Carbon...Mmmmmmm

[Wayne64SS]

@Boxersix

My safety equipment is worth more than most of the parts in your car son , so i’ll blame it on lack of sleep.

Laminated MDF that’s shaped. Can’t use this cars’ OEM glass to mold off of because it’s substantially smaller than the opening with the remainder taken up by a very large rubber gasket(which you can not mold off of). This is not a glass panel replacement, it’s a complete plug that replaces the entire sunroof mechanism.

Typically I’d CNC these molds but this one was too large for my smaller machine and my larger machine isn’t up and running yet. I use either MDF for one-off stuff like this, or for ultra detail production molds and plugs I’ll use carbon foam(expensive). Making a negative mold by hand with double contours(left to right and front to back) is near impossible to do accurately on this type of part, so you must first make a positive plug to pull a negative mold from.

Mold is sanded to shape and sealed with polyester resin, sanded/buffed/polished to a mirror finish thereafter to pull the mold from.

And you’re steps for making a mold off a plug are all azz-backwards. Over a plug it goes tooling gel, chopped glass, woven roving, reinforcements(ribs) THEN demold. Never vacuum bag a mold with TG surface, you’ll get massive print though which will transpose to your parts. It takes days to weeks to make a mold. Took 10-12 days to make this one(and repair the TG when the PVA failed)

Thanks folks. FWIW, there’s really nothing in automotive composite I can’t do, aside from crap like wheels and high tech compressed graphite engine shit. Panels, hoods, aero, full bodies, etc. Carbon pushrods and suspension arms(DSR/CSR stuff only), seats, list goes on. If you have the $$ to pay I have the capabilities

JOB SHADOW. You need one.