My name is Marco and i'm from tiny Luxembourg.
I registered on this forum to get some help with a project i am currently working and to know what products i will be needing from the easycomposite store in order to get my part made. Now this is the first time i will be using fibreglass or carbon fibre so bare with me.

About my project then, I want to build an enclosed airbox for my supercharged GTI6 as the standard setup is not very efficient to say the least.
So i drew the part using sketchup and then made a 1 to 1 dummy out of cardboard.
This part will be sitting in the enginebay where temperatures will be above the 70°C mark. I am thinking of making the box from Fibreglass and eventually to use carbon fibre lamination to give it a nice look.

Here are some pics of what i have so far:

Sketchup





You will notice the top of the box is open i am planing on using a 1mm ?wet? carbon sheet to blank it of as i still need to have access to the airfilter every now and then. 

Cardboard dummy


I have watched quite some youtube videos on how to work fibreglass and/or Cf, but i just dont know how to make the initial fibreglass box. Do you guys think i can use the cardboard dummy and start to put FG cloth and resin on it? ALso can anyone make me some kind of shopping list of what will be needed from the shop as i really don't know the differences between all the resins, epoxy etc. is.

Any help and input will be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance
Cheers

Hi!

Will this Airbox be subjected to pressure or Vacuum ?  Is it just an airbox for the filter.. before the charger?

In any case you will need to build it with some stiffness in the larger flat parts of the box.

I would suggest using some sort of core .. in effect an inner shell of E-glass, then a foam core and E-glass and Carbon fibre on the outside.

You will probably also need some sort of glued in metal fasteners, in wich case you will have to reinforce around these, by replacing the core in these areas with enough layers of Glassfibre to match the thickness of the core.  (This goes for all areas where you will need to put fasteners or bolts through.)

Personally I would make a "buck" or "dummy box out of foam of some sort, like shown in the EC tutorial video, then make a mold from that, probably a two-piece job.

Another way would be to build up the box on the outside of a styrene foam "dummy"  then melt that away with acetone, after a full cure.. if this is a "one off"

Good luck ..

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Dravis thank you very much for your reply, i was starting to lose hope anyone would even care

The box will be subjected to vacuum an should, essentially prevent the filter from sucking the hot air from the engine bay once the engine is up to temperature.
Due to my little knowledge of working with composites making the box from a 2 piece mould seems way to complex. As said the main structure is supposed to be made out of fibre glass an afterwards laminated with carbon to give it a nice look. Also this is going to be a one of.

What do you mean by core material? I'll upload some more pics of the setup as it is now to give you a better idea of what i am trying to accomplish.

Cheers Dravis