Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Advice and tips on how to do a mold for this door panel?

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic20322.aspx

By deceased10 - 1/21/2016 6:14:27 PM

Hey guys, was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction on how to go about this. So I was thinking of parts I could make for my car in carbon fiber. Came to the idea of attempting to do carbon fiber door panels. I've watched a ton of videos on this, but just hoping to get some specific information for this part. So my door panels, they are plastic and have that bumpy oem texture you see on most cars. From what I gather if I want a smooth carbon fibre finish I will need to sand them all smooth? Should I also primer them? Next, thing is the handrest is made out of fabric, would it be easier to remove this or leave it on and do the mold over it? Just looking for some suggestions on how to tackle this hoping its a fairly straight forward way to do this.

Here is a picture of the door panel.

http://i.imgur.com/U6wI7dh.jpg
By deceased10 - 1/22/2016 7:09:54 PM

Chris Scott (22/01/2016)
Make sure you have a strategy for all of the retaining clips, you'll have to make sure that your power locks/window controls are able to clip in.  Also don't forget the blind side of the door, to make sure that you still have a means of attaching it to the outer door skin.

Do you have a spare door panel?  You definitely want to pick one up, I agree with Fasta on using some sort of primer or bondo to fill in the voids from the bumpy OEM finish and then sand everything smooth.

Take your time with planning on the flanging.  This is an important step on an item with so many different features going on.


Yes I made sure to pick up a spare panel. I got the door handle and window switches figured out for mounting, not to sure how im gonna do the back pieces to mount to the door.