Sand Car Body Weight - Have you Weighed your Carbon Fiber body?

[Fullthrottleguy]

I am a bit of a "Lite is Mite" person obsessed with power to weight ratio. My goal for my cars is 2 to 1.  Basically a 2000Lb car with 1000HP, or 2500Lbs  with 1250HP.  I usually come close or do a bit better. 

I might build a new car in the off season and have been thinking about a CF body.  The one's I have seen from Funco have all been CF with Resin - they look super trick, but thats basically the weight of Fiberglass.  Not sure about Tatum , but they look like CF with resin as well. 

I have done some CF with epoxy and vacuum bagged so its really light  - for example the hood we did for Shelby Cobras weighs 9lbs  the same hood in Fiberglass weights 40Lbs. 

Aluminum .063 bodies can be made light.  My current car has a full body I built to be light and it weighs 84Lbs. If you include the Radiator scoop and interior panels its 112Lbs (with the vinyl on the interior panels). 

I "think" laying up my current body in CF  vacuum bagged would be a lot less weight and I could do a cooler design, but I am guessing  because it may require bracing and may require 2x the numbers of Dzus fasteners etc.

So want to get an idea if anyone weighed theirs and whether they have extra bracing etc ... thanks

 

[Chingon619]

I couldn't believe how heavy body panels could be. I got my frame with full body and inside panels and panels everywhere. Well, I couldn't stand the poor visibility so I just left most of it off. I'm not sure if I like the cool factor enough to have it on but one thing is for sure... I have to move it around the garage from time to time and man it's a lot of pieces and they get heavy! 

On my next car I want a subtle body and hopefully light too! You always do some killer work on your stuff so looking forward to your progress for sure. 

 

[Bobalos]

Greg @ UtraCarbon does some REALLY amazing work.  for a while he was doing a bunch of video's on his FB page for things he was doing that were kind of strange or different.  I think he killed his page, but maybe he has some stuff up on YouTube.  Maybe worthwhile picking his brain for some idea's. 

https://www.ultra-carbon.com/about/

 

[Fullthrottleguy]

Greg @ UtraCarbon does some REALLY amazing work.  for a while he was doing a bunch of video's on his FB page for things he was doing that were kind of strange or different.  I think he killed his page, but maybe he has some stuff up on YouTube.  Maybe worthwhile picking his brain for some idea's. 

https://www.ultra-carbon.com/about/

He does some very nice work ....

 

[Rockwood]

The CF bodies I've seen on Funcos appear to be wet layup vacuum bagged type jobs (whether in an autoclave or not, dunno).  If you want lightest of the light, pre-preg dry layup is the best, but will cost you 4x in materials.

You can get good results from wet layup, and it's definitely easier to do, especially for painted surfaces since dry carbon is harder to get to a smooth finish due to less resin.  Expect wet layup to be about 2x the weight, but should be plenty strong enough to withstand regular sand car use as a non-structural component. 

Either way, for one-off type things, it's super labor intensive as you'll need to make the plugs and molds, but only use them once.

 

[1tonfun]

Dont know chit about CF layup methods etc. This car is a carbon fiber body, all I do know is when the panels are off the car, they are flimsy and very light weight

 

[Fullthrottleguy]

The CF bodies I've seen on Funcos appear to be wet layup vacuum bagged type jobs (whether in an autoclave or not, dunno).  If you want lightest of the light, pre-preg dry layup is the best, but will cost you 4x in materials.

You can get good results from wet layup, and it's definitely easier to do, especially for painted surfaces since dry carbon is harder to get to a smooth finish due to less resin.  Expect wet layup to be about 2x the weight, but should be plenty strong enough to withstand regular sand car use as a non-structural component. 

Either way, for one-off type things, it's super labor intensive as you'll need to make the plugs and molds, but only use them once.

I have done my share of CF - as long as you use a Kelvar backer and epoxy CF gets super strong when vacuum bagged, autoclaves are for Aerospace and McLarens and requires pre impregnated CF or its too much work   I was a partner in a Cobra replica company so we made lots of molds  but its always been well supported pieces like  complete bodies, or like the Cobra hood and most hoods and fenders their is an Outside and inside panel that are sandwiched construction (sometimes foam filled) or for sand cars it seems that like @1tonfun said they are going to be flimsy. It seems complex unsupported Sand Car bodies need some bracing not to crack, or the shapes cannot be too complex.  I built a bunch Sand car parts out of CF and sold them at the SANDshow early on - they were too expensive (no HP wars on those days ...)

I did just side panels on my old sand car and my wife's car (epoxy) but they were simple.  My car has CF floors right now - but those were flat and easy (I bought the CF)

I think I am going to give it a shot on the next car and see how it holds up 

 

[1tonfun]

My car is a retired class 10 car that was raced for 2 years before I picked it up. I know the original owner had the carbon fiber body made to save weight. No cracks or body issues yet. It is held on by the same dzus buttons that the fiberglass body used. Doesn't have any additional supports or bracing, it does fit tight to the frame when on the car. It is a simple body without anything hanging out there that would require additional support.

 

[Rockwood]

I have done my share of CF - as long as you use a Kelvar backer and epoxy CF gets super strong when vacuum bagged, autoclaves are for Aerospace and McLarens and requires pre impregnated CF or its too much work   I was a partner in a Cobra replica company so we made lots of molds  but its always been well supported pieces like  complete bodies, or like the Cobra hood and most hoods and fenders their is an Outside and inside panel that are sandwiched construction (sometimes foam filled) or for sand cars it seems that like @1tonfun said they are going to be flimsy. It seems complex unsupported Sand Car bodies need some bracing not to crack, or the shapes cannot be too complex.  I built a bunch Sand car parts out of CF and sold them at the SANDshow early on - they were too expensive (no HP wars on those days ...)

I did just side panels on my old sand car and my wife's car (epoxy) but they were simple.  My car has CF floors right now - but those were flat and easy (I bought the CF)

I think I am going to give it a shot on the next car and see how it holds up 

Lol, just do it man   :biggrin:

Either way, I think skinning an existing chassis shouldn’t be too hard, and should save weight over a similar aluminum structure. Depends on if you want that KATG diaper booty or not though. :biggrin: