Now that I'm done with the sunroof opening for prototyping sunroof blanking panels, it's time to take the roof off!
Working a little out of order but I got a fresh batch of wider carbon fiber cloth that I need for deck lids and roof skins so I was finally able to lay up and bag and infuse a roof skin!
The bright green epoxy mold was an attempt at making a lighter, stronger, easier to handle mold that didn't give off noxious odors during layup. Somewhat successful but turned out to be 3 times as expensive, time consuming, and frustrating as the "normal" mold materials that I've since gone back to. I'm putting up with a bit of extra weight and the styrene odor during layup for future molds.
Laying out the outline offset for the honeycomb core:
The core material creates separation between inner and outer layers of carbon cloth, which adds an incredible amount of stiffness and strength. To get the same strength and stiffness from cloth layers alone would require adding up to 8 more layers of cloth and double the weight of the part and triple the cost!
First layers of cloth:
Core:
Final layup ready for trimming, vacuum bagging, resin infusion, and oven curing!:
