Well I priced 50 in cloth at 37.50 a yard. weight was 5.7 oz per ft sq. Basic Van is 15 x 6 feet, or 90 ft sq so this give us 10 yards approx or $375 for the cloth. The wet out could be done at .75 oz per ft sq or 90 oz so a gallon of resin. at $100 or $150 for epoxy resin The basic questions on how to approach this is : Cosmetic or Replacement. If your after a cosmetic carbon fiber look the above approach would be in my opinion the best. Use surfboard polyester resin, it's clear. If you go the west system type epoxy, then you'll need to clear coat with a uv protection. At this level I'm not going into "how to" just a slightly more than armchair Quarterback approach. BTW, since stress loads are carried by the skin and not the interior of the panel, the cosmetic approach get you a good deal more strength in the tension on the top, not sure how you'd benefit from this. To make a top, you don't need to make a mold from scratch, as long as it's just for you, you could do this. Take an existing top, and brace it so that it is stiff, and then do the wax and release prep, omitting details, then do a 4 layer unit of :1oz mat, followed with 18 0z woven roven. This is your mold, factory setup would allow this to cure in place for 2-3 woks, then remove and stiffen it all squared up. Now your ready to do your layup prep, wax etc. Then the carbon fiber , foam core it and glass the inside . In my opinion the top would be significantly lighter, and thus a more stable van. Too, if you can do this or pay for this, the options to modify to suit are there. As to a very general rule of thumb 4x the cost of the cosmetic would get you the glass, and the foam core by ACT is $150 sheet, best price I can think of, which is 1/2" x 48" x 96" so probably 4 sheets or $600. So no labor cost, I'm seeing $1800 as a minimum. Oh one other benefit is the the insulating value of a cored piece. The downside to me is that carbon fiber being black would be a hotter piece; and a possibility of some post curing deformation, What exactly I don't know, but possibly some visible buckle or perhaps a warp where a gasket surface meet. Somebody would be the guinea pig. Hope that puts more stew in the pot. Any questions p-mail too, since I'm on digest. Mark Keller |
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