DIY glass fibre plenum chamber? Bad idea?

[DemonTSi at aol.com]

In a message dated 98-02-10 22:32:33 EST, kv at us.ibm.com writes:

<< When I was in College we used a material called Spectre from Allied Signal.
It
 claimed to be better than Kevlar in nearly all categories...  I think it may
 have had a temperature problem though... can't recall.   We used it to build
 20' x 4'x1"  solar panels for our GM Sunrayce entry.
 
 The stuff sure was hard to cut!
 
 There are also composite- composite fibers...  like Kevlar woven with glass
 etc...  that can lend some good properties also. >>

I'm not sure if I'm thinking of the same thing you're talking about, but I've
seen something called Syntex or Symtec (or something to that effect) that is
supposed to be A LOT stronger and tougher than kevlar. But it also costs a lot
more. I worked with kevlar a bit this past semester in school and was kinda
disappointed because it wasn't all that "it was cracked up to be." We had a
plate consisiting of 30 layers of pre-preg uniderectional kevlar (laid up in a
criss-cross fashion...each layer rotated 45degrees relative to previous layer)
and it couldn't stop a 9mm...albeit it was shot from point blank range. 
Anywayz, for this application (the intake plenum), I think the use of good
'ole, everyday carbon fiber is more than enough. And it sure will look cool
too. 

Van