Hi guys.

I ran into a bit of a problem today.

So i made e46 m3 hood. All good except for a little bulge (located in middle kevlar/cf "island on the right side o)n the top side (that i didnt notice untill todat when i took glued item from top mould) :/

After mild postcure (sun so max 50*C atm) it came out great so somwhere from that point to prior of bonding halves together this happend (inbetween i was only cutting vent holes).

Stack was as followed (top part) :
-245 2x2 cf
-600 2x2 cf
-200 cf/kevlar

All this time (apart from cutting & triming) paet was laying flat in mould to awoid any accidental damage in workshop. 

Halves arenow bonded and i can not seperate them again.

I was thinking of heating it gently locally with heat gun and then put so soft weight on and let it cool of (as atm TG is quite low...... plan was to let it full post cure bolted on the car and then sand it and get it clear coated). 

Any ideas how this happened and any alternative ways to solve it?

Thanks a lot

Oh that's better I guess - delam in single skin parts is unnerving.  At least you could fill it in with clear and block it out.  Interested to know if the heat and re-shape works.  

I have had some issues in the past post-curing infused parts after removing the bag and so try to keep vacuum on through the post-cure.  Seems to help but never ran a control group - so may be solving a non-existent problem.  Have had people who know more than me about this suggest it as a best practice.  

And its not geometry related, shrinking laminate or some pressure from the bonded inside part?  I guess it would be symmetrical in theory. 

Nice looking part BTW!

Hi.

Thanks. It to a lot of time getting moulds ready

Yeah plan B is to fill it with clear coat and sand it out.

Pic of the whole hood is prior to bonding inner half (inner half is altered a bit as oem halves dont sit flush one on another so i added a little sloped area to awoid forcing parts into final place). 

Bonding faces were close to each other (max 1mm in some places).

Perhaps lack of vacuum during postcure was the problem that manifested it self later on.

Firts pic is of parts just put in place on top mould so no glue or weights yet.
Lower one is from fresh demoulded part.