Super light fiber panels, Do you think folks would want them?? Options

[aircooledtechguy]

I'm considering approaching my neighbor in the business park who makes molds and performs infusion molding of racing boat parts, about possibly making a set of infusion molds for the front and rear trunk lids and head light covers. I know that there are a couple companies who make fiberglass body panels and such, but I know of no one who does them through infusion which results in a super thin, super light piece. Just as an example they are making 26' sailboats that sleep 4, INCLUDING 850# of lead in the keel and all the rigging, they weigh a mere 2200#!!

Infusion is basically laying dry carbon, kevlar, fiberglass etc and a coring materiel like foam or balsa (like the original GT parts) stacked in a mold. Bag it and pulling about 28-30 inches of mercury vacuum on the bag. Then under the vacuum, you inject resin. The vacuum compresses the layers and pulls all un-necessary resin from the part. When finished you have a super thin, super strong, super light panel that weighs just a couple of pounds, literally.

Do you all think there would be much of a market for that sort of thing. I think they would be really cool and super, super light for track cars or weekend bombers.

Give me your thoughts. . .

[GeorgeRud]

Market would probably be very limited by price. A small, niche market doesn't lend itself very well to these types of projects unless there is very little tooling costs that need to be amoritized.

[effutuo101]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)
it depends on the cost. A fiberglass deck/hood can be had for around 400. CF in the 800 range.

[Dave_Darling]

The FG ones sell somewhat regularly, but the CF ones don't seem to sell much at all. So unless you can get to something near the cost of the FG ones, you probably will have about three customers total.

We 914 folks still seem to be pretty cheap bestids, or at the least we want a reasonable quantifiable result for our money. The CF lids seem to be a lot of money for pretty diminishing returns (e.g., saves 5 whole pounds over the FG lid, woo!).

--DD

[Chris Pincetich]

Please make me a 914 carbon fiber targa top that weighs 5 lbs or less. I will sell old surfboards, bikes and other toys to afford it!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

My 1.7 loves that I dropped 50-60 lbs by swapping to CF lids front and rear. Of course, I got a smokin deal on a used set here several years back. I can't believe I am sayin this, but make them for Boxters. Mo and mo people are hacking into them for race cars, and the availability of FG panels and FENDERs for these projects is limited.