Originally Posted by Fabrik8

Different materials for what? PVA is a mold release liquid, is that what you're talking about? Perf release film can be had in stretchy grades, and the best way to make it cheap is to buy in quantity. You can reuse is sometimes too, if everything releases properly. There are economy types of breather, release film and peel ply, so search for those. The good high elongation stuff is still more $$$ though, better materials always are.

Originally Posted by dallasb84

im just asking if you have any different material choices off the top of you head that might save me some investment money....

i used to post alot on fiberglast and ecomposite forum when i was making alot of stuff back in the day..... but those forums are either no longer or not being maintained anymore.

bout the cheapest retailer ive found was sollercomposites i used to buy from them when they were just making paddles.

Originally Posted by Fabrik8

Is that Hysol a film adhesive? There are like six billion different Hysol adhesive products, I don't know most of them off the top of my head..
Anything with "MMM" by Hysol is just a military qualified product though, there are a lot of "MMM" qualified Hysol adhesives.

Originally Posted by Fabrik8

Soller is a bit expensive usually, there are much larger composites distributors that you can order from usually, with a much better selection. I'll send you some links if you want.

Originally Posted by Fabrik8

How are you getting around the cell drainage, or are you using foam filled honeycomb? I'm just curious, I do pretty much everything with prepreg and don't do any street car parts anymore. I like to see cool methods of getting around problems though.

By the way, Nida-Core makes some perfect stuff for what you're doing, infusion cores and other cool things; I'm sure you've checked them out already..??

The reason that this stuff hasn't caught on is that the weight savings aren't there for the cost of the replacement parts, that and the fact that no one really wants composite parts that don't have the pretty "carbon look". If it were up to me, and the market was there, I'd make parts with a little carbon, some aramid, maybe some S-glass, and a cheap core, and make people paint them. Fuck unpainted carbon fenders, they're ugly. Hoods are kinda ugly too, but they don't break up the body lines nearly as bad as carbon fenders do from the side. I wouldn't worry about doing bumpers, they're not worthwhile unless you're using the flexible resin formulations, and they're plastic already so the weight savings aren't there as much.
I've always wanted to have a NC router table to make car specific bond-on fender flares for the rear and flared fenders for the front. Ship them with the right type of sandable adhesive, and they'd sell like hotcakes probably. Anything that isn't ricey and lets people use bigger wheels usually sells pretty well, and there isn't much of that on the market right now. Something like WRX sedan flares to put on WRX wagons would sell like mad, I've seen it done a few times and everyone wants it but nobody wants to pay for a one-off flare conversion. Enter the cheap composites guy.......

I'd love to have a long strand SMC setup in my garage, then you could whip out parts really cheap. You know, after you amortize the ridiculous cost of the equipment and the tooling..

Seriously though, if you have good tooling for resin infusion, you can pop some parts out for cheap if you keep the carbon content low or use cores to bulk them without much reinforcement cost. I just hate trimming stuff though, it's the biggest pain in the ass of the whole process.. No one has dropped a water jet or NC router in my lap though.

Originally Posted by dallasb84

the hysol triple m product is hard to find actually hysol"MMM" is a mil spec adhesive for bonding metal and composite together. its virtually a unbreakable bond. call up hysol and they can get you it.... it very costly. its an emerald green adhesive.

ill pick back up on this tomorrow... in the meantime any ideas on some parts that would be benificial and cost efficient for the tuner community?

Originally Posted by Fabrik8

I'll have to disagree with that opinion. If you find a carbon hood that weighs more than your steel hood, it's a steaming pile of crap. Simple.