When the materials come out of the furnace, everything that was once a bicycle is gone. All that’s left is “carbon fiber fluff,” which is then into a swirling water bath. Inside the tank, binder fibers mix in with the fluff.

“These microscopic binder fibers act like little birds that help bond the carbon filaments together,” the episode explains. “A cycling drum gently blends the mixture and a vacuum pulls it through a filter at the top of the drum like a giant lint screen, forming the particles into one unified sheet.”

The carbon fiber is then shipped to Denver, N.C. to Crawford Composites, who take care of the molding and finishing. For the molding, a computer-assisted blade cuts the patterns that form the body of the race car. Workers lay three cutouts onto the mold and carefully wrap each molded panel, readying them for the autoclave. The autoclave is heated to 194 F and after six hours, the part is formed and ready for finishing for Crawford’s Formula Lites 15 car.

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