if you are rough with the carbon or a few tows spread then with one layer over the foam it is possible to see the white soric.  If you are careful then you should be fine. The bonnet skin i made was one layer each side of a core and i didnt have any problems with the soric showing. 

Black soric is now in production and im sure if the demand was sufficient, then EC would stock it.

in terms of strength, my bonnet had 1 layer of 200gsm either side of a 3mm soric core for the skin and 3 layers of 200gsm for the frame.  it was so rigid it was hard to flex at all. 

A lot of it depends on the shape. a nicely curved bonnet or a bonnet with a nicely profiled or deep frame will be perfectly rigid with much less layers of fabric than a perfectly flat bonnet with minimal frame.

Thanks for that.  I guess a lot of this comes from experience and I just need to keep at it.  I think I'll be watching a few more of your tutorials

Hi FLD,

The finished weight of the part was 3.25kg. The original steel one was 18kgs so we got a good weight saving. You could save more weight by dropping out the gelcoat and changing the core material to something with a lower uptake but Soric makes the process so simple that we do really like it and, as can be seen from the 3.25kg finished weight it can still allow some very light parts to be made. Warren's right about the single layer of 200g, it's touch-and-go whether you'll see the core. We didn't on this part but if you had a more curved shape then you would. That's the reason we're interested in a black Soric but we've spoken to Lantor about it and it's not something that will be a stock product for them and we'd need to buy many thousands of metres to get it made. I hope they do make it a stock product because I think it would be very useful so we'll keep talking to them!

All the best, Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

I wonder if one side of the soric could be dyed or spray painted? Might inhibit resin flow requiring mesh to be used again, but it may be a solution.

i am a bmw 325 nut...of the 80's models and their hood is about 45 pounds and in CF it should be 5 pounds? --yes the weight difference is that big !!
it is a greater difference than 2 hoods (like a ford ranger) where both an aluminium and steel version are available. the aluminium is crazy light, and the CF is x10 beyond that !!

CarbonFiberCreations

This is my first post so I would like to start out by saying thank you easycomposites for all the information you provide.

Matt, Ihave watched the videos in regards to resin infusion and I have a couplequestions.

Whyon the carbon fiber hood/bonnet did you spray clear gel coat before the firstlayer? I noticed this was not done on the other resin infusion video.

Alsowhy was a infusion core material used on the hood/bonnet? Is this necessary onlarge parts? Is it for strength to the part or strictly to help the resin flow?Could covering the entire part with Infusion mesh have the same effect?

Ican't wait to start making parts for my car.

Thankyou,

Erick

The gelcoat is done to provide a improved surface finish and also to give UV protection without the need to lacquer the part.

By using a core you can use less layers of fabric (and hence save money) yet still have a stiff and light panel.

Warren,

Can the UV protective gelcoat be brushed in? I imagine it's propabably best to spray it, but just wondering.

I have to say I really like your companies helpful videos.

Thank you,

Erick

GC50 can be applied by brush but its not ideal with resin infusion as the weave will look slightly out of place on the uneven surface.  So it is recommended to be sprayed.

However for wet lay, the carbon will "float" on a layer of resin so the unevenness associated with brush application of the gel coat is hardly noticable if at all.

Id very much like black soric... with the curved shapes I make the soric is always visable to my critical eye.