So who wants some Carbon Fibre?

[Senninha]

Pulled from the 'Time to Sell up' thread...



It could be worse, it could be covered in £20K's worth of overpriced carbon fibre!?

I love the carbon fibre really, we were just sending-up the unnecessarily high price of it.

Carbon fibre is fine when its used for a purpose, e.g. lightweight panels. Has to be said that most of the aftermarket carbon fibre is crap.


I know the question has been asked before but given the above I thought it may be time to revisit the topic of Carbon Fibre parts.

Most of you know that various parts can be sourced from mainland Europe or the USA. However, these parts don't come cheap even though (generally) they are of good quality.

Because of some plans I have for my NSX I have been looking into companys that can manufacter to the right standard in CF. These companies all have a couple if stumbling blocks. Firstly the limited numbers of NSX owners in the UK that may want parts and secondly, the high cost of manufacturing from scratch, ie design, moulds, testing, finishing etc.

To address the latter issue, it may be possible to significantly reduce manufacturing costs by making moulds from existing (hopefully OEM) parts with minor amends for obvious reasons.

The first issue is addressable if there is strong enough demand for certain parts. From trawling through the site there would already appear to be an interest for the following:
- rear number plate surround
- front lip
- Type R rear wing

Minimum runs need to be for 5 units but volume does help, so more in this case could really mean less for you and me to pay. If there is an interest for any of these or other parts ie bonnet, bootlid then respond with your parts request and I'll happily go and have the conversation to see what can be acheived for all of us.

regards

[AR]

Paul,

What sort of quality will the parts be. I know you like high end stuff as most of us do, but what sort of parts do they do?

Cheers?

AR

[Senninha]

AR,

See the attached link for more info

http://www.reverie.ltd.uk/shop/products.php?g1=d02dc6

HTH

regards, Paul

[Kevin]

I can tell you now, with some degree of certainty, that you will not be able to get parts made, for any less money than are already available.

I know a firm that makes the fairings for the Honda superbikes. He made me the carbon fibre engine cover I have. He made a mould, and four covers (which I sold to DaliRacing). He also did it in between jobs, when he could, so I got some savings.

To make a mould of the engine cover, cost £600. Moulds are in fact the expensive bit to make. The engine cover is a simple one piece mould. Detlef's Type R wing, is a nine piece affair. You can imagine the time and complexity in making that.

CF itself, cheap dry stuff, not pre-preg is £45 per sq m. You can make parts cheaper by using fibreglass underneath. My engine covers were full carbon fibre, four layers of it. The engine covers themselves came out at £250 each.

I would say you would be looking at £1500 at least for a wing mould. If you ever see pics of Detlef's moulds, you will see why his parts cost 'a bit'. His parts are perfect because of the time and care in the moulds. They are big and solid.

Reverie, are not the cheapest place around either to start with. Their production line parts cost a fair amount.

The only way to get stuff cheap is make it yourself. Or someone who has invested £20k in a new garage and other tooling (vacuum bagging etc) to do so..(ahem). I have made a template for a Type R engine cover. It's a simple flat surface, so I'll start from there, and see how it turns out.

PS. Don't take the above as a complete poo-poo to your idea. Keep looking for suppliers, and maybe you will find something, and I'm all for it if you do. A lot of the parts I want, aren't available, and are not copies of existing parts, so I need to develop them from scratch. I was just trying to say, it's not that easy to find someone.

[AR]

Paul,

No doubt they are a top company, I wonder just like Kevin how many it will take for that sort of price.

Incidentally I've been looking for a place to buy some CF twill and fibregalss with the associated resisn for a Kit car ( not NSX but with a Honda engine ) project that I will be starting as soon as I move houses and my garage is operational. Any idea where is the best place to get them from Kevin?

Cheers,

AR

[Kevin]

AR,

Yeah, I use WWW.CFSNET.CO.UK (http://www.CFSNET.CO.UK). They mainly supply boatbuilders, but the stuff is the same. Remember there's more to buying than just the resin. You need mixing sticks, measuring equipment, brushes, and loads of acetone for cleaning, rubber gloves etc etc, rollers are needed as well to press out the matting, release agents/waxes etc, gelcoats. Then for a good finish, polish and polishing equipment.

If you want epoxy resin rather then polyester then that stuff isn't cheap, and you need accurate measuring equipment for that.

There is also www.carbonology.com , which I will use for getting some of the more hi-tech stuff, like the vacuum bags, sealers, peel-ply etc.

I also recommend a book, 'Competition Car Composites' by Simon McBeath.

Good luck.

[AR]

Cheers for that Kevin, I am thinking of building a mid engine retro type thing with a CF body, let's see how far I can go with this project.

AR

[modarr]

I have made a template for a Type R engine cover. It's a simple flat surface, so I'll start from there, and see how it turns out.

One please
Yesterday if possible.

[britlude]

another place to try... http://www.fibretechgb.co.uk/