Originally Posted by 30psi

Is it possible to get some fibreglass pistons and conrods made up too?

yeah id like some too, to go with the windows ive put in the cylinder head so i can see whats going on

[t51rjohn]

Originally Posted by CNHSS1

have to agree with Pukka re the cardboard, works well
i use proper PVC foam sheet, usually 6mm, between the laminates and makes it mega stiff with very little weight addition. cheap enough too from glass suppliers. in fact its less than cardboard as it doesnt really absorb resin (the heavy bit of the process).
another really useful product is 3mm foam core. ive made a couple of bonnets and panels using it now, very very light although about £5/m2. does help make the panel quite resilient too. its full of perferations so you have to be careful not to use excess resin and 'soak' the core, best to lay up the resin with a pound shop paint roller rather than a piant brush to get a thin even light coat.

i have seen a coremat that has been recommended for this application, so will use that, thanks for the advise

as an example a std fibreglass scimitar bonnet is 15.6kg, the ones i made weigh 5kg with no aramid or carbon
Aramid fibre cloth (kevlar) is mega resilient but a bit of a bastard to work with. it doesnt 'wet out' easily, and doesnt go round curves easily and defo doesnt do corners! real sod to cut too, you need shears rather than scissors and when its had the resin applied and cured, its a cutting disc in the angle grinder really. doesnt sand either.

Aramid is a b*tch to work with i have shears though which are specifically for this application, were costly though.

What fabric do you use? I use woven roving which is good for this, it is dearer than csm but far superior in amount of resin used compared to csm. So overall lighter weight.

[CNHSS1]

im too tight to buy the proper shears lol

ive been using a mixture of glass weaves, for the main flat areas of the panels ive used 300gm tight twill weave (2x2 iirc) with a thin even layer of gelcoat (used a paint roller again as you get less on the panel than with a brush) with 450chop strand mat for the corners and edges of the panels where they need a bit of building up or to make them easy to handle (front of bonnet where you open it etc). usually thin gelcoat, two 300gm weave, 3mm foam core then either another 300gm weave or csm (weave looks nicer but not really necessary). tip with the foam core, dont take it to the edges of the panel, leave 2"-3" from the egdes and use csm instead.
i use csm a lot though, with foam core it makes a mega light and fair bit stiffer than the same equiv thickness of csm or weave and much easier to wet out and get into corners and round curves.

[paulsilv]

Did anything ever come of this Fibreglassing.

just bought Shauns bonnet and would like to get some Glassfibre moulds done before i put some vents in it.

[nedge2k]

yeah what ever happened to this?

i know a few of you are down sussex way, anyone approached http://www.sussexcompositesltd.co.uk/ ?

Would love wings/bonnet/hatch!

[nedge2k]

Ok, have asked the question of them, here's response:

To make the moulds we would need a set of wings to get a perfect reproduction.... The pair of wing moulds would cost around £1,400.00
To produce a wing........ the cost would be around £135.00

Yes we could colour match a gel-coat to a paint code........ but this would be an expensive route as to colour matching cost around £70............. for a minimum of a 5kg purchase.

The discount for a few sets doesn't apply in this case, purely because the process can not be accelerated with one set of moulds.........so unfortunately the time scale to produce 1 set or 10 set will be the same (per unit)

All prices quoted exclude vat

Also asked a firm local to me, waiting on response.