Carbon/kevlar foam core Splitter

[NXRIDE]

Hi guys,

Been a long time since Iv been on here. Anyways Iv been dreaming of building a splitter for my S14 for a while. I was going to build a plywood one and slap a layer of fibre glass over it. But I just found out that a mate of my dads is hard out into composites, but mainly in boat building.

He said he is happy to teach me how to work with composites for any car of boat stuff, so that got me thinking about my splitter and if I make it of carbon with foam core and vacuum bagged etc.

Then I was thinking, Carbon is used because of its tensile strength and stiffness right? So this will be especially important on the top of the splitter to stop it bending down at speed.

But the underneath is under compression, and its also susceptible to road impact/scraping. So would it make sense to make this from Kevlar?

Im thinking of doing 2 layers of carbon on top, and then for the bottom, 1 layer of carbon against the foam and a layer of kevlar on the outside to protect it from road damage. Also how does carbon/kevlar weave handle scraping?

Can you guys see any problems with this?

Also what type of weave is best? I dont really care too much about the look, like I wont go twill over plain just because it looks better. Would unidirectional be ok or should I really be going for a crossing weave? If weave should I be having one layer 90* and the other at 45*?

Sorry to ask so many questions, its going to be expensive for the materials alone and I dont want to make something that wont work.
Thanks.

[TopElement]

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2 plies on each side is likely not enough, at least in the commonly used fabric weights. About 30 total oz/sq yd should give you a good compromise of strength and weight. For an everage size foam core splitter, it should end up below 15 lbs.
You may not need much fiber orientation across the width of the splitter, but it will need stiffness/strength front to rear, and fibers oriented at 45* will reduce warping.

Make sure you use a good epoxy and keep everything very clean when working