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hi guys, anyone artistic here? has anyone made/moulded their own panels or anything? i'm looking at designing and moulding some panels but aint got a clue where to start or what to use? RobB didn't you do some resin stuff in the past?

would this help?



gem

quality

Gemini wrote:would this help?

an early model cbr600f, yesterday...

I'm going to be embarking on this fairly soon for the GS[1]. I haven't quite decided how to go about it yet other than get some foam and start hacking into it until it looks right or I have to start again.




[1]Yes I have actually done something to it. Go me! Just need to get round to updating the build thread now...

Ive been thinking about it for years, but because of one thing and another i never got to try anything out, its all just ideas still.

http://www.mci.i12.com/carbon/index.htm

this site gives some good info, but as for the resins that was somewhere that i was stuck and i think i posted here to see if anyone had any ideas what to use.

made a fibre glass body shell for the SAE car at uni - many many hours of work.

Made a buck out of wood / foam / etc, then covered it in something resembling gelcoat.
hours and hours and hours of sanding to get a good finish, then made a fibre glass mould from that. Then I wasnt involved in making the actual body shell

very long process.

Caz

Step 1:



Step 2:

ok when i said panels i meant something along the lines of this.........

erm...good luck making a pattern for that. Unless you actually buy one, take a mould of it, then return it


I'd guess you'd need to be looking at making a clay model and taking a mould from it, rather than trying to shape it in foam. But what do I know?

i was thinking more making a clay model then covering it with fibreglass or P40?

I suspect if you just laid up the final tank straight onto the pattern then you'd lose a lot of the detail of your design through the thickness of the fibreglass.

You're talking about going

clay model -> final tank -> cut out clay model from inside

ie laying up the finished product straight onto the pattern?

I'd be tempted to do that if I was just making a plain/smooth tank (and I think the carbon one on the link Rob posted was done like that). But for something like the picture you posted I suspect you'd lose a lot of the detail of your design through the thickness of the fibreglass.

If I were doing it i'd go

clay model -> mould -> final tank

Although I'm also not sure whether you could go direct from clay model to fibreglass mould or if you'd have to take a mould in plaster or something like that first.

This is all conjecture, I've never actually tried anything like this. Just want to propose a few things that might go wrong so you can research them, prove me wrong and make yourself a nice tank!

In that link I think the tank was made using a lost foam technique. You make the shape from a large block of foam then lay the fibre/carbon cloth over. When its set you pour petrol or thinners or something on the foam and it melts it.

thats gotta be a f*ckin art mate to make that skull by pouring petrol on the foam, think i'll pinch the kids moon sand kit and practice.

no i meant richards carbon fibre pages

No idea how the skull one was done. Probably as deviant said, a clay model made up then a split cast made from that. Bolt the two splits together, make your mould from carbon/fibreglass then seperate the two halves.

can't you just stick some p40 to the tank and shape it?