As usual, two steps forward one backwards and one stupid mistake which I am pretty sure I have got away with.
I brush gel coated a number of moulds using 20% thinned resin and realised that they needed a second coat as the brush striations exposed the mould itself. Unfortunately I think I put the second coat on too early and on about half of them the first gel coat blistered so they all had to be stripped back. Luckily I decided to do it before the gel coat had completely hardened and it came off relatively easily, like peeling off cling film.
The stupid mistake was that I realised as I put the third of four CF laminations down that I had made the tank filler insert mould the wrong way round, I had made it female and I should have made it male. The 2 consequences of this are a) the smooth gel coated side was pointing down into the tank, not too much of an issue because with the filler cap on it cannot really be seen; and b) each lamination I put on increased the chance that the filler cap would not fit inside the insert. I decided to stop at three laminations and put the fourth on the inside of the tank. When it had cured I split it from the mould and checked that the filler fitted which it did just – phew.
I am now worrying that a number of moulds are “wrong way round” or will not fit where they are supposed to or will not hold the thing they were designed for.
Here is my very first carbon fibre component, the back half of the engine breather /chain oiler reservoir which came out quite well, a few surface imperfections and some aberrations in the weave.
This was then trimmed to fit into the front half of the mould. I stuck masking tape around the edge to give me a line to cut to with the Dremel and 40mm cutting disc.
Today I laid up a) the battery box which was an absolute swine as the CF mat would not bend to the convoluted shape; b) the headlamp inner ring which will be bonded to the shell so as to have something to screw the bezel to, obviously the centre will have to be cut out to allow the lens to fit inside the shell and c) the final inner lamination on the tank insert.
take me to the nearest open gas station
The lower headlamp bracket came out cosmetically challenged and unfortunately I had to destroy the mould to get it out so I cannot make another, I will tidy it up and paint it.