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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Carbon Intake project


Paul
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Hi all. just thought I'd post pics of my latest project, Carbon fibre stock air intake !

As this is so prominent at the front of the engine bay I wanted to tart it up somehow and settled on real carbon fibre cloth overlay with resin:)

 

Got to be honest, it was a pain in the arse to get the process correct but I think it looks great, what do you lot think?

intake1.jpg

Picture 044.jpg

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Great minds, i just finished my airbox lid in carbon fibre, it is a tricky job, trying to stop the bugger from fraying.

What weave did you use Paul and what resin did you end up using.

It looks great by the way ;)

I am now experimenting with some kevlar fabric i bought. :)

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Hi Col, yeah I know you were having a go too.

Used Clear Polyester resin from CFS. Biggest pain was getting it on in even enough coats so when sanding it back I didn't go back through to the weave.

 

After one f*ck up I decided brushing it on was too random so got a 4" mini roller with short pile mohair rollers (gloss paint ones) and although thinner coats they were more even.

Finished by using 240/320/600/1000 grit paper then G3 then polish !!:)

 

Can't remember the carbon, 2x Twill cloth or something????

Used a black contact adhesive first, let it go off a little then placed the cloth on, holds it in place better.

I want to do the box next but am scared by the vertical strengthening ribs at the front.

 

Any tips or pics mate?

 

Paul

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To stop the fraying I taped the overlapped edges with masking tape then cut through the tape, once the first coat of resin is on then you can trim back without the fear of fraying, worked well but depends on part really.

 

Paul

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Are you going to finish with a clear coat ?

I know what you mean about the resin. I did things slightly different i actually laid masking tape and foil underneath the box first so i could ensure if it went wrong i could just pull it off without damaging the box underneath as these are quite hard to get hold of on their own.

I think if you go at it the way you did with the other part you will be fine.

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I got some 'top coat' with wax added which is meant to be used to put on top of the resin last thing. They say it can be polished and is a harder coating however I found it was crap to apply due to the added wax and it seemed no better than the resin itself which has set hard anyway.

I tried a clear coat on the first run but you would need to lay loads on to be able to cut back to a shine plus the type I used didn't adhere to the resin well:)

I found that cutting back the resin gave good results on it's own TBH.

Gluing onto the surface isn't a problem, don't key it before just acetone wipe it. When the first f*ck up happend I just broke way the layers of resin and carbon and the original intake was untouched below.

 

Any chance of a pic of your cover ?

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I went over them but then i trimmed it back so that their is a line where the tab startslike an upside down u shape. This first attempt isn't brilliant so what i think i might do is get hold of a second airbox lid and fill in the ridges with body filler to make it completely smooth then lay the carbon fibre fabric on top.

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I'm sure I read somewhere that a small squeegee is one of the best tools for getting even, flat coats.

 

Not a bad idea. Better on flatter surfaces though as something like the intake would mean going over several times to get all the angles and might build up on the edges?

Worth giving it a try though.

 

Paul

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That looks really good, I've been looking to doing some stuff in carbon fibre.

 

How easy is it to get hold of the fabric and resin, and what rough costs are we talking?

 

 

If you use cfs supplies about £50 :( I think Paul deals with high end materials and probably got a good price :D

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