Thanks guys, the encouragement means a lot.


Okay, I lied... Today is NOT the day.

I have decided to give the epoxy another day or so to fully cure before trying to remove the mold from the plug.

We have been tailoring our resin chemistry a bit, and this particular mixture requires a little longer cure time. I hoped it would be ready by the time I worked today, however, no bueno.

That said, the laminate looks good, so if it does release I'm fairly certain it should also have vacuum integrity. Again, can't stress vacuum integrity/leak free tooling (molds) enough. Super important.





Peel ply, and process stack removed. You can see some print left behind from the resin feed. Evidence of the high cure temperatures.

Doesn't look like much on this side, but this is what I wanted. (B side)





Hopefully the 'A side' is also successful.










Also, I snapped a better picture of another infusion I was doing today. Much better visual than yesterday's. You can clearly see the tinted black resin front creeping its way, eccentrically, from the resin feed in the center, towards the vacuum line at the perimiter -random jet ski part




I won't be going in, until Monday, by my business partner says he will attempt to pull the mold tomorrow. So I should at least have news. Good, or bad.

Hurry up, and wait.

This post was edited by OldAndyAndTheSea on Nov 14 2014 02:13pm

News from the shop.

Received proof of life this afternoon.



The two areas of brown are clay. I made a couple of fillets, to insure release, in some areas with questionable draft.

Looks like I'll be sealing, frekoting and planning the layup of the console #001

Cool!

Start selling them, you'll be rich!

I have received interest from a few people. But the majority of Datsun guys are cheap.

All of em want to go to heaven, but none of them want to die. IE: pay $300-400 for a full carbon, epoxy, class A part.

We'll see though.

3k twill always opens wallets.

interested in FC shifter surround, radio surround, door sills and that's pretty much it.

S13's staying gutted and I'm probably going to end up gutting the fc too.

/e stuff looks good though!

This post was edited by SlyGoSu on Nov 16 2014 02:55pm

Noted. None of those things sound complicated at all. There's a possibility. If you were serious enough to actually send me some sacrificial pieces it would make it a much higher probability of it happening.

And yeah, I know how it is.

"while you're down there"





Trimmed the edge.

Applied the sealer (left)

and the release (right)




The mold is now ready to lay up.






Supposedly, we are expecting not one, not two, but three feet of snow this evening into tomorrow. So there may be a chance that I do not go in to work tomorrow.

But if I do, I'll begin laying up the part.

Some of my panels are completely destroyed, going to find a parts car and get the panels off that and we'll go from there yeah?

Sounds good, keep me posted.

That's always half the battle... Finding a good sacrificial piece. And then after procuring said OEM perfectness, deciding to completely destroy it, with the hopes of being able to make another one... haha.

Seems bass akwards if you think about it. haha

If I could get my hands on a NOS driver's 240 door panel......That's my next project. Door panels.





I'm planning on laying up the mold tomorrow some time.

The last two days, I have been super busy and have not had the time at work required to start laying up the carbon fiber prototype. Plus, the snow.....oh the snow.....

I'm jumping straight to carbon. Normally you'd NEVER do this, as carbon can be 10 times more expensive than glass (or more).

For example: One yard of 3k twill carbon fiber is roughly 40 dollars per yard. One yard of the 12oz glass I use is roughly 5 dollars per yard.



<Segway into fiber conversation>



3k twill is one of the most common carbon fiber used in the automotive world.

3k refers to the fiber count, per tow.

This is one tow.



So there are three thousand individual fibers in each of those. You can now begin to see why carbon is so strong.






'Twill' refers to the weave of those tows.

'Twill' is what most people think of when they think "carbon fiber"

A twill weave pattern has tows going over two, and then under two.

Typically in the 0 and 90 degree axises



Look closely, you can see the tows weaving over two, and under two.








Twill offers EXCELLENT conformity. This is why most complex carbon parts have this aesthetic, since it is the easiest weave to conform to shapes.

If strength is designed/required, the subsequent layers under the twill are different directional carbon fiber, depending on the engineering.






That was a long drawn of way of saying...

I don't have any twill weave fiberglass, so I can not test my mold with a similar acting material, on the cheap.

I know that I could make colored glass ones "no problem".


But, the questions have always been...

"Can I get the twill to behave around all of the complex geometry that the console offers?"

And

"Will it have an aesthetically pleasing class A finish?"








This post was edited by OldAndyAndTheSea on Nov 20 2014 04:51pm

The other thing is that I designed it to keep its OEM chrome trim piece.

Like, the ashtray, I'll bond it in place, post production.

I thought it would be a nice touch....but honestly, in retrospect, that little trim piece is going to make my life a whole hell of a lot harder.





In any future molds, this provision will be deleted.




Hindsight is always 20-20.

Lets see what tomorrow brings..

This post was edited by OldAndyAndTheSea on Nov 20 2014 04:51pm