ToplessZ Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 I can confirm that cyanide does indeed have the smell of almonds. While this struck me as funny at first, this is a very serious matter and should be regarded by anyone doing work with these types of materials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted February 15, 2006 Author Share Posted February 15, 2006 Now that you mention it, I seem to remember an old episode of McGuyver where someone got gassed with cyanide. McGuyver was of course able to determine the cause of poisoning by sniffing the victim and noticing the smell of almonds. He then cured them by making them drink some chemical obtained from a one hour photo place in the mall..... Fortunately I've done all of the wet layup stuff with my garage door open. Plenty of ventilation I hope..... The Ebay seller I got my epoxy resin from is local here in San Diego, so I think I'll stop by and pick up an MSDS from him just to know for sure. Until then I'm just going to go on the assumption that this stuff does contain cyanide, and protect myself accordingly. Thanks for the heads up guys, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnutthehutt Posted February 16, 2006 Share Posted February 16, 2006 Now that you mention it' date=' I seem to remember an old episode of McGuyver where someone got gassed with cyanide. McGuyver was of course able to determine the cause of poisoning by sniffing the victim and noticing the smell of almonds. He then cured them by making them drink some chemical obtained from a one hour photo place in the mall..... Mike[/quote'] MacGyver was the best show ever. Did anybody see the superbowl commercial? Sorry, off topic. Yeah, I was thinking about the cyanide thing too as I read along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldestzguy Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Some of you other folks that haven't already started your dash yet might want to check this idea out. Go to ebay, type in "pontoon boat consoles" and see what comes up for the beginning of a custom dash. Seems like a good starting point. They have cup holders, switch plates, the right size holes and everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phantaz Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 any new pics or progress done ?? i really want to see this installed =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted May 30, 2006 Author Share Posted May 30, 2006 I finally went out and bought a random orbit sander to use on this. Man, what a difference! I normally prefer to do things old school style, usig hand power tools, but from now on I use random orbit when sanding Now for a bit of bad news, the multiple layers of epoxy resin I used to build up the surface all cured at different rates, with varying degrees of clarity. Some spots are actually pretty opaque due to tiny air bubbles in the resin. So polishing it up to showcase the carbon construction is out. I'll end up painting over all that beautiful carbon twill with bedliner paint most likely. I thought of maybe making just small portions of the CF visible by masking them off during painting, but on the whole the surface condition of the resin really doesn't even lend itself to doing that. Lesson learned for next time I guess. I'll get some pics up of it's current condition in a few minutes. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted May 30, 2006 Author Share Posted May 30, 2006 The gray areas are where I have sprayed primer to get a better idea of surface texture and porosity. Like I said, this thing didn't turn out as nice as I had planned. The surface is smooth enough to paint though once I get all the edges trimmed to the right shape. I still have to make a cut out for the steering column along with drilling out some holes for the obligatory ricer toggle switches (Functional in this case). I'm going to keep the vent/heater assembly, but the controls will be altered so they don't look out of place on this dash. I'll post more pics as I get further along. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phantaz Posted May 30, 2006 Share Posted May 30, 2006 damn mike.. thats just. . . . sweet! looks great regardless of how you felt it came out.. stuff is never perfect the first time.. or the second lol but that is a great first try for sure. please keep the photos coming as you get along and some close ups would be great too. GREAT JOB!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LS1 240Z Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 should have gone ahead and kept it bare carbon fiber, even if it looked bad, it would have still looked badass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnutthehutt Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Would wet sanding and shooting it a couple coats of clear with an HVLP help? It will probably glare across the top, but you could shoot a layer or something else across that, kinda like a dashmat. It looks cool to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 I don't know how long it took you to make, but instead of trying to fix it, I would just use that as a plug. Drape some new CF over it, vac bag and make a new one. Maybe even start a business selling them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted June 2, 2006 Author Share Posted June 2, 2006 Having learned a lot of lessons from this one, I'd much rather start from scratch to make a new one. There are a few design aspects I would change for sure on a second version, like recessing the gauges, and angling the center portion more towards the driver along with drastically changed aesthetics. It would look a lot more like a TVR styled dash basically. I could definitely gain some of the gloss back by further wet sanding and clear coating, but there are spots where I actually sanded through the CF all the way into the fiberglass backing to get an even, level surface. These spots are small, and randomely placed. This coupled with the crappy finish imbedded in patches of the resin would make it pretty difficult to leave much if any CF exposed while still looking good. The entire package is still extremely light, so the main advantage of using the CF has been retained in spite of all the resin I used on this thing. Once I get all the gauges mounted and wired up I'll weigh the whole thing and compare it to the weight of the stock 240 dash. If I lose even 1 pound, it will have all been worth it...... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JAMIE T Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 I agree with Owen. You could still drape an outer layer of CF on it and vacuum bag it to pull the air out of it. Lay a heating blanket over it. FWIW, I use West Systems epoxy made to be clearcoated. It dries clear with a slightly yellow tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted June 3, 2006 Share Posted June 3, 2006 The entire package is still extremely light' date=' so the main advantage of using the CF has been retained in spite of all the resin I used on this thing. Once I get all the gauges mounted and wired up I'll weigh the whole thing and compare it to the weight of the stock 240 dash. If I lose even 1 pound, it will have all been worth it...... Mike[/quote'] It'll be way lighter. The stock dash in a 240Z weighs at least 30lbs. I have the plastic cover sitting on an aluminum frame and its like 1.5lbs. Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted June 3, 2006 Share Posted June 3, 2006 I agree with Owen. You could still drape an outer layer of CF on it and vacuum bag it to pull the air out of it. Lay a heating blanket over it. FWIW' date=' I use West Systems epoxy made to be clearcoated. It dries clear with a slightly yellow tone.[/quote'] Interesting...a heating blanket? Also is the epoxy you use designed for glassing, etc? I've heard surfboard resin can be used as well. I've only used the home depot resins. Mainly because I don't care for the CF look, I just paint over it all. But I want to give vac bagging a try one day and I think it'll be too thick. Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted June 3, 2006 Author Share Posted June 3, 2006 The vacuum bag will work well with most viscosities of resin, probably better with thicker suff actually because it would tend to print through a little less than thinner resins. I've tried a few different types of epoxy resin, and all of them have been as thick or thicker than polyester resin. I'm seriously considering starting this project all over again from scratch, and doing everything the right way to begin with. I'm not really happy with the design of the dash for use in a street driven car, and I've thought of a lot of new designs I'd like to try since I started this one. It's definitely been a good learning experience, but I know I can do better. Stay tuned for "Side Project #352, Homade Dash Project part II" Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexideways Posted June 3, 2006 Share Posted June 3, 2006 another idea would be to take yor original dash, aplie small pices of foam over it and then blend it with bondo/dap/duratech then make an female mold out of it, this way, less sanding less materials involved + you get all of the original mounting point in exactly the right place. But, anyways, great job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JAMIE T Posted June 4, 2006 Share Posted June 4, 2006 Yes, the epoxy I use is designed for laying up fiberglass on wooden boats under the waterline and above. It's really neat and I didn't believe it until I saw it but once you wet out fiberglass on top of wood, it's crystal clear. The weave disappears and you can see the grain of the wood right thru it. It just looks like a nice quality varnish on top of the wood. BTW, the one I use has UV protection in it which is a big deal in an automotive(or marine) environment. They still recommend clear coating it afterwards though. You guys may or may not know this. If you use fine sand paper on your DA to sand imperfections , you can still spray an automotive clear on it to make the haziness disappear. Just like it goes away when you put another coat of resin on, same thing happens. LOL, yeah the heating blanket. I saw them use one on a project on "Myth Busters" one time. They needed to lay-up some CF for a project and used a heating blanket over it. It may be the same in principal as using an autoclave. Combined with vacuume bagging it made the part very durable and ridged while remaining super light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted July 7, 2006 Author Share Posted July 7, 2006 any new pics or progress done ?? i really want to see this installed =) After weighing my options, I decided to just install it rather than start over. My car is already about 4 years behind schedule anyway..... It's not bolted in yet in these pics, but it sits in place by itself pretty well, at least I got that part right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustinOlson Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 Wow, cool project you have there. Makes me want to get into composites as my next thing to learn how to do. Justin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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