You dont need to have fancy workshops if you are determined enough to make some carbon parts for your car.

All this was done in my lounge.

Lay up the carbon in the top skin mould:


used 2 layers of carbon with a foam core.

Bag it up and start to infuse:


all done:


debag and take off the peel ply and mesh:


Pull it out the mould and see the finished top skin:


get your inner frame mould prepped:


Lay in the carbon:

added 2 layers of kevlar in and around the hinge area to prevent it coming to pieces in a crash

Add the peel ply, mesh and bag it up:



And infuse the part:



debag it and strip off the peel ply:

the frame popped out of the mould while tugging off the peel ply!

Detail in the hard to do corners came out good.

bonded in the captive nuts for the hinges.

Trim both parts and lay the top skin back in the mould:



bond together the top part and inner frame using polyurethane adhesive, then use conveniently found weights from the kitchen to press the two parts together.

Doing it in the top skin bonnet means the bonnet maintains the correct shape and you dont get any warping.

And the finished bonnet.

Preferably take photos where you wont get wierd reflections!!!

Final part came in at 4kg.

Your Mrs, must be very understanding Warren!

Thats awesome!  Is that a 200g layer core then 200g?  The reason I ask is that I'm considering similar and I'm interested in the rigidity.  I was contemplating 200g (for nice finish) 600g, core, 600g, 200g. 

Bloody hell you mustve been as high as a kite lol

Good job though, Puma bonnet is it? Certainly looks like one to me.

Just to add, you wouldve saved a small fortune, and probably a whole lot of heavy lifting by making the mould from fibreglass as oppose tooling putty!

the skin is just 200g carbon, 2mm soric then 200g carbon.

Perfectly stiff enough as a skin on a framed panel like that.

Wasnt high at all.  Remember epoxys are low odour.


Didnt use mould making putty. Used fibreglass, coremat and carbon in the moulds.

Isn't epoxy more harmful than polyester because it has a low odour and you don't smell it?

Ah right I see, the mould looks like its made from an EC/CarbonModz tooling gel coat/mould putty. The "being high as a kite" comment was actually sarcasm but oh well.

i use the tooling gel coat.

I knew I recognised that shade of green

I like it'

I am looking to make a big part soon that has a top and bottom, still I like making the table style molds cause I can make it a square, I hate trying to cut angled baggin film.



If Brute Force Isn''''t working your not using enough...