How to build your own Carbon Fiber Camper making your own Composite/Foam panels.

[ebrabaek]

Time to break the mold. This is always so exiting as you truly dont know what ya have until you see it... Ha ha.
Top panel lifted....




Plastic pealed back....





As afore mentioned you can get a smooth back side as well as the front side if you just treat the top panel with release agent. This looks a lot worse than it is. It will be on the inside..
Flipped over..... a clean satin surface that will look awesome. Note the area bottom left where I had begun pealing the release agent film off.....





You just peal.......and peal some more.






And were done. There are still a bit that need to be cleaned but the most is off. Note all the film on the left hand side.

 

[ebrabaek]

I made a video of the first panel layup. It is long and tedious but it gives you some idea of what time and effort it takes to make a panel yourself. I suspect it will be available on YouTube tomorrow sometimes.

 

[hidn45]

Great stuff! Almost makes me think I could do this....

Now comes the part where we block it up & jump up & down on it, right? ;^)

Randy

 

[ebrabaek]

Great stuff! Almost makes me think I could do this....

Now comes the part where we block it up & jump up & down on it, right? ;^)

Randy

Ha ha..... well.... Destructive testing is way fun. Many moons ago, I build a bash plate for my then BMW 800GS as I was beta testing a auto clutch from Rekluse. It had to withstand some severe pounding, and I made a few different plates and then shot them with a 40 caliber. I knew it would penetrate but I wanted to see how to best mitigate the fiber dispersion. Ended up with alternation layers of 6oz, 6K....12oz 12K.... and K-39 ARAMID. Fun as heck. Stil have the plate in the garage. Bike is long gone though. When I build the front end Tongue box for my off road trailer in 2017 I used corrugated (cardboard) instead of foam, simply because it needed to be only 1/4 inch thick, and I couldn't find foam that thin, and testing proved how resilient to structural integrity it was. As long as you lock in the edges and corners with other polymers like the Thixotropic. That stuff is amazing. It is an old formula that Boeing use in the wing of the 787's wing.

I had a ARE Classic shell on my 2018 F-150 that I sold when I bought the 2023 F-150 hybrid, and as I removed the ARE, which was their $5K top of the line shell, I was surprised of how much it flexed, and off course how heavy it was. Fiber glass dont tolerate vibrations and flex nowhere near as well as Carbon fiber does. I estimate this shell will weigh in around 100 pounds or less, depending on what kind of windows I throw in it.

The video is done rendering. It is nothing fancy, nor edited with sophisticated music, etc. It was meant to follow the procedures and action. I would suggest that you brew yourself a triple macchiato..... perhaps a quad...... find your favorite recliner and have a loot at it in its entirety. I think it fills that purpose just right. It will give you a better idea of the work scope and as such to best equip you in making that decision. We both know you can do this. We just need to convince you.....

 

[ebrabaek]

Video is done. It is long, and perhaps boring but it is meant to show the good and the bad and as such do show mistakes that happens, like laying fabric wrong , and how to fix it....etc....etc. The whole cast took just over 4 hrs and the video was condensed down to 1'ish. I think it hits the mark and will give you a good insight in helping you decide if this is something for you and if it is, help and guide you through with the obstacles you will meet underway. Much more in depth that pictures and words can illustrate. Feel free to ask away either here or directly in the comments on the video. It will not be until late next week that the next panel will be created as I gotta hop to Phoenix, AZ on Sunday for 5 days.

 

[highwest]

Looks great! I hope you can do a little destructive testing of your scraps, I’d love to see where the layup fails.

Why not bag it?

 

[ebrabaek]

Looks great! I hope you can do a little destructive testing of your scraps, I’d love to see where the layup fails.

Why not bag it?

Thank you.
I will see if I can round up some scraps. As this is a box without a bottom....sorta..... full rigidity and strength done come until it is all assembled and bolted to the truck, but I will see what I can do. I suspect that as I find a piece and treat the edges and corners with Thixotropic, the failure torsionally will begin with delam of the foam and carbon on the inside, none the less.

Bagging is a great way to make it even stronger, but it further complicates this build as I would have to bag the whole 4x8 bottom plate. Now the edges have to be rounded to mitigate the risk of leaks, not to mention the size of that scope and the now increased expenditure. I have the pump, lines and all. I also find that when you speak to or answer questions for people who wants to do this but have not tried, 9 out of 10 say the biggest deterrence for them to try this is the complexity of bagging. That said I have devoted time over the years to showcase how to do layups without bagging and still come out on top, as there is a void there, IMHO.

That said I will state for the record that bagging will make for a stronger matrix as you vacate all the air, and it will pull the layers together better than a mechanical mold like the one I use. But in this case you dont need to, but certainly could as it will be plenty strong as it is. Were I to make a rib or spar for an airplane, you bet it would be bagged, so I dont want to take anything away from bagging. It is awesome and works great(er) but adds to complexity and cost.

 

[highwest]

Thank you.
I will see if I can round up some scraps. As this is a box without a bottom....sorta..... full rigidity and strength done come until it is all assembled and bolted to the truck, but I will see what I can do. I suspect that as I find a piece and treat the edges and corners with Thixotropic, the failure torsionally will begin with delam of the foam and carbon on the inside, none the less.

Bagging is a great way to make it even stronger, but it further complicates this build as I would have to bag the whole 4x8 bottom plate. Now the edges have to be rounded to mitigate the risk of leaks, not to mention the size of that scope and the now increased expenditure. I have the pump, lines and all. I also find that when you speak to or answer questions for people who wants to do this but have not tried, 9 out of 10 say the biggest deterrence for them to try this is the complexity of bagging. That said I have devoted time over the years to showcase how to do layups without bagging and still come out on top, as there is a void there, IMHO.

That said I will state for the record that bagging will make for a stronger matrix as you vacate all the air, and it will pull the layers together better than a mechanical mold like the one I use. But in this case you dont need to, but certainly could as it will be plenty strong as it is. Were I to make a rib or spar for an airplane, you bet it would be bagged, so I dont want to take anything away from bagging. It is awesome and works great(er) but adds to complexity and cost.

Makes sense. With the melamine sheets, top and bottom, and the basic/flatness of the part, it’s easy to get even pressure during the cure. I’m looking forward to having to time to watch your vid. “A video’s worth a thousand pictures.” 😁

 

[ebrabaek]

Makes sense. With the melamine sheets, top and bottom, and the basic/flatness of the part, it’s easy to get even pressure during the cure. I’m looking forward to having to time to watch your vid. “A video’s worth a thousand pictures.” 😁

Yessir.
Wait til you see the now trimmed panels...... Whooooot

 

[ebrabaek]

How comfortable are ya going straight with a jigsaw????
Strong the force was with me this morning......Hrrmmmm....





Nice clean edge cut....




Then the side panels were trimmed further to 24 high and 67.5 long.....




Some stats that were asked earlier...... The weight of one panel......





Dimensionally.....




I am happy with that. Specially for a hand laid up panel. 253.5 Grams pr SQ/FT.

 

[ebrabaek]

Then off course, I could not resist.......

 

[ITTOG]

Looks good. Any signs of delamination? I will need to watch your video if I can find the time. I am curious how you prepped the foam.

Are you going to calculate the cost per 4' x 8' sheet?

 

[ebrabaek]

Looks good. Any signs of delamination? I will need to watch your video if I can find the time. I am curious how you prepped the foam.

Are you going to calculate the cost per 4' x 8' sheet?

Thank you.
No sign of Delam. You cant really treat the foam effectively or chemically, but nor do you need to as the epoxy bites and bond very well with this stuff. Once you lock the edges and corners in as well it becomes extremely strong. I have used this foam in 1 and 2 inch layup before and it is incredible how strong this matrix is in the end. I did however remove the thin plastic film that the foam has on it from the factory. Stand by for math calculations for a whole 4x8 board....

 

[6912]

Looks great. Glad you brought up the bagging deal up . We have been doing composite/foam panels for over 10 years . most of the time you never need to bag great looking job.

 

[ebrabaek]

Looks great. Glad you brought up the bagging deal up . We have been doing composite/foam panels for over 10 years . most of the time you never need to bag great looking job.

Thank you.