Carbon Fiber/Fiberglass
 

Does anyone do custom carbon fiber automotive body parts/panels? Would also consider fiberglass. When I search found engine hood/bonnet but really would like door panels. I already realize this is expensive and labor intensive but there are considerable weight shaving over steel doors.

I have done fiberglass and carbon fiber fabrication in the past. The skill is time consuming but not overly difficult. There are numerous web sources that are helpful if you are interested in doing the work yourself.

Most weight savings are more economically done by jettisoning the obvious unneeded items such as spare tires and sound deadening material.

Replacement comes next for items such as batteries and window glass as well as comfort items such as air conditioning and power windows and door locks.

Once you have completed such steps, then the structure and drive train are next. But, at that point, you might as well go for a radical redesign as the time/cost benefits can be extrapolated into the passenger packaging and aerodynamic improvements.

With all that being said, the advantages of carbon fiber over steel/aluminum construction are only beneficial in the most extreme of cases. However, the cool factor is priceless.

You can't find composite doors? I thought those are pretty common. The concern with those is that they don't have crash beams in them, although I would think that you can put them in somehow. Considering how the door is right next to you, maybe it's better to use a metal door so that it doesn't shatter or crack in a collision. Aluminum doors are probably out of the question though.

I would replace the hood, trunk, roof, and fenders with carbon or fiberglass before doing the doors. And I would replace the battery and wheels before replacing any body panels. Body panels would be nice to do on an old beater car with a lot of dents that you can pick up super cheap, since getting the dents out and repainting costs as much as a new panel, and an aftermarket composite panel is not much more than an OEM steel panel.

Why not hemp plastic
 

in 1941 Henry Ford made a car body from hemp plastic and it was about 10 times stronger then steel ,yet lighter,,there's a vid on YT of him pounding a sledge hammer on it without damaging or denting it,,
Which makes me wonder why arent any car manufacturers pursuing this very natural green product,which would be also good for farmers..
Maybe some of you young entrepreneurs could look if it's feasible to do today

I'm unable to post links ,so to see it search for ;hemp car on YT
:thumbup:

That is just the type of crazy story I expect to find on-line.

Hey guys! Look what I found!

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_Car:
How do you change "build" to "built?"

I guess that it did not ease the shortage enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srgE6Tzi3Lg

Carbon Fiber is only worth the money if its replacement of a structural member. Door panels are not structural. It does not come to contact with any forces other than the wind sliding and buffeting against it. If you replace the side protectors with CF bars, that would different. The steel cylinders are hollow yet there is enough mass to be saved with CF compared with thin skin doors.

Thanks Rusty

Some race/drag/performance vehicle go with fiberglass/carbon fiber/lexan(window) combination for door panels.
Toyota has invested in a carbon fiber loom and plant they did a some concept vehicles.
Toyota like Ford are going to lightweight body panels and going with more aluminum mfg capacity. I believe almost all of the Tesla vehicle is aluminum majority aluminum content.

In seeking lighter body panels I found on the web.
Seibon
Car ID
Taylor (fiberglass) (Texas)

steel skin
 

There may be some safety considerations that would favor the steel skin.The cars crash behavior may be predicated upon how that skin will crumple during an impact,absorbing kinetic energy of the collision in a way not possible with composite.Don't know.
Find a wrecked door at a body shop,cut the skin away and weigh it.See what kind of weight savings you're looking at.
144-man-hours/square-ft,@ $40/hour might be an estimate for creating the plugs/molds/trim fixtures/layups/vacuum-bagging/autoclaving,etc.to create the skins.Plus materials.
Just the skins.

Get the Seibon hood if you really want to spend money, but honestly there are so many more reasonable and effective modifications to do that I wonder why you'd even bother for anything short of a professionally driven race car.

If you still insist, just call a place like this to get a rough idea on cost. http://www.rcfabrication.net/automotiveparts.aspx

Home fabrication versus shop.
 

There are far cheaper ways of fabricating a carbon fiber part than the procedure of mold making, layup, vacuum bagging and infusion. That is a standard method of producing near perfect parts with measured performance targets of resin to fiber ratios and little to no inclusion flaws.

Simple hand layup over a foam buck that will become part of the structure is far less time consuming and less costly if not as tight in part tolerance.

As far as crash resistance, you might find information on allied use of composites. Judicious application of Kevlar fibers as well as aluminum sheets can result in tremendous strength and energy absorbing abilities.