DIY Carbon Fiber Fenders (Ep. 53) 

Congrats on your progress man. Great video. I have a 1954 Chevy 2 door I'm planning on completely recreating in Carbon. Refreshing to see someone else doing something cool with a classic.

I once wanted a carbon fibre factory, I believed its the new black gold of modern age.

I work for Composite Envisions, and It’s really cool to see what people do with the products they get from us. We don’t see it very often so thanks for sharing!

For additional info I highly recommend looking into the composite texts within the aerospace engineering textbooks.

Fantastic, love the detail and learning I gained from this video, this is better than some of the instructional videos by professional and I looking forward to more

Great job! I was smiling right along with you!!! And the fender in your left hand already has a passenger @ 29:50! A true testament to its usability! LOL!

What a GREAT JOB, and video. Those fenders look Fantastic! I will watch a few Xs to maybe try. Cause I dont like Fiberglass! Cheers from N.Y.

I must say, great video!! I'm planning on making a hood. If that all goes well I'll make the fenders, bumpers, and quarter panels down the road. Absolutely priceless. Thank you for your time. Subscribed!

I know it has been over a year since you posted this video, but Mike Patey does some awesome carbon fiber work. He builds airplanes...

Brazil precisa de mais pessoas como vc ....parabens pela arte

Great work,good video something you might want to try is lantor soric C.E.. sells it you might replace some of the carbon, and replace the flow medium and have more area cored.

Just want to say thanks of the great information. That's a fantastic video and amazing result. Well done great channel

We use that same dura tech primer on all our car restoration. It's the same as body filler polyester. Do not wet sad it. Resurface with urethane after pulling it from the mold

Nextime add 2 more inlets so you can evenly infuse and cut down time. You had one in the center but add one on each side of the fender to speed up infusion and even out the infusion.

Love the videos! A great inspiration for when I start making some needed CF parts for my 66 Datsun Roadster!

Easy Composites has a detailed series on making a carbon fiber hood.

There are secrets we keep to ourself just like how Lamborghini patents techniques. We dont want others copying us. We paid tens of thousands of dollars to learn techniques and methods that work best. If someone wants to pay a consulting fee.... that helps me recuperate tons of money I spent learning what works.

Simply amazing! Appreciated all of the information shared.

Awesome video I am definitely going to try and tackle fenders on my car now. Thanks for the content.

Amazing work and great video. well done!

Just what I've been looking for. Very awesome video and nice work!

If you put too much gel coat in without time to off gas you can get terrible porosity. With what We use we want 18-24 mil total with a minimum of 3 coats. My personal best is 22 mil with 6 passes. The finish turned out flawless.

nice part dude......... use 2x4 & plaster to make the mold a table style tool.........& air nozzles ! next time.

Beautiful job! That was really cool!

Top notch very impressed subbed and looking forward to stealing some tips 👍💪

Fantastic. Well done.

Great, fantastic!

that's amazing! Maybe you can sell your mold to a company so they can mass produce it for the rest of us amazon owners?? if you ask a company to make a mold for you, it's usually $10-15k USD

No one else who spotted the spider at the end of the video crawling on your fantastic fender?

@23:10 WOW, the holy shit factor when you popped that out and flipped it over!! Well done !! Go have a smoke and beer !

Subscribed

That's one strong a$$ fender. Maybe try just two light weaves next time.

this part should have been hand laminated in small pieces of the carbon fiber for each layer. very much easer and will end up with the exact same results.

awesome, i watched the whole video and was thinking about doing it with my own rusted fenders, and when he popped it out i was looking at it... is that my fender? i looked in the back and recognized the car in the back... a white amazon combi. i have a white combi. haha, 2 kg is great. i think the amazon is before 67, mine is after. great video

Great vid once again mate. Why the duratec and not a gel coat?

Thanks for making this video. I'm about to try to make some fenders myself. What temp did it have to be in your garage up there for everything to work smoothly? I'm in michigan myself.

If anyone wants a shorter and detailed video. Check out Easy Composites

I don't understand why you did not tilt that mold up at an angle so you could work that piece you were fighting with, and make it much easier for yourself

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

I see you're working with bare hands

I want to assume I’ll have to make molding first before anything else, I live in Hawaii big island nd I want to learn more about this nd create a business for my family nd I also for my community.. but I’m alone in this we’ll not really I got my wife’s support, but banks won’t loan so I can find my vision also having a cart hard time finding companies that ship to Hawaii.. any help.

Where did you get the spray glue for carbon fiber?

So bad ass!

Check out Mike Patey on you tube. He does some great work and explains a lot. He works on aircraft

What do the carbon fiber fenders weigh vs original?

Howcome the carbon is not exposed? Isn’t it supposed to be?

I would love to know which book have you read? Are you recommend it?

What stuff u use for spraying ? Adhesive ?

How many yards of fabric did you order for this?

Spyder in the fender! lol

Sorry for alot comment i am currently surfing watching your videos. now if my surface decently smooth , can i use automotive spray paint primer ? then wet sanding???

Any Canadian sources for the materials?

Hey bud. So in this setup, as far as vacuum bagging goes, I know the bag has to be bigger than the part, but did you cut the arch portion of the bag , same as the mould, or was the bag just cut rectangular? Also, where did you apply the pleats?

how much weight savings?

Go to boatdesign.net and ask. Those guys do exotic composite construction all the time.

انت راجل طيب

So how much $ to make them?

It's easy to look for the answer when you have the internet eh lol

I can totally appreciate your excitement and enthusiasm when those babies popped out of the mold and looked as good as they did. Men can't give birth, but this has to be close... Congratulations!

Excellent video, I was a fibreglasser in the 90s where I got my trade we made race/rallycar seats , which were and still are the best made in Australia.. the only comment is when pulling the part out is to stand it upright and twist left to right a few times to crack the part free, but hey, the end product does satisfy after all the hard work.. Seeing a non bubbled carbon fender, bonnet, race seat is what it's all about 👍👍

This channel is criminally underserved on youtube. Please keep up the good work, you're amazing!

Love the dedication that Jake and the staff, at Composite Envisions, have towards their customers. I being one of them have soaked up time from Jake while he patiently answered my beginner questions without judgement. HUGE props to them and you for promoting them.

You could also skip that gray primer. Between the primer, foam, and several layers of cloth, you are putting far too much unnecessary money and weight into each part. Get a 4x8 piece of teflon sheet and make a tabletop out of it. Drape a piece of 4 ounce cloth across it. Use a roller to roll resin into that cloth, then cover it in peel ply and squeegie out as much resin as you can. Then drape your wet cloth over the original fender. Put some slits in the cloth wherever it needs a little help. This method is called "splashing". It doesn't require a mold at all. It is more difficult for a fender than something flatter like a hood, but with some practice, you can make a super lightweight and smooth part. Keep in mind a metal fender would be flopping all over the place until it is bolted in. Your part doesn't need to be any more rigid than this. You could stand on those fenders you built. Really good result, but just way overbuilt.

Great job informative and entertaining I usually skip through this type of content to find the best parts but watched your video from start to finish

i was just like…wait a minute! i know that shape of a fender from my amazon… is he doing an amazon fender in carbon fiber? yeah! :D

ThankYou for taking the trouble to share the fun. You’re doing a great job.

Easy composites has a really good tutorial to make the mold and part it's been up for 7 years lol

Beautiful job you should be proud of yourself. Approximately how much did it cost for a fender?

Hey @ Throttle Stop Garage, these guys are good on creating carbon fibre moulds btw, esp. for one-offs; Mike Patey shows YT vids bit.ly/2DL5Q2u on it when putting his light aircraft together, can be contacted through their company besttugs.com I guess, more than sure they'd be happy to give advice if you need. I hope this helps.

Lol tf? Someone who’s actually willing to share this kindve info, the why’s, the how’s? Yeah, subscribed.

Congratulations ! I imagine this is not cheap. I went to plastics & auto body school in high school, I should've paid more attention . I'm building a 70 dart swinger with a stroked big block & would love to save big money by losing lots of weight.

Where are you located? I would like to meet you in person, I'm also in Canada. Good job man. I got a 28 Chevy 2 door Sadan that needs some parts that I can't find on the market

I am about to start a project that may take a few years,but if all goes well,I may be taking it to sema!

i have done a few moulds, and i know the effort that goes into making a part, your results are excellent, top job

Very cool, thank you very much for the information! I am thinking of doing similar stuff to my classic car. The primer is really something new to me. I figured I'd have to do that with paint later.

I love composite videos, but without production of this part was it worth it? I guess i dont know the cost of replica fenders, but this has to be upward of $2k in costs, 60 labor hours, and I can imagine hes got a few hundred hours of composite research and past experience. In the art world these are all the factors including your desire to keep the piece, at a modest hourly wage these fenders are valued at over $7k. I can imagine with this knowledge hes been asked to replicate this process for many people with the assumption they'd get this quality of a part with a few hundred dollars in supplies when in reality his time is the real cost to the outcome. That is an incredible accomplishment and really enjoyed the video.

I like how simply you do your things . Basic home . You could be a neighbor

Have you thought about using chopped carbon fiber, if your not looking for asthetic, i think it would be a good base layer to capture all those details that you needed. Then you can use your 2x2 twill or whatever for strength. I'd probably use unidirectional offset on 45. If you ever watch how fiberglass hot tubs are made in mold, they use compressed air to just pop their massive and complex parts right out.

Do you have to make a mold or can you use your original fender to lay the carbon fabric on there and make your new fender right off the original one? I thought i watched a video of someone doing that recently.... 🤔🤔 I really want to give it a shot at making fenders, trunk, hood, door skins, and a custom lip kit for my car but i really dont have ANY experience in doing something like this so i wouldnt even know where to start.

A great Canadian accent, nice for a change. Just wondering why everyone uses carbon in every layer - why not carbon just in the outermost layers with S-glass for inner layers. Should be a more efficient use of materials for stiffness, weight and cost? Core thickness gives way more stiffness than layers of carbon.

I’m an American but is it weird to notice how happy this guy is. At his age everyone is pissed off. Good for you and the video was awesome.

Watching you trying to pop that fender from the mold all I could do is scream use air , USE AIR between the part and the mold to pop the part

Hello sir! Do you have a video where you cut the edges? How do u get an accurate body line? Thanks!

How does making carbon fiber parts using the your method compare with prepreg carbon fiber process and using an autoclave?

Nice job, normaly on those last parts of the infusion (Corners )I use one hair dryer to eat litle bit the resin and it flows nicely, I use Epoxi, when heated it flows very good. nice

i don’t understand what’s going on here the carbon fiber is just for filling? and the white mold is made of fiberglass?

wonder if bagging a part works better if you use an actual bag and pull it around the whole thing , only need to close up one side and thats ontoo itself

I want to start a carbon fiber fabrication business. Where can I go advice? Anyone?

absolutely fucking amazing mate the info and knowledge you shared is priceless! thank you

That looks so nice! Learnt tons from this video, thanks for being so thorough!

In the event you ever go with another huge part and aren't quite first time lucky, experimenting with fiberglass is far cheaper before you step into CF. Despite most people's understanding of CF, the upper tier of woven fiberglass is actually stronger than the equivalent CF, just not as stiff. That's really where CF shines is stiffness. One can also use alternating layers of FG and CF so long as both fabrics use the same epoxy variants. Just remember that these things aren't getting their strength from too much epoxy. It's definitely a fine art of applying just enough for strength vs weight, and CF definitely prefers precise ratios for a given fabric weight.

Great video!!! Great explanations!!! Keep up the great work!!

For sure you've got yourself a subscriber! One of the greatest contents that I've found on carbon fiber! Cheers from São Paulo!

Finally I have found a right place to learn all about fibreglass n carbon fiber Waiting for more updates.

You did seriously good considering your experience to take on a part like that. Nothing better than seeing the work when it breaks out perfect. Keep it up

Siebon admits their panels are fiberglass but with an overlay with pinch folded ends... $1200 per door.. Not to be used within components as a door... A grand for both fiberglass cf twill fender.. Lamos1

do you know how lucky you are. the odds of you getting VRI correctly from the first try is near impossible. great work man

Get mavcoat release agent, I use compositeenvisions.com awlgrip primer is what I use, Yea, you would definitely love mavcoat.

The number of K represents the number of fibers in each macro strand of the weave. A standard 1x1 weave is stronger, but looks more plain compared to a 2x2 weave. Twill isn't exactly a structural fabric because it's usually extremely lightweight and is meant to reduce imprinting. It is, however, quite pretty if you're going for that extremely fine carbon fiber finish. Spread-tow fabrics are structurally stronger than standard fabrics because the macro strands have been spread flat, reducing damage to the outer layers of the macro strands during weaving and reducing the spring effect in the final panel. They are, however, more expensive and harder to work with due to their comparatively tighter weave. Unidirectional carbon fiber is exactly as the name implies and has all the strands going in a single direction, thus providing immense tensile and compressive strength in that single direction. Unidirectional fabrics can be useful for engineering panels where you know exactly how the forces will be applied and seek to use minimal layers to combat these forces. Biaxial fabrics are filler layers for increasing strength and are two layers of unidirectional fabric crossed over at 45 degrees and then stitched together to keep them in place. These are typically made with spread-tow strands and are quite robust. Carbon fiber tape has had the edges bound so they don't unravel and can be useful for reinforcing thin edges and ensuring that you can more easily apply additional strength where needed at fastener locations. You can also buy carbon fiber tow on a spool if you want to do your own manual reinforcing of areas or lay it into tight creases where you can't get more structural fabrics to lay properly. You can also use chopped tow for filler where you need to bulk out a panel and the strength doesn't need to be as significant as if you had used woven or continuous strands. Just like with fiberglass, you can also get non-woven mat carbon fiber for when you want to add structure but also want to bulk out your panel, which for performance applications, isn't often. This stuff is mostly used for making extremely rigid, high-durability molds. One of the secrets to adding more strength to your panels is to use a heat gun to form some foam strips into your mold to form a skeletonized support webbing or matrix, pull them out, and then stick them back in between your layers of carbon fiber. If you were planning to make a 4-ply panel, put them between the second and third ply. If you want to make it easier to lay the fabric over them, chamfer the edges of the foam at a 45 to reduce how much the fabric tries to buckle and lift away from the ribbing. Look to the stamped steel hood structures on cars for an example of the forms you're looking to emulate in foam. It's also helpful to apply your epoxy to the mold before laying in your first sheet if you aren't using vacuum infusion. Getting your mold completely coated in a thin layer of epoxy will help get rid of any surface bubbles in your final panel. When you're laying multiple layers at different times, don't let them fully cure between applications because then you are relying on a mechanical bond instead of a chemical bond. Also, if you must do so, wash your panel off with some water to remove any of the byproduct chemicals from the epoxy on the surface which can impede bonding.

it appears you've done your homework, but just thought id suggest the 12k 17.9oz carbon twill weave from composite envisions. its cheaper than most any other fabric and two layers is more than enough strength in my opinion..for a fender anyways.