does anyone do carbon fibre panels for a coupe? spent a while on google but only found a fibreglass bonnet

anyone know how much a standard bootlid weighs?

In short no, i think a couple of people have had bonnets made but for the prices involved it really isn't worth it. As for the weight of the boot lid i don't know but i'm sure someone on here does!

Any idea on price of a custom one? Really don't want to have to make them myself

I'd want to be making the front lighter before the back end.

You're looking at over a grand for a CF bonnet.

I've got a bonnet, door, rear bumper and bootlid in the garden at the moment. If I remember tonight, I'll weigh them all!

that would be awesome dude, for some reason epers not working for me

You won't find much difference in weight between fibreglass and wet layed carbon used in the tuning world anyway, it's mainly aesthetic but does save weight over steel.

Pre preg carbon you find on high end motorsports and aircraft is a whole different expensive beast

Plus a boot lid really doesn't weigh that much either on one of these.

Standard bonnet and doors are around 35kg each from memory.

Driver's door without door card, handle etc = 28.3kgs
Bonnet with no headlights or lining =29.4kgs
Bootlid with no linning = it didn't even trip the bathroom scales! It weighs next to nothing fella.

You'll have to go some to make a lighter boot lid.

You can probably reduce the weight by half by removing the lock catch and using a piece of string

haha thanks lads. hopefully investing in a 100m roll of carbon fibre reinforced kevlar fabric from china. no chance im forking out a few grand for panels that take a week to make and materials cost about €400

The price in a "proper", pre-preg motorsport/aero carbon fibre panel is in the quality and strength. The other week I was mapping my 20VT down at Subaru4You and there was a Time Attack Scooby there with a "proper" carbon fibre (ie. more expensive than my 20VT AND my 16VT put together!) bonnet and wings. Those things were absolutely solid. You could drop the bonnet closed like it was metal.

Your average wet-lay carbon fibre "show" bonnet, by comparison, is flimsy and barely any stronger than fibreglass. Plus it looks pants when the varnish turns yellow after a year!

If I wanted low-price weight saving I'd go for fibreglass - at least its repairable!

Grp is very underrated these days. Cf looks a bit "too barry" on anything less than a super car or aforementioned money no object race cars.
Even recent cars are coming from the factory with imitation cf interior bits.

i plan on painting the parts.

kj16v. pre-preg isnt the absolute best for carbon products knowadays, resin infuion makes an incredible product when done right and is just as strong as pre-preg. done alot of research into this. and if the varnish turns yellow thats down to the painter who painted the varnish on, as varnishing isnt part of the molding process. not with resin infusion anyhow.

go onto talkcomposites.com, a wealth of resources on there, their tutorial on how ot make a cf bonnet is worth a watch. it done with resin infusion and when you see the finished product you would be taking back what you said about flimsy panels

I'll have a look. lol!

That's a bold statement pre preg isn't the best anymore lol

I think you'll find it still is and is still about 20% lighter than resin infusion, but resin infusion is as close as you can get for a lot less cost and difficulty would be a bit more accurate.

well its still the best yeah but not as far as structural strength goes. and 20% weight difference can be a stretch depending on who is doing it and what resin is being used.
or so i have heard, read the vs thread somewhere on the interwebs about it all!!

No it is the best for strength to weight ratio that is the whole point of pre preg your guaranteed the exact results you set out for. You buy it in different carbon to resin contents depending on what your manufacturing but hence the weight saving the mix is already done in the material there is zero excess resin.

Whereas the other two methods it's down to who is manufacturing more so because you add the mix it's more variable but far easier. Pre preg is not practical at all to make even on small scale. But your right you can indeed make resin infusion bleddy strong if you layer it correctly and so on but it does get heavier and as you say dependant on what you use material and resin choice. So hence why it was suggested why not go for a FRP off the shelf item keep things simple and cheaper especially if your going to paint it.

But if you do go ahead and have a play be careful it's not nice stuff at all for people I hate working with it lol. Make sure you wear a mask even handling dry stuff because you ingest any sort of carbon fibre it won't be coming out anytime soon as it does not break down inside the body.

Sorry for coming along and blasting in a good thread I hate debating things haha just your comment made me chuckle .... I can imagine you having a pop at an F1 engineer oi you tried the infusion yet stop messing about with pre preg haha
I hope you achieve your goals though dude

haha lolling at your f1 comment Brad.

the two biggest andvantages for me is that with r/f you dont need a big off oven (and if your any good can make a pretty damn strong panel) and also its a hell of alot easier to add a supporting material like soric sf2.

trying to add soric to a prepreg fabric would me an immense mess alltogether. using r/f with soric will result in a product stronger than a prepreg equiv.

Lol you simply would not use Soric on a pre preg, soric is an infusion medium and core.


Ahh I'm not saying it's not the right method for you.

you could* use it, but as i said it would be immensly messy, adding your own resin mix and whatnot

No sorry you seem to be getting confused there is absolutely no need for it there are all sorts of different core products you can use. Soric is important depending on what your manufacturing but it is for infusion it provides a core and also media flow through the process giving strength and consistanecy through it. Pre preg it's just not necessary you have other cores for what your doing but media flow is not an issue the pre preg has it's resin already in the material the exact amount it needs and it's your effectively staged cooking time that makes sure it forms correctly you catch my drift.

It's not some magical product for all carbon fibres it has a specific use dependant on what your making Ie using infusion.

I'm sorry to sound like I'm having a pop I'm not at all once you've had a go with the different methods. It's a lot easier to understand theirs certain things you can do for one which are just not needed using another method

soric is mainly used in resin infusion because 1. it doesnt compress 2. it helps resin flow and 3. the main one being added structure between layer of carbon fiber. no, its not common practice to use in prepreg, yup, its messy but its not pointless.

btw i wasnt referring to soric as a difinate, i was just using it as an example core

Yes I'm aware of what is used for lol

Don't lie you love soric you'd have it in your dinner if you had it your way haha

never used it before but hey, its pretty badass ;)ha

Haha well I'm sure you'll have fun, good luck with it.

I work with Aircraft components all our gear is pre preg composites it's good technology certainly interesting, but I try to avoid it when and where I can I prefer working old school forming metal etc being an engineer.

There's a new breed of composites on the horizon though soon using alloys instead of carbon interesting stuff !

yeah and even further down the road graphene fiber if they can construct it correctly.

Way away last I heard. They still don't have a way to produce any size of the material.