How to tell if product is carbonfiber

[vtracer20]

I wana figure out if a product i recieved is real carbonfiber and not a carbonfiber look. What i'm trying to figure out, (cause i dont really know the process) can carbon fiber be laid over plastic or plastic laid on CF? Cuase the back side of the product is plastic with OEM audi numbers. (turns out to be for a lower spoiler). Hers are a couple pics of the CF:




now the weave does shine in the light and when you turn it it looks like cf. I just wana make sure i got the product as described. They say the product is A+ carbon fiber. Just need opinions. Dont get me wrong, the product looks great but i'm just skeptical.

[apatchin]

looks pretty legit, at least in the last pic you can see the weave. hard to tell though. ill post a pic of foe cf in a minute. now that im looking at fake stuff, urs looks real.

[p1nk50ck]

well, there's a couple things. there's carbon fiber, and there's woven fiberglass that has been dyed to look like CF.

it will be pretty difficult to tell the two apart. CF is pretty expensive, so most places will make the product out of fiberglass, and just use CF as the top part, so that it looks pretty. some places will just use the woven dyed fiberglass, and there will be no carbon fiber in it at all.

real carbon fiber, if treated with exoxy/resin will be extremely stiff, and is very lightweight. surprisingly lightweight. however, in order for CF to be structurally sound, it needs to be layered. most CF also has been treated with a gelcoat or clearcoat, so that it looks nice.


how can you tell? it'd probably be pretty hard without tearing it apart, or without comparing it to a comparable product that is definitely made of CF.

[apatchin]

foe:


real:


these pics are just cf which is layed over trim. so not a molded piece.

as you can tell its very hard to tell, esp with just pics, like p1nk50ck said probably going to have to take it apart to find out. if its just for looks i think it looks great.

[vtracer20]

yea...im not putting the product at all. the product looks great but i just wanted an understanding the differance (if any) you can tell by a real or fake without actually destroying the product.

I just dont know with my product because they used plastic on the backside and for the tabs so it clips in. But what i'm kinda leaning towards is they bought a s4 valence and maybe applied a layer of CF over that or used a s4 val to create a mold. Either way it looks great, the finish is very very nice.

[p1nk50ck]

I just dont know with my product because they used plastic on the backside and for the tabs so it clips in. But what i'm kinda leaning towards is they bought a s4 valence and maybe applied a layer of CF over that or used a s4 val to create a mold. Either way it looks great, the finish is very very nice.

well, more likely than not, the top layer is CF, and the rest is fiberglass for structure. i agree with them using plastic tabs, because fiberglass gets brittle, and would probably crack and break. if they used a soft enough plastic, it should hopefully be pliable enough that it won't just snap like fiberglass.

CF usually costs around 50 bucks for a square yard. woven fiberglass is closer to around 15 bucks for a square yard. if you're going to be mass producing these things, it's much more expensive to make parts completely out of CF, especially when the part that you're manufacturing does not require a high strength to weight ratio, and is primarily for looks.