No Gel coat

[CBPayne]

As of now the seat weighs 3lbs. I'm almost done with the body filler. I'll be adding 1 to 2 layers of carbon fiber on top with the wax. Now I can paint on primer before or I can mix in black die with the first coat. Basically this is so that the body filler doesn't show through.

 

[J-Rod10]

Just doing carbon for the look?

 

[CBPayne]

Well my plan in the beginning was to make a cf seat. The tech at us composites said that cf was really brittle by itself and that I would have to add something flexible with it like Kevlar are fg. So basically what im doing now.

 

[J-Rod10]

He told you wrong.

I've talked to a couple techs at US. Medicore at best. Good products, though.

 

[CBPayne]

Maybe I'll try the carbon fiber after all, a full seat. I would need to make a mold of my current seat.

 

[J-Rod10]

Rolling hand laid carbon, even more important than glass. You can see every little air buble there is in the base layer. Tedious, but looks awesome when done right.

Make sure you get rid of all the strands that fray around the sides as well, one will sneak its way under your base layer, and you'll just have a random strand in there that messes up the pattern.

 

[MeesterOver]

To help prevent loose strands, you can use some masking tape around the edges where you are going to cut.

 

[CBPayne]

How many layers did you do your carbon fiber parts in, and do you have any write ups on them? Well mainly the mold making. I figure I would have to get this seat the perfect shape, then prime it. Well before that I would need to make a flange on the bottom. Ok, then put release agent on it and start the female mold with a gel coat, basically the opposite of what I've done or what I was suppose to do. I thinks that's right.

 

[J-Rod10]

Make the seat exactly as you want it. Wax the hell out of it. Spray it with gel, lay glass over it.

Pop it off when it cures, sand it out smooth, you have a mold ready to pop out perfect parts, as perfect as you made your plug anyways.

Carbon, I typically do around 8-10 layers. Stiff as can be, incredibly strong too.

 

[CBPayne]

Im going to have to buy from us composite. I can't afford fiberglast. Wow! Can you give me some product codes/names that you use for your process? Im going to try to get those rearsets from you tomorrow. On the linkage the brake side may work on my bike, but the shifter side Im going to need a ??? 2' lever rod ??? give or take.

 

[J-Rod10]

I'll shoot you some product codes when I get out of the shop. Just on my phone now.

 

[CBPayne]

With the loose strands I have a rough idea what yall are talking about but want get a real understanding untill I see in person. Hey thanks for the heads up.

 

[J-Rod10]

What I've used from US that's sufficient.

404 tooling resin
Black Tooling Get Coat, or Orange , whichever your prefer. I prefer black, you can see if you have any air bubbles in the glass a lot easier when laying parts in your mold.
1.5 oz Chopped Strand Glass

If you go to the US Composites website, and click products, then Polyester Resins, all of the gelcoat, and resin are on that same page. They're online ordering system sucks, anything I've ordered from them, I've just called down and done over the phone. They're exceptionally nice, and ship things pretty quickly.

The resins come with MEKP, those are all you'll need to build your mold. Product numbers vary, depending on if you're buying a quart, gallon, 5 gal, etc. If you're just building one mold, a quart of tooling gel will be more than sufficient, and you'll probably want a gallon of 404, give you more than enough to build your mold, and a few parts out of it.

 

[CBPayne]

http://compositeenvisions.com/discount-coupon.html

Don't know if there any good, just found this.

 

[J-Rod10]

Never used them.

If you're looking for Carbon, I'd go with a twill weave, exceptionally easy to work with.

 

[CBPayne]

Im still working on my first mold. I have a few more bumps to fix, I've had enough today though. Hey, A great big thanks to all for the info and help.

 

[MeesterOver]

A thin layer of bondo will make for easier finish sanding.

 

[J-Rod10]

To add to Meesters post, get the good Bondo, from an auto parts store. So much easier to work into shape. The cheap shit from Wal-Mart is a pain in the ass, that I learned the hard way.

If you do go through the Wally World, or a similar store, at a minimum get the "Gold" bondo.

 

[CBPayne]

That light blue stuff is not cheap in my book. I got it at a place called auto color. Its u-pol dolphin glaze. Now I will admit its probably not the best product to use in this situation.

 

[J-Rod10]

The blue, is that the Dynatron premium lightweight?