Good to see it holds up quite well.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

I thought I'd update this with a little 'how its holding up' post.

I've dragged the airdam over several sleeping policemen, up and down car park ramps etc and I can report that it has held up really well.  It just flexes (as you'd expect) but there is no real marks from the abrasions, not a sausage!  It has suffered from one fairly nasty stone chip which did leave some damage into the carbon.  IMO a rigid laminate wouldn't have been damaged to the same extent but its just a feeling I have rather than a quantifyable.   My overall verdict is that its awesome for low speed bending and abrasive resistance but it does suffer in high speed point impacts a little more.  Overall I'm pleased with it.

Amazing! - That looks fantastic and is an intruigingly good cosmetic finish for a hand laminated product, especially using a flexible resin system. I'd be very interested to know how it holds up over the months and years.

Thanks for the post

Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Here's what I made.  Its a splitter for my car.  It was done in an open mould with 1x200g outer layer to look pretty followed by a 660g layer.  I put in a 660g layer on just the bolting plate with EL2 to make it rigid followed by another full layer of 660g with the EF80. 

 

I tried to herringbone the weave pattern down the centre but I got an odd fibre come loose that spoils it a bit.



This is a GRP one mounted on my friends car.  I assume you'll appreciate why I've used the flexible resin!

I completely agree.  Operator error!  I was too keen to see how flexible it was.  My splitter has come out just fine.  I'll post up some pics of the final piece later. 

Hi FLD,

Thanks for the picture; it sound look like the 'bulging tow' has been caused by being flexed when not fully cured. It appears that some of the carbon tows have been able to break free of the matrix and then not bedded back down afterwards (which is not a huge surprise if the resin was mostly cured by then). Once it's properly cured you should not be able to do anything like this - we have samples that get mauled quite a bit as demonstration pieces and they hold up well. Thank you for the post and I look forward to hearing how the part performs in use.

All the best, Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Again sorry for the late reply.  Body grew an extra bit and not something useful like an extra arm!  Anyway, here's a pic of the bulging tow.



I suspect this to be operator error.  This was a quick try of 2x600g layed up wet on a piece of bag film.  Very rough and ready. I may have wanted to see how flexible it was before properly cured.  It has also had a few people having a bend of it so I might have knackered its mechanical properties.  My first molding with it has come out OK.  The finish is as-per the mold like any other epoxy.  This had a post cure but I did notice additional cure over the next week or two which surprised me.  The molding is now as you'd expect with a reasonable amount of flexibility.  Its not uber flexible so think of it as tough rather than floppy.  Ideal for the car splitter I made.

Hope this helps

Will do.  Sorry I'ma bit late replying, I've been away for a wee while.

thanks for that information! could you add some pictures to show how it bends and how it looks?

Matthieu Libeert
Founder MAT2 Composites X Sports
website: www.mat2composites.com

Right, hopefully this will be a reasonably comprehensive look. 

The resin itself is fairly easy mixing.  It doesn't hold air too badly and is a pleasant pale golden colour.  It does have an amine smell so ventilation is needed.  Its fairly thick compared to EL2.  I found its viscosity to be quite sensitive to heat.  I warmed it and it thins down reasonably.  Laying it into a cold mold and I found it thickened up to near bonding epoxy consistency and would not penetrate fabric!  Workshop heater went on after that!.  The texture of the cured test pieces is like soft-touch buttons on remotes or in cars.  Its quite strange.  It looks smooth / shiney but is quite grippy to the touch.

I made up a few trial pieces with some offcuts of 600g twill.  2 layers is very flexible.  Bending it right round causes bulges on the fabric tow but it restores flat when you release it.  3 layers is similar but slightly stiffer (as you'd expect).  This piece highlighted the effect of weave orientation.  All 3 layers were aligned and the piece twists remarkable easy.  This is like bending at 45 deg to the weave.  5 layers is very rigid but with a very slight bendability.  Its more of a tough laminate at this thickness.  This same toughness can be achieved by laying the cloth at 45 deg rotations.  This results in a tough rather than flexible laminate.  The finished piece is sandable but I've not attacked it with the polisher yet to see if it polishes. 

My first part is a splitter for my waggon.  This was made in an open mold as I wasn't too stressed about weight and its a flexible resin.  The viscosity gave me a little issue with the surface and I have the odd small bubble / pin hole in it (should be fillable).  The part required a rigid centre with flexible edge so I keyed the back and laid in a layer with EL2.  It took the key and bonded to EL2 just fine.  This was finished with a second flexible layer over the top.  Again an easy enough bond was made.  The finished part has that strange plasticy smell I associate with Toys R us.  I'm sure that will subside as it reaches full cure.  The part is suitably rigid in the centre and flexible at the edges.  Its more of a toughness than a rubbery nature to the finished part.

It will be interesting to see how the finished part wears / weathers when in use.