Started doing the Carbon Fibre Cowl on the weekend. My Cowl was full of pin holes. We were going to fibre glass mat it but I figured for the amount of work I might as well go Carbon Fibre.

We removed as much of the rust as we could. We patched some of the major stuff with fibre glass first and painted the entire cowl with Chassis Saver paint (to slow down future rust and to provide a black background for the CF).

The chassis saver was scuffed with scotch brite and we applied the carbon fibre on that using epoxy resin...

We still have to trim it and cut out the vents.

 

One more pic

Next step will be to trim it. Originally I wanted to wrap leading edge but the fibre likes to straighten out too much to stay. My plan now is to use either a small hose (with a slit in it) or door edge trim to hide the leading edge.

 

Looking good. Are you going to put the stock screen piece back on?

 

That is the plan so far.

 

Here is an update, the cowl has been trimmed roughed up and a final coat of epoxy applied. Not shown here but I scuffed it up and we will be hitting it with a coat of clear this week. (the pics are just the final coat of epoxy)

One thing to note. Just lightly touching the edges to feel where the metal ends underneath cut the crap out of my fingers, this stuff is super sharp.

 

This turned out better than what I thought it was going to be. I've never done CF before but always thought if it wasn't vacuum bagged it never was that smooth. Very nice project and turn out! Keep the pics coming.

On the sharp edge you might be able to tape it and use a rubber type coating on it. They make some you can paint on stuff and it's suppose to come out pretty smooth to the touch not all bumpy like bed liner is normally. Something like this: http://www.plastidip.com/home_solutions/Plasti_Dip

 

The finished product is not too sharp (after sanding and a second coat of epoxy) it is just the process of trimming it after it was hardened, the shards are like razorblades.

If I was to do it again I would have spent time perfecting the metal underneath (filling in spot welds etc) before the base black paint/sealer. You can still see where the spot welds etc. are. It was a learning experience, to be applied to the next parts (thinking carbon fibre STB).

 

Where did you get your CF supplies from?

 

Local boat repair/builder supply warehouse. I have since found a nearby aircraft supply warehouse--1 hour drive--that is about half the price. I paid ~$60/yard (52" wide roll) at the boat place. I had to buy two yards to get the width of the cowl covered and I have a bunch left over for the next project.