So I've decided to make my first project with carbon fiber a difficult one(not smart?). Ill post pictures as I progress and advice as to what I'm doing would be appreciated.

The idea is to make a mould that wraps around the edges as they can be seen while on the car.

The clay in the front of the light is to fill in the cosmetic groves that the carbon probably wont lay into, should I just fill them in with Gel-coat and sand them off the mould, or try to fill them in like I have now? The clay is hard to smooth out nice and ill probably have to sand anyway.

I would like to make this a repeatable process because I'm practicing on a used pair of lights first and if it comes out good Id like to do mine.

prep for mould making so far

thumbs up, keep going and show me your result, i think it will look great.

best regards mhd alghoul mhdghoul@hotmail.com youtube channel :atmospherejo link is http://www.youtube.com/user/atmospherejo?ob=0&feature=results_main

COmplicated projects as a starter will teach you lots so as long as its within your ability and learning curve then its not such a bad idea.

Im thinking of doing similar with my headlights. 

If it were me, id sacrifice a second hand set of lights for the moulds. yes you can use modelling clay and waxes to fill holes and build flanges but it might be easier to spend more time. eg filling the grill area with filler, plasticard or similar rigid material to fill the light holes and do the flanges.  Then sand it all smooth, seal the surface how you see fit ready to make the mould.

Might sound like a bit more work but more work on the "plug", the less work on the mould.  Its upto you which way you do it really.

Just be aware of your angles around the tight curves and edges so you dont get mechanical lock.

You could make the attachment parts using some trimmed Pre-preg angle cut to fabricate the part.

The "mechanical lock" has me nervous because I am making the mould around the edges.

I'm going in for the "kill" tonight so well see

If your worried about mechchanical lock, then make a 2 part mould. Solves the problem then.

Gel coat is on, mixed up way too much. If I did both headlights I would have had the perfect amount.



Hope this works!

Then there were two



I think it came out good. A little clean up and ill be ready for carbon. What grits should I use to smooth out the front "grill"?

Hi,

Thats a nice looking mould... moulding the part might be tricky though what's you plan there?! to sand out the texture where the grill was I would start quite high with the grit number... somthing like 800 with water, it'll take a while to sand but in my opinion it's better to for it to take a bit of time at first because there's nothing worse that polishign it up at the end only to find some deep scatches left by a 'fat' grit! can't wait to see how you get on with these!

I used wax and easy-lease on the mold and now the resin is pooling up. What do i do?!?!? Wipe the wet resin off the mold and use a faster hardner( I am using a slow hardner)? Do i do 2 coats of resin on the mold before I lay carbon? Maybe I wait till the resin sets up a little and smooth it out with a brush.

perhaps a couple of thinner layers is better. In my experience it has only pooled when i brushed it on thick.

You should be able to get a nice thin layer all over it without it running off then leave it a while until it begins to cure (still sticky and gloopy) then apply another layer before leaving it to go tacky for the putty.