I don't normally take on skinning work but this was a request from a friend. He has a Fiesta ST and want's various parts skinning in CF the first being the wing mirror covers. These are not the easiest of shapes with some quite tight compound curves. I decide to make the skins removable so I covered the originals with cling film and wet laid 3 layers of 200grm and then vac bagged it. Then came the bit I hate about skinning 4 coats of coating resin with much flatting between coats. Eventually I had two skins with an acceptable surface finish. The plan is now to pull moulds from these skins and reproduce two layer skins using infusion or possible pre-preg. In total there is over 10 hours work in the two skins. In order to cover my overheads and take a wage my hourly rate is £25/hour so £250 plus materials. I am sure that someone doing skinning regularly could shave some time of that but even so I can't see people wanting to pay £250 plus for a couple of wing mirror skins. I see companies offering skinning but I can't see how they make it pay.
Is anyone on here managing to run a business doing skinning, and if so how?

Warren

Carbon Copies Ltd