Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

skinning a fuel tank, need help.

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic11064.aspx

By davetl1000r - 5/4/2014 3:59:07 PM

Hi all,
I'm new to working with cf so really have no idea what I'm doing but would a sheet of cf be flexible enough to skin a motorcycle fuel tank without the need for cuts? I have a spare tank to practice on but don't want to try if it's not going to work. 
Thanks in advance of your help.  
By Warren (Staff) - 5/7/2014 3:44:30 PM

The carbon fabric has a very impressive ability to follow compound curved surfaces and so you would generally find that you can get all the way over the front of the tank and down the sides in one, up until the point where there naturally tends to be a distinct seam in the tank anyway (because of how it’s been fabricated in metal). Generally, at this point we would say to end the skin here and not try to continue over the seam or on the underside of the tank.

Only in extreme circumstances would the fabric not be able to comply to the surface of the tank. In this situation you might want to consider using some ProFinish carbon for any extra panels of material that are necessary, the reason being that you can cut the ProFinish with a sharp, neat edge and so for any patches, it will look much more ‘intentional’ than wrestling with frayed edges on normal 2/2 twill.