Widebody p body fender interest?

[brett_498]

I will have some time in the next two weeks to get these p body fenders finished and molds done. I had a few of you contact me with interest in these fenders to clear some slicks so I figured I'd throw it out there that I can make these higher priority and pump them out as soon as I can. In addition to the fenders I will have a turbo bulge hood done at the same time so I could make those as well. If there is any interest in either of these either in fiberglass, fiberglass/carbon, or pure carbon start a list and let me know what you'd have interest in. Rough price of a fiberglass hood would be $450 and a pair of fiberglass fenders at $450. I will adjust final pricing upon finishing the product and be no more than the price listed.

[nvysion]

Count me for both :
fiberglass hood,
fiberglass fenders.

[chromguy]

Count me for both :
fiberglass hood,
fiberglass fenders.

I bet the freight of this will be crazy!! To France!!!

[nvysion]

I know this :-)

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[c2xejk]

I am interested in the wide-body fiberglass fenders. While I am also interested in a fiberglass hood, I don't think my budget will support both...

Looking forward to seeing the pictures as you make progress!

[turboshad]

What process are you using for the CF parts?
For the hood, 2 piece bonded or 1 piece with core (I guess applies to FG too)?
What resin?
What is the total width of the fenders?
How many plies and what weight/type of CF?

[brett_498]

everything will be vacuumed and baked. For the hood it will depend on what would be wanted. fiberglass will just be a two piece and can do the same for carbon, or I will be using honeycomb if you're wanting to go as light as possible. I use west system epoxy for all my composites. Carbon is 3k 2x2 twill and be 4 layers. Fiberglass I use 1.5oz chopped strand. I will measure total width when I move the car up front. Sounds like you know a thing or two about composites DJ!

[turboshad]

Thanks for the response.
I've dabbled but am by no means an expert. ;)

[brett_498]

Thanks for the response.
I've dabbled but am by no means an expert. ;)

Awesome! Its fun but can turn into a headache fast! Especially here in the az summers!

[supershadow]

i would definitely be interested in a hood. I think I threw my back out moving mine today. would it be pin on or still accept the hinges?

[street_racer]

I would be down for a carbon hood should look good on the csx-t, I would like to see a picture of a finished one first and will it use the stock hinges hood latch? or hood pins required?

[brett_498]

I will make them hinged still if that's what is wanted. I can do either or.

[wheming]

Any plans to buy a turbo minivan? We need some fancy parts too! ;)

[brett_498]

Any plans to buy a turbo minivan? We need some fancy parts too! ;)

I'd love one for sure! What would you be interested in?

[wheming]

In order:
Rear hatch, hood, front fenders.

[Reaper1]

Are you using VARTM or just wet lay-up bagged (I'm guessing you are not using pre-preg simply because you said you use West System epoxy resin)? I understand baking will produce the parts faster, but what are you doing for the cycle, ramp rate, hold time, etc? I honestly don't remember seeing specs for that in the West System literature (it has been many years, however).

On the glass parts, why only use chopped mat? If you use a cloth material it is stronger and lighter depending on density. I could see using the chopped mat on the first layer to get a nice surface, but I think I would use a different material to back it up as I don't think composite fenders are actually going to save that much weight on a P-body...especially being wider (more material).

On the CF parts, if you intend to make them "bolt on", are you going to include 'glass insulation plies? I ask because CF can actually increase galvanic corrosion if not insulated. What are you going to bond into the structure for the hinge plates, etc.?

I don't actually own a P-body anymore, but I'm interested in this because I plan to do it for my own car.

[brett_498]

Prepreg is what i'd honestly prefer but it's not cost effective to use since its so pricey. I have my vacuum pump and oven programmed to the rates I use to bake. I use the oven to not only cure it faster but to cure it evenly as well. Unfortunately since autoclaves are way out of my price range I'll stick with my oven! I've built fenders out of cloth and chopped strand and results are typically always the same. I use cloth mostly for the Subaru parts I do but I have a bit of chopped strand to use up and figured these would be perfect candidates. The bolt on carbon hoods will have glass plies to add more material and strength to the bolt points. I have however built them without glass and the steel nut plates I powdercoat before Installation and have never once had any issue with corrosion.

[Reaper1]

If you are powder coating them before you install them, then I could see that working as the powder coat *should* provide a level of insulation.

With regular old wet layup I can understand about being concerned with uneven curing, but using a good epoxy system with VARTM *should* produce good parts without the added complexity of heating in an oven. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Just throwing it out there for people who might be wondering.

Because you have an oven, you *could* use prepreg if you had a source. Of course then you have to consider how to store it, etc. because it needs to be worked with in a certain amount of time. I have also seen how to make your own prepreg. Basically you simply wet out the material on peel ply, bag it, suck out the excess, then freeze the material before it starts to kick off.

[brett_498]

Yeah I use prepreg on a few different parts and it is nice for the most part for sure. But I'm just trying to keep the costs low for these and still have a quality product. I do let some parts air dry and have no issue as well but I use the oven since I have it and it makes the process that much simpler and that much quicker.

[rx2mazda]

This is awesome, glad to have someone in the community finally that has experience and is willing to make FG/CF parts for our small community! It's been talked about previously but never really came to head. I hope this ends well!

Sounds like you have a lot of experience in making these parts. IMO you should make them the way you originally intended. People will talk about what's best, what they want, etc and keep driving the price up and then never order(not a dig on anyone in particular, JS). Your price seems very reasonable as it stands. If you ever make OMNI parts I'm sure you'd have a few people interested! :eyebrows:

[brett_498]

I dabbed in it a bit before I did aircraft parts for a few years and learned a ton then and moved onto making my own stuff. I've had good results with my methods so I tend to stick with them. No point on making a change to something not needing changed is my look at it. Ive always wanted an omni so maybe I'll have to use this as an excuse to pick one up!

[karlak]

Crap....... more money to spend.

[shmedley]

Jaren aka 22Shelby was making CF hoods for daytonas a while ago whenhe worked for VFN

[Ondonti]

Any links to any of this stuff? First I saw this. Not clear if pin on or bolt on hood.

[Wastelands Warrior]

Any links to any of this stuff? First I saw this. Not clear if pin on or bolt on hood. He said in an earlier post he could do either type.

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Any chance of making a cf Spirit hood? :)

[nvysion]

Any update ?

[karlak]

Bump on the update.

[Ondonti]

Sad :(

[Dr. Johny Dodge]

ahnoupdato

[Ondonti]

Hasn't logged in since just after he stirred the pot :(

[Dr. Johny Dodge]

musta been a woman in another life ...

[cordes]

It isn't surprising though. The cost and work involved to make these parts doesn't make sense. Jaren sold how many Daytona hoods when he was making them? They were nice and reasonably priced. How many P body hoods do you guys think would actually sell? I'm betting 3-4 tops.

[brett_498]

Well I'm back finally. Shop got busy, got put on the back burner yet again. But promising updates on pbody parts are going to be coming in fairly quickly now. Molds are being finished up these next few weeks for fenders, hatche, hood, lexan windows, and doors! The dodge is coming out of retirement for the 2017 season so I will be getting everything finished up shortly.

[wheming]

Well I'm back finally. Shop got busy, got put on the back burner yet again. But promising updates on pbody parts are going to be coming in fairly quickly now. Molds are being finished up these next few weeks for fenders, hatche, hood, lexan windows, and doors! The dodge is coming out of retirement for the 2017 season so I will be getting everything finished up shortly.

Please buy yourself an 89-90 minivan, so us van guys can get some cool parts! :D

[Pat]

Very cool. On the hood, are you doing early 87-88 or the later 89+? Bulge or flat?

[brett_498]

I have an 89 van sitting in the shops parking lot waiting its turn! Hood is a bulge 89+

[Fox]

cant wait to see how this turns out

[Ondonti]

I have an 89 van sitting in the shops parking lot waiting its turn! Hood is a bulge 89+

Doors? :D Plans on how to prevent them from deflecting a few inches like Brian Slowe's OEM + Lexan doors? I still really like rolling windows but swapping doors is really terrible, at least the heavy stockers.
Not sure my current direction needs fenders now without doing something in the rear but hoarding counts for something.

[brett_498]

I'll be building the doors the same way I build the others so I shouldn't have any issues! First popped hood will be painted tomorrow so I'll have a few pics to share!