[Falkon45]

Okay, okay, I know this may be old, but it's been going through my head for the past year, trying to find a way to cut weight and make the supra look a little better.

I figured carbon fiber would be the best way to go to do it, but unfortunately, it's gonna be hella expensive, and most likely, a one-off.

I can't draw worth a shit, but I have it perfectly designed in my head. It's just going to be the Front facia, hood, rear bumper, side skirts, fender flares, and maybe the spoiler if I don't decide to remove it.

The only real augmentations would be the addition of side skirts, and maybe a widening of the rear flares and I bigger opening for a front mount intercooler. I might lower the sides of the rear bumper, but leave the middle of it at factory height, so air can still travel through easily. Not to mention, leave room for a rear diffuser.

How do I plan on doing this? Well, I'm pretty sure that the Navy will have some CF somewhere, and if I can pull some connections, and meet some people, it'll be a matter of paying them for it, and making molds. (something else I don't know how to do.)

As of now, it's all a pipe dream, but I figured that if I didn't tell anyone, it'd just fade away.

Let me know what you think.

 

[Supra Bob]

Actually, there is already a carbon fiber hood out there for us. I forget the company that makes them tho. There was a GB on them a short while back.

 

[zank]

Actually, there is already a carbon fiber hood out there for us. I forget the company that makes them tho. There was a GB on them a short while back.

didnt that carbon fiber hood come with a scoop?

 

[Supra Bob]

It was optional. You could also have gotten it in fiberglass

 

[Sparky]

Actually, you can still get them; the group buy was for the discount price.
http://www.carbonfibrefx.com/products.htm

 

[Supra Bob]

Speaking of which, does anyone have pics of theirs installed yet?

 

[zo]

The body kit sounds like a good idea. I don't know how much weight you would really save though. A lot of carbon fiber parts are reinforced for strength with fiberglass. I am sure it won't be real heavy, but I just don't think you'll save a lot of weight off the bumpers. If you're serious though, you might want to contact a company like Carbon Fiber Manufacturing. They make custom carbon fiber parts. I am sure it is really expensive though. Good luck!

http://www.compositeshop.com/index.html

 

[Falkon45]

hey, thanks for that man. I'll have to check them out.

As for the weight, I'm trying to figure out how to reinforce certain parts using carbon fiber itself. That's kinda why I said it may just be one off.

I'm hopeing for a 35% to 50% weight reduction in body parts. After that, it only up to striping tar and sound deadning material, and a lot of light weight parts.

It's gonna suck for a daily driver, but just imagin the looks if I could ever take it to japan. :shock:

 

[dohc82]

I have been looking into foam core construction. It is strong and doesnt require molds. I have found a recumbent bicycle kit that has a list of suppliers for CF, Kevlar and FG as well as the vinylester resins. Then last night I found a custom yacht company that uses the same foam core technique to build million dollar ocean going catamarans (yeah I'm dreaming) .
So if it will hold up to ocean cruising it should be more than strong enough for body parts.
Basically foam is sanded and formed to shape then layers of glass and resin are laid over. The foam is left in place for strength. The boat site claims 33% less weight and 33% more strength over the traditional fiberglass mold process.
Sounds good
-Wil

 

[dogstar]

this is kinda unrelated, but i seem to recall there was some discussion about cowl induction style hood scoops, but i cant remember what was eventually decided.

i happen to really like the look and i think it would look great on a supra, i just wouldnt want to screw up the cooling or intake abilities of the car to gain a little bit in looks.

 

[dohc82]

I think the idea was to increase air flow out of the engine compartment for cooling purposes and they werent happy with the results and decided against it.
But I could be wrong
Nascar uses this for air intake because of the high pressure area that develops at the base of the widsheild...probably the reason why air couldnt escape. Lower pressure in the engine compartment.
-Wil

 

[SupraFiend]

cowl induction has been around for a long time, and it does actually work, even though it seems it should do the opposite when you think about. We found that you could get air to flow out of a cowl vent if you had about an equal sized opening on the front of the hood. The CFX scooped hood can be made to do this, you just need to cut out a small section of the hood liner at the back. Theres a pic of this mod in here...

http://www.pbase.com/suprafiend/composite_hood_pics

But it was decided not to ship the hoods with this mod because many people wanted to use the scoop for a ram air intake. With the air from the scoop not flowing through the engine bay the cowl then reverts back to sucking air into the engine bay, which isn't the greatest for handling.

There have been at least 10 mk2 CFX hoods made and shipped, I don't know why no one other then myself has posted pics of theirs yet. Actually its probably because everyone but one went for the fiber glass hoods and are just waiting to get their car painted before installing them. Thats my excuse too, I have a fg one for my 85 but I don't want to drive around with it till I get the whole car sprayed as a white hood on a red car looks kinda silly. But soon! I didn't have insurance on my 85 when the cf hood was made, so I never got a chance to get over there and get a pic with it on unfortunatly.

 

[ITSUKI Drifter]

Rear hatch

I am not rtying to be off topic but... isn't it there was a topic about this at yahoo and also that there is also a guy who is trying to have a rear hatch made of carbon fiber... what happen to that rear hatch CF issue... have they made the hatch already

LMK
jay

 

[Supra Bob]

Last I heard the idea was nixed because there wasn't enough weight savings involved, and the hatch was too unstable to justify the cost...

Tho I most likely missed something.

 

[ITSUKI Drifter]

well I was out for a long time without an internet so I have no idea what happen to that post back at yahoo and kinda lazy to look it up at yahoo for there is a lot of topics in the forum.... well it is good to know about that...

 

[82Spearco]

I ordered one of the Carbon Fiber Hoods, with the scoop, and I will post pics of it, as soon as I get it. I think I was the last person on the list of those that participated in the group buy. I am hoping it will be here soon. It should look pretty cool on my Black P-type.

Anyway, back to the body-kit/weight-savings issue. If you really want to save weight, you would want to replace the quarter-panels with carbon-fiber ones. That would save you a lot more weight than just doing bumpers and side-skirts.

 

[Crocket]

re:

Hope I'm not repeating something that has already been answered, but what are the weight savings going from a stock hood to a fiberglass one?

Sonny

 

[Falkon45]

I ordered one of the Carbon Fiber Hoods, with the scoop, and I will post pics of it, as soon as I get it. I think I was the last person on the list of those that participated in the group buy. I am hoping it will be here soon. It should look pretty cool on my Black P-type.

Anyway, back to the body-kit/weight-savings issue. If you really want to save weight, you would want to replace the quarter-panels with carbon-fiber ones. That would save you a lot more weight than just doing bumpers and side-skirts.

Yeah, I know. i was thinking about doing the front Fenders too, but I think that if I were to do that, then I'd just havev to make a wide body kit. And me being a JDM freak, I'd make it all JGTC like, and then it'd just get out of control. But it would be a good idea if I was to ever make a race car.

 

[SupraFiend]

Re: re:

Hope I'm not repeating something that has already been answered, but what are the weight savings going from a stock hood to a fiberglass one?

Sonny

depends on the hood. If you get a stripper hood, one that requires hood pins and does not work with the factory struts, it can be as low as 10 pounds. Stock hood is 45 pounds. Most of the oem style fg hoods weighed in around 15 pounds. They're hand made so it varies a little.

 

[84MKII]

i would really be interested in a carbon fiber rear hatch wing, if anyone could make one. :roll: