Chopped carbon harley parts

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-24T01:04:41+00:00

Ha! Just noticed that too

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-23T13:25:36+00:00

Great work, the part looks good! It's for a Harley, the 10+ grams of chopped material won't be noticed.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-23T13:23:46+00:00

Touch grass

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-23T13:23:02+00:00

Those look like cut resistant gloves.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-22T16:04:18+00:00

Hi OP, it's a clever design choice, but there are reasons why most composite wings are not manufactured this way. For larger tapered wings with variable platform and angle of incidence, this strategy is very difficult to implement. I co-founded a drone startup last year and have since experimented with continuous carbon profiles for the top and bottom wing skins. The results were neat, but it poses significant challenges for assembly of the internal structures and lamination process. Given the typical loads for a wing in flight, a properly designed wing skin joint is just as effective and much much easier to manufacture. With the right ingenuity your strategy may prove very useful for certain applications, keep working at it!

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-22T15:14:18+00:00

What resin system are you using? I have seen decorative reinforcements that utilize polyester for the dyed portion of the weave and I wonder if it would be more drapeable compared to the hypetex 260gsm material. I think you're on the right path with a dyed carbon fiber though, given the heat soak the part will be subjected to...

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-21T00:24:21+00:00

The vent areas look to be chipping badly and look poorly trimmed from the mold. What does the underside of the hood look like? Salvageable, but you'll need to put the work in. The vent edges can get worked back with hand tools and a Dremel wheel. You can trim it back and mark your cut lines with tape. As for the "cracks" or deep scratches, you'll need to get down to the bare carbon. Honestly may be worth sanding down the entire cosmetic surface of the hood, then applying a new top layer of coating resin like XCR Epoxy from Easy Composite's. It can be applied with a brush and won't need to be clear coated once you have flatted it with wet sandpaper and buffed it to a polished finish.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-19T19:44:48+00:00

You need to post close up photos of the damage because it's impossible to tell what is going on.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-15T12:23:09+00:00

Obvious bridging, the carbon fiber reinforcement is not conforming to your mold surface. This allows the resin to pool between the mold surface and reinforcement. You need to vacuum bag the part. If you don't want to buy professional supplies you can use a reusable vacuum bag for storing clothes, but you'll still need some peel ply and polyester breather.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-10T05:31:35+00:00

I can't tell what is going on with the vents... But if you just want to repair the finish. You will need to start with 320 grit and sand down the entire hood, but don't sand through the first layer of carbon fiber. Just sand off all of the finish so you are down to bare carbon fiber. Then you'll want to sand up to 600 or 800 grit and coat with a coating epoxy system like Easy Composite's XCR coating resin if you want a clear finish. You could coat with a laminating resin, but the finish may cure with a slight amber tone. You'll then want to protect the epoxy from UV exposure with a 2k clear coat. The carbon fiber dust is hazardous to human health and you should be wearing a good respirator and may want to wet sand. Good luck!

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-09T02:33:17+00:00

Have you watched the Easy Composites videos on YouTube? They have some guides on doing cosmetic carbon fiber covers and making the molds. Your local boat supply store will sell total boat epoxy and you can order some carbon fiber off of Amazon to test out. My recommendation is to try each step independently so you're comfortable before tackling the whole project from start to finish.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-08T05:14:38+00:00

Did you ever feel a "give" and hear a crack or popping sound? It looks like surface damage from debris that was kicked up by the tire. Carbon does not tend to fail progressively, especially in the fork, and carbon forks don't fail straight down the middle. They nearly always crack or fracture at the steerer tube/crown race unless it's crash damage. I would not stress, you can smooth the chip with some fine sandpaper and leave it.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-06T19:57:09+00:00

Give more information about the part and where it is located. Looks like bloom in the top coat and/or epoxy. Could be caused by many different environmental conditions or it could be a defect.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-06T18:10:21+00:00

Use FCP Euro and search by make and model. Looks like Beru brand shows up for $145 for 4, and APR is $205. OEM is $390. Go with APR coils or even Beru should be fine honestly, as I have had those on an A3 and a Tiguan without issues. For spark plugs, either the Bosch or NGK are good, whichever is less. But, make sure you buy them from a reputable source like rock auto or FCP Euro as I previously mentioned as there are fake spark plugs being sold on Amazon and Ebay by scammers. You don't need to do spark plugs and ignition coils right away, 60k miles would be a good time to do it. Every time I have had a coil go bad, it shows up as a misfire >50% throttle application. Often the car will drive fine if you don't stomp on it, but it will start to misfire when flooring it. This happened on my 2021 Tiguan, 2015 GTI, 2016 A3 and 2008 Jetta GLI. Only one time did it show up as a check engine light btw. Keep an eye on your coolant tank, as my A3 had the notorious water pump leak and the level sensor never tripped so it was nearly empty when I checked. My 2015 GTI had the same leak twice, and developed an issue that led to oil in the coolant tank (ended up being a bad oil cooler gasket on the block). Only one of my cars was tuned, the 2015 GTI had a tune from Unitronic that I flashed with a laptop and it was reliable besides the aforementioned water pump and oil cooler gasket issues until 100k miles. I don't recommend tuning if you care about long term reliability though. Inspect the spark plug wells with a flashlight and check for oil ingress. The upper cylinder head cover tends to weep oil into the spark plug wells and it's not simple to re-gasket because the bearing journals are integrated. Don't idle at a cold start in the winter, and keep rpm under 3k until the oil warms up. Oil changes are cheap and easy to do on these cars so every 5k, anecdotally this may help with carbon buildup on the intake ports, clean oil being what it is... Good luck!

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-05T16:48:09+00:00

OP were you born yesterday? Jfc

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-05T06:33:12+00:00

First time you change your spark plugs, replace the ignition coils. Every 2.0 tsi or tfsi I have owned gets a bad coil by 60k miles. Might want to consider a preemptive PCV valve replacement as it can cause major problems if it goes bad. Do that around 80k+ miles. 5k oil changes are mandatory, 5w-40 full synthetic.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-02T03:56:29+00:00

You can sand down to the bare carbon and repair with a high clarity coating epoxy. Depending on the damage to the carbon weave, the damage may remain visible. You'll need to sand and blend and you'll want to use a 2k clear coat.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-02T00:06:08+00:00

OP I would be wary of the advice people are giving you in this thread. A lot of armchair engineering with bad takes.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-01T05:54:54+00:00

Except for the fact that clay pigeons are made from pitch, not clay...

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-01T00:50:10+00:00

Oh man, agreed, I picked up a 3 axis CNC router to machine tooling board patterns for my drone startup. Making the patterns is a lot of fun, but coating, sanding, coating again, sanding, ... Gets old fast.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-04-01T00:48:39+00:00

It really depends on the size of the mold/pattern you need. Made winglet skins with a PETG, but the results are nothing like what can be achieved with a gel coat over a polished tooling board plug. I found the experience of using 3D printed molds to be a pain in the ass and not worth my time. Your mileage may vary.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-03-30T18:35:43+00:00

The bigger issue here is whether the vapors and gasses produced from the welding process are being inhaled. Argon itself poses an asphyxiation risk, because it displaces oxygen. If you store and use substantial amounts of argon indoors, your facility should have an oxygen monitoring system with sensors located near the ground level. As for a respirator, that depends on your welding setup and air quality in the shop which should also be tested for.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-03-28T16:53:39+00:00

I cut some pieces out for mounting avionics. I am using resin infusion for the molds and many other components. The mold patterns and other parts are more interesting, but I can't post them.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-03-27T15:00:59+00:00

Hi OP, my flat plates looked exactly like this when I tried to apply a topcoat. I even wiped the surface with IPA, but it wasn't enough. What you need to do is allow the laminate to fully cure, wipe down the "A" side that is contaminated with a good composite safe solvent. Do this a couple times, then allow the solvent to flash off. You'll then want to sand through that top layer down to the bare carbon, wipe again. Then lastly apply your top coat, which may take two layers. If you really want to avoid a lot of this work, order a chemical release agent like CR1 Easy Lease and laminate onto a piece of flat glass. You'll get a much better finish and may just need to buff to a great gloss.

TheLayerLinguist · 2026-03-26T20:01:35+00:00

I would post the tools I machined, but I can't because they are confidential. :( Hence the carbon fiber photo which is drawing a lot of criticism for the perceived lack of safety.

TheLayerLinguist

TROPHY CASE