123quattro

Cool. Sign me up. At $300 I will buy one for sure.

BC

For that price, I am absolutely in. I am also interested in the CF dash. The new Porsche panel in steel is a price over that, and a used one I have to rip out of a local car is even 250.

Again, I am very, very interested in this.

FlyingDog

You think 10 or 12 sqft of cf is going to be within 2lb of 12sqft of steel? Umm... no. Somebody would have to really glob on a lot of epoxy or gel coat to get it close. If it's prepreg, it's won't be close.

FlyingDog

If it's dry carbon or even well done vacuum bagged wet carbon, I'm in. I bought a dead 79 non-sunroof for my race car project for 3 reasons: short torque tube, no sunroof (due to my height and the weight), and the narrow tunnel. If I can get a good carbon roof for my 84 Euro (which runs), I'll just use that and save all the work of building a functioning car from yard art. $200-300 is a smoking deal.

chassis research

I spoke with the owner of the company. it is a wet lay-up carbon fiber with a fiberglass backing. it is the same way they build the race car bodies. The weight savings is significant over steel. It can be ordered with a clear gel-coat or black for painting. The black will be cheaper.

rayfinkel

I would like to know what the exact weight savings would be. Not just what everyone is speculating. Also how far foward and aft on the roof is the panel going to be. I am assuming you can bond it with 3M 8115 adhesive and be done with it. I am not sure why you would want fiberglass in it as its no where near as strong as CF and it weighs more. I am also very interested in it if there is a real weight savings.

Count me in with the dash if they are a direct replacement with real weight savings.

Also would they make some hoods. If so I am interested in that also.

89 5speed

atb

If I'm being OT, let me know.
To reiterate my question from post #10, what about a carbon fiber hatch?
A CF hatch with a polycarbonate rear window would be a huge weight savings over the stock steel hatch with glass.
Is it possible to ask these guys about it?

S4ordie

Let me take your request a buit further OT.... how about CF for all the significant panels? Front fenders would be great as well. If a complete CF kit of high quality with uber smooth gelcoat finish so the components could be painted smooth.....

both fenders
hood/bonnet
dash
sunroof delete
rear hatch

If all of those could be purchased as a kit for $5k-ish I think there would be a number of people ready to buy. There would have to be a weight savings of at least 50% or more over the steel/aluminium pieces.

chassis research

The dash will look stock but not be a direct replacement. it is designed for racing purposes. There is no glove box or defrosters. The stock pod fits on but there is no cut out for the console. The hatch is a possibility. The purpose of te fiberglass behind the carbon is to add more structure while still reducing weight and making the panels affordable. They can be made completely out of carbon but not in the price range I posted. I will forward all of your questions and report back with the answers I recieve.

BC

I custom filled a dash for Paul C to do for me already with no glove box, So no glove box here does not bother me. Defrosters could be added.... Maybe. Just speculating.

slate blue

As to weight, this is how you can get an idea of weight, all carbon is rated as to its weight, say 19 0z or 56 0z per yard. Its that weight at its standard width I believe, that would not be that hard to find out. Just ask an Ebay seller, I'm sorry I can't remember. So then how many layers of the cloth? Add some epoxy, this is why with the different lay up methods there is a big difference with the weight. It is hard to get the extra epoxy out.

Of course you use the vacuum to try and squeeze it out, I bought a decent vacuum pump for this. That excess goes into the breather and soaking up cloth. The greater pressure you can exert on the wet lap up the lighter/stronger it will be.

I thought about building a little autoclave. I will need a backyard, build a concrete housing in the ground. I would then line it with wood, thick wood, around 19 mm and it is called Satin board, it is the type of wood you paint for poly cabinets. It is water resistant and of course air tight. It would be glued and screwed and only add one or two bars of pressure. This would make a big difference.

I think to get a kit made, there is a proper way to do it. Have the molds made here in Australia, GB or the U.S and then find somebody in China to produce the panels from supplied carbon and epoxy. There is a big difference in the various qualities. I saw a Boxter that was custom made here in Oz. It had many CF panels and they were perfectly made. The owner of the car was Ian Murray is a famous sailor and Americas cup captain.

He obviously has connections with CF products and he had his molds made by his company. It looked completely factory. That is the only way I would buy panels otherwise I will make them myself.

I thought about front guards and doing them with my idea of the flutes. The flutes are functional and will help aero and heat dissapation as I plan to put a dry sump tank in there or coolers. In CF you will only need to buy the inserts which are not too dear.



The piece that needs to be welded in.



Here's the wool tufting test done, the test shows some downwards pressure on an added side skirt like below.


This is the best pic I could find to demostrate the side shirt, to not look aftermarket it will need to incorporate some elements of the front and rear spoilers. That most likely will be the approx 10 mm edging that the spoilers front and rear have. The coupe 60 has some element of that on its side skirts.



So the side skirts will be used in conjunction with a flat floor and diffuser. The street splitter is here.



Maybe if somebody knows how to photoshop they could do the top pic of the grills properly as I have some good pics to work with. The curve in the metal needs to be adjusted by about 3 mm in radius. The alloy needs to be annealed first and then bent. It only just fits too but that is a good thing as you want as big a grill area as possible.

Greg

123quattro

Any updates on this? I would still like to buy one of these panels. I pmed Chassis Research but haven't heard back. He's been off Rennlist since this thread ended.

RyanPerrella

good luck cutting out the roofs of your cars gentleman

I would hope those of you considering this have a strict race car or track car in mind with a full cage?

If any of you are thinking this is a good idea for a street car I suggest you do some more research.

slate blue

I was talking to panel beater and he told me that he often glues 1/4 panels on. I did find the glue that BMW uses on their CF roofs. As I said the CF roof needs to be quite thick to have high strength.

Greg

hacker-pschorr