Making clips and fixings is one of the challenges of composites part manufacture. I certainly wouldn't recommend making a inner and outer mould for some of those complicated trim panels as it would be horrendously complicated. You can make mounting points using strips of carbon fibre cut and trimmed to suit then bonded into place.
Another alternative is to use something like our
SiliconeMould Resin Casting Starter Kit to make silicone moulds of the mounting stubs then cast resin copies which can be bonded into place.
There are of course other methods, you could even salvage the mounts from scrap parts and bond them in. You just have to use a bit of inginuity to figure out the best solution.
You don't have to keep the factory fixings. Plenty of people use discreet screws or even bond stuff in place, use velcro, double sided tape etc etc.
Moulding putty is a quick and easy way to make moulds for small parts.
If you are moulding from a metal part, there is no reason the gelcoat would crack at room temperatures while you are making the mould.
In terms of tinting and UV protection, I would recommend our
GC50Epoxy Compatible Polyester Gelcoat as it has a very high UV resistance and it will also provide a great surface finish if your mould is of a good quality. You would then not need to lacquer the parts. If you wanted to pigment the gelcoat, then you can do so with a polyester compatible pigment dispersion.
However you will need to experiment to find the right level to achieve what you desire. The problem with achieving a tint without a gel coat is that the thickness of resin between the carbon fibres and the surface is very low thus the prevailing colour of the carbon tends to show through.
In terms of curing pre-preg, we recommend temperature is carefully controlled. We use a PID controller to ensure our oven and autoclave remain as close as possible to the required temperature.
Using heat lamps etc would only work if you could know exactly that the temperature throughout the laminate got upto the required 100C. You would need to measure that or try it out to see as surface temperature alone isnt necessarily enough to know the internal temperature of the laminate.
The
EpoxyMould Making Starter Kit is not specifically rated for high temperature useage with the HDT being close to 80 degrees C. However some customers have got away with doing pre-preg using that kit after a proper post cure of the mould. There is a risk in doing so and hence why we dont recommend that kit for high temperature curing. Instead we recommend the
Uni-MouldMould Making Systemfor higher temperature applications including pre-preg.
Skinning doesn't need infusing or vacuum bagging.
The epoxy will bond to clean leather no problem as it is a rough surface, however the wheel will have a lot of foam under the leather so one layer of fabric may end up being quite weak. Again you would have to experiment.
I cant see a picture of the seat so cannot comment other than to say you would need to ensure the mould does not stick to the part due to mechanical lock.
Warren PenalverEasy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant