Carbon Fiber

[linet90]

After looking into carbon fiber trim panels prices 700-1000, I can’t bring myself to spend that kind of money on a set.
So I looked into carbon fiber tape, I can do the carbon fiber tape myself but I haven seen it in person and I will learn how to use real carbon fiber before I spend 900 on a set
Has anyone seen the tape in person? Compared it to real carbon fiber? Opinions?

[hercfe]

if its looks you want, the carbon look vinyl or tape is just fine. Looks good, but up close its super easy to tell that its not real carbon fiber. So don't plan on showing your car if you go that route. If you actually want performance from it, well, you should already know the answer. Best thing is to do it. The tape is cheap. If you really like the look, go for it with the real stuff. FWIW, molding c/f is not really that hard. Its no different than fiberglass. Its all in the prep work. Dry carbon is pretty tough to do though. Vacuum molding c/f isn't too hard for smaller pieces as well. I knew a guy who did a one off front splitter with brake ducts incorporated into it on his time attack car. it was beautiful. The mold itself and its designs got passed around the interwebs for a while, now a lot of people have the same thing on their street car.

[linet90]

I was afraid the tape looked to fake up close and I don’t really want to show up to a car show with it. I guess imp going for the real stuff, ill just layer it on the trim with epoxy, shouldn’t be too hard I have done fiber glass work before.
Thanks for the help and opinion

[hender]

i'm pretty sure anyone who gets the trim panel pieces in CF is strictly doing it for the looks ;) there would be no performance gains

by the by, PYSpeed has some carbon fiber wraps.

http://www.pyspeed.com/product-p/rd-8001.htm

and

http://www.pyspeed.com/product-p/rd-8081.htm

now the 3M I'm guessing is higher quality. I might just buy a piece to see if it will work on our interior trim, however, the obvious problem is whether or not it will fit back into place after wrapping it with this stuff. anyone have any hints? not sure how thick this stuff is and how much room we have to play with...i don't want to skin the old trim like Matt@oCarbon does because if it looks like crap after a few years im stuck with gnarly CF and a gnarly skinned trim.

absolutely not interested in shelling out the hundreds for the real stuff...this is just an idea if it can be done for cheap, otherwise..i don't really care ;)

[Cronic]

Honestly you bought a car in a luxury segment you should be able to put a little cash down on making the interior look nice if your really into modding it. Price shouldn't be an issue. I mean you wouldn't say I can't bring myself to spend 700-1000 on a set of rims for your car would you? Also I think if I am right I saw matt@oCarbon does this for around 500-600 slightly cheaper than you were expecting.

[hender]

because I took out a second mortgage to pay for the leasing of this car because i wanna look hawt driving away from my rented apartment. duh.

/that's right. mortgage on a rented apartment.
//i love it when people tell me how i should spend my money.

[Cronic]

because I took out a second mortgage to pay for the leasing of this car because i wanna look hawt driving away from my rented apartment. duh.

/that's right. mortgage on a rented apartment.
//i love it when people tell me how i should spend my money.

lol!

[hender]

really though, not trying to sound like an ass :p i just mentioned that I don't care a lot about the trim. No it wouldn't ruin me to spend the extra few hundred on the real deal...but it's not something i really care about. I mean, IF I can get a decent-looking CF pattern on it for $50 (and have some leftover to do other applications) then why not!

[Cronic]

hender my reply was to the original poster. Not you man lol. Do as you please I guess I just know for a 35-40k car I want to put only the good stuff on it.

[Blake P]

Do as you please I guess I just know for a 35-40k car I want to put only the good stuff on it.

+1. I'm of the mindset that I'd rather do it right or not at all. However, what's "right" is strictly a personal choice. If you're happy with "CF look" then more power to you.

[DavidB8]

You don't have to go the full blown clearcoat route. I am but this still looked good to me. Check out this link.

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...bon+fibre+tape

[hender]

meh I ordered some of the 3M stuff I've read good things and lets face it, if you guys are putting CF Anything on there it's strictly for the look. I don't think oCarbon's trims are going to reduce any weight (if anything, it'll add a few grams) but I'll agree it looks legit. I am only exploring this option to see if it will look any good...if it looks cheap and is obviously just some vinyl on top, it's not going/staying on.

taking one for the team, perhaps

Do as you please I guess I just know for a 35-40k car I want to put only the good stuff on it.

again, if it looks like it's cheapening the car im not gonna do it.
the 3m di-noc stuff has actual texture, not just a printed sheet of vinyl.
if it looks almost as good as regular CF (if need be, throw something on there to make it glossy) then ... well, i get the same results for 1/15 the price.
i see people on here spending $4000 on rims that look as boring as my OEM 17's and i then realize 'good stuff' is subjective.

and hey, if it looks like crap, i'll let you guys know and we can all take a lesson.

[linet90]

Honestly you bought a car in a luxury segment you should be able to put a little cash down on making the interior look nice if your really into modding it. Price shouldn't be an issue. I mean you wouldn't say I can't bring myself to spend 700-1000 on a set of rims for your car would you? Also I think if I am right I saw matt@oCarbon does this for around 500-600 slightly cheaper than you were expecting.

I agree with you, I would like to put the best of the best on my car but as these trim pieces are only for looks I wanted to see if I could save some $ and use tape if it looked good enough. I think im going to order the supplies and try it out for myself, I hope for the best

[Cronic]

I agree with you, I would like to put the best of the best on my car but as these trim pieces are only for looks I wanted to see if I could save some $ and use tape if it looked good enough. I think im going to order the supplies and try it out for myself, I hope for the best

Good luck be sure to let us see some pic's of the completed project.

[Cronic]

I agree with you, I would like to put the best of the best on my car but as these trim pieces are only for looks I wanted to see if I could save some $ and use tape if it looked good enough. I think im going to order the supplies and try it out for myself, I hope for the best

Good luck be sure to let us see some pic's of the completed project.

[matt@oCarbon]

Few things:

1) I encourage anyone to try and make carbon fiber parts if they want it for a hobby to do so, I liked it so much I made a career out of it. However, I would tell anyone that's attempting to make their own parts simply to save a few bucks to reconsider because they have no idea what they are getting into. Doing fiberglass is cheap and easy because the materials are cheap and imperfections can be sanded out. Carbon fiber is a whole different animal. It took me a long time and a lot of money to produce parts that were even remotely decent looking. Looking back at some of the sets I made a few years ago makes me cringe because they are so bad.

2) Carbon fiber parts are so expensive because of the amount of work that goes into them. While its not overly complicated, its massively labor intensive. I see a few comments in this thread "I'll just put some epoxy on it." I really wish it was that simple. If you have a lot of time to spare, and don't mind putting in the work then go for it. But if you think its going to be easy and something you can half ass, I'd stay away.

3) Quality materials are everything, and quality materials cost money. Whatever you do, don't skimp on materials costs. A while ago I was experimenting with different resins to see if I could find one that was a bit easier to work with. I made a set and installed it for a customer, it looked fantastic. Here is a picture of a piece the day I installed it:



7 months later I had to replace it because it started to get all warped and wavy. The resin ended up being sub-par quality and couldn't handle the Arizona summer heat:




So I think if saving money is truly the end goal, for sure go with the vinyl wrap.

That being said, I think anyone that says the vinyl looks "almost as good" or "just as good" hasn't seen them side by side in person. You wouldn't believe how many customers of mine are people that tried the vinyl and were completely unsatisfied with the look of it.

If anyone has any carbon fiber related questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

[hoppy6698]

Not seen the textured stuff before, but now I'm intrigued. Not for the interior, but just like the video on the bike, might be cool to put on the plastic engine cover or the cowl as you open the trunk? Just two cheap pieces that come to mind. Not a lot of flair, but safe to practice on I would think.

[Blake P]

Great reply, Matt. You are a true professional and we are lucky to have you here at AZ!

[linet90]

Few things:

1) I encourage anyone to try and make carbon fiber parts if they want it for a hobby to do so, I liked it so much I made a career out of it. However, I would tell anyone that's attempting to make their own parts simply to save a few bucks to reconsider because they have no idea what they are getting into. Doing fiberglass is cheap and easy because the materials are cheap and imperfections can be sanded out. Carbon fiber is a whole different animal. It took me a long time and a lot of money to produce parts that were even remotely decent looking. Looking back at some of the sets I made a few years ago makes me cringe because they are so bad.

2) Carbon fiber parts are so expensive because of the amount of work that goes into them. While its not overly complicated, its massively labor intensive. I see a few comments in this thread "I'll just put some epoxy on it." I really wish it was that simple. If you have a lot of time to spare, and don't mind putting in the work then go for it. But if you think its going to be easy and something you can half ass, I'd stay away.

3) Quality materials are everything, and quality materials cost money. Whatever you do, don't skimp on materials costs. A while ago I was experimenting with different resins to see if I could find one that was a bit easier to work with. I made a set and installed it for a customer, it looked fantastic. Here is a picture of a piece the day I installed it:



7 months later I had to replace it because it started to get all warped and wavy. The resin ended up being sub-par quality and couldn't handle the Arizona summer heat:




So I think if saving money is truly the end goal, for sure go with the vinyl wrap.

That being said, I think anyone that says the vinyl looks "almost as good" or "just as good" hasn't seen them side by side in person. You wouldn't believe how many customers of mine are people that tried the vinyl and were completely unsatisfied with the look of it.

If anyone has any carbon fiber related questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

As Blake said you are a true professional, thanks for your honesty and support. I understand that my first try isn’t going to come out anywhere near perfect but that’s how you learn and I take pride in my work and if it doesn’t look the greatest I can still say it was my own work. I’ll be ordering my supplies from select products I’m sure someone can help me out and get the right stuff. Thanks for the open questions too

[macuser]

i would personally not try to carbon fiber anything on the interior myself, but below is a thread about it.

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...t=carbon+fiber

[matt@oCarbon]

Great reply, Matt. You are a true professional and we are lucky to have you here at AZ!

Thanks Blake.

As Blake said you are a true professional, thanks for your honesty and support. I understand that my first try isn’t going to come out anywhere near perfect but that’s how you learn and I take pride in my work and if it doesn’t look the greatest I can still say it was my own work. I’ll be ordering my supplies from select products I’m sure someone can help me out and get the right stuff. Thanks for the open questions too

If that's the outlook and attitude you have from the get go, you'll do just fine. Good luck.

[hender]

thanks for the reply, matt. I'm not trying to replicate your work at all. I followed your post regarding the first set of b8 trim you did since day one, and while I was skeptical of the amount of work required--your progress showed how it is PLENTY of work. I wouldn't bother tackling that by myself, just too much work for something I don't have the passion for, and therefore, would probably get half-assed results ;)

But just to clarify, this stuff isn't genuine CF weave, it's just the most accurate CF-replica I could find. It's adhesive on one side so it's just a matter of heating it up a little and carefully spreading it on. Maybe I can research to throw some lacquer on there to get glossy, but really, I'm just trying this sh*t out to see if it can pass a basic visual inspection . IF not, into the garbage!

I'll post pics when I get it so you guys can rub it in my face

[linet90]

Thanks Blake.



If that's the outlook and attitude you have from the get go, you'll do just fine. Good luck.

Thanks Matt