I'm a carbon fiber whore

[rxrep]

Someone come take this stuff from me before I cover my whole car in it.





Initial overlay of CF on to lower center grille. Once base resin sets, I'll cut a cross-pattern in the spaces and wrap cloth around to back side. The spaces have no resin on the cloth, so they won't be rigid. I'll apply a resin coat to the back side of the mesh and then apply cloth around to back. This whole trim CF front end is gonna be sweet..... if you like that kinda stuff.

[Larson7.62]

wait, where will this go on?

[rxrep]

wait, where will this go on?

This is lower center grille in front of FMIC. The upper center and the fog grilles got their black paint base done tonight and I start wrapping them tomorrow. My splitter is this weekend's project. The headlights should be done soon, too.

[Larson7.62]

Oh I see, I didn't realize that was a grille.

[notob6]

So where are you getting all this carbon fiber and resin and how much is it costing you? and how different is it from laying fiberglass?

this might be overkill, but it will probably look badass. and original

[martini]

correction.... you are just a whore

[AudiA4Turbo22]

wow dibs on ur car!

[HeymyAudi]

I would love to redo my pieces in my car with this do you have a write up or how we can do this?

[golgo13]

where is the final pics for your headlights???

[A4natomical]

hmmmm.....carbon fiber wrapped splitter

[romell]

carbon fiber wrapped front window...

that would be SICK

[agart]

Props for having the patience to do this. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to cut out each individual hole in the mesh. Should look pretty sweet

[LampyB]

yup i really want to know where you can get this from as well...?? great idea man, it's going to look SICK on your silver ride. have you considered powder coating your RS4 reps in gunmetal? there's a silver B6 S4 in Denver that i see once in a while with this and in person it's one of the best looking setups i've ever seen. there's also a silver B5 S4 in Boulder rocking the same look, and again i couldn't take my eyes off of it....

[B6Lovin]

so lee, what's next? gauge cluster trim? shift knob? ebrake handle? HEADLINER???

(i've seen all those btw [not on a4's though], even the headliner looks cool as hell hahaha)

[vinny.dtw]

^no himself. He's going to wrap his hands, arms, legs, and then his penis. Then it will be hard all the time.

[bmags88]

^no himself. He's going to wrap his hands, arms, legs, and then his penis. Then it will be hard all the time.

Suspect

[rxrep]

I don't have enough cloth and resin for the 'ol johnson.
This stuff isn't hard </pun>. But I guess that's all relative, as this is coming from someone with the patience (or OCD) to clean his undercarriage with a toothbrush.
It is almost the same thing as doing fiberglass, except you have to plan ahead more because the weave just can't be all over the place. You have to kind of figure how a weave will wrap around curves and look aestheticaly pleasing and not crooked, wheras with fiberglass you're kinda just slapping it on there because you know you'll be sanding it down and painting. You figure out with test fits which portion of whatever intricate part you're doing won't be seen, so you can wrap TO that point and then fudge any weaves there. Just lots of patience. And time. Like mentioned, cutting each and every grille hole takes a while, but I just crank the tunes and grab a beer and time passes quick in the garage. If this was a DD car, it'd be hard to do. I'm not nearly as good as the guys who do this alot, and I'm sure real CF guys could tear my shit apart. But it still looks really good, I think.
I'll have headlight shots in the next days. I'm trying to figure out where to put the power block for the LED and the relay for the LED dimming. My LED's aren't in yet so I'm still using those cheap Chinese flexible strips.
My ultimate plan (and most of it is at least in the initial overlay stage) is:

Front and lower center grilles, fog grilles, headlight OUTER portion of black half of housing (yes, that's ballah), OE snorkel so it matches the Carbonio, and support trim piece that holds radiator (the thing that the headlight tabs crew in to). I always thought that the front top portion of the bay lokked bland compared to all the other trims pieces I have. I think it will be cool to see that whole support piece across done in carbon fiber and those bland plastic tops of the headlights (and the tabs) done also.
Finally, the rear trunk trim piece right under the trunk lid, and the rear rings. I'm looking at doing the front rings in silver CF, maybe. It all depends on if the plating shop can re-chrome my projector lens surrounds. They say they can without affecting the CF trim around the outside. If so, then I'll keep the rings chrome. If not, then I may do the fronts of those lens surround in silver weave and the front rings to match.
I may look at doing the side mirror bases, and the outer pillar trims between windows. But that may be overkill. We'll see. I never liked CF, but it really looks hot against a black or a silver car. I'm addicted.

eBay is where to find it all. It can be cheap if you hook up on someone's scrap material. I learned by watching youtube how-to vids on overlaying, and applying the concepts to what I already knew from laying out fiberglass.
In what little DIY I have planned out, it's more of a here a short explanation with a pic, and if you can't figure it out from that, you shouldn't be trying this type of thing. I won't go in to how to do CF, as there are tons of resources on it. Just look at any Asian tuner forum, lol.

[rxrep]

Oh, forgot to mention in the long-winded post above, that I'm lowering my splitter. There will be a 2" high (less as it wraps around to the side) flexible foam piece that will sit on top of the splitter and follow the contour of the front lower, and sit about 1/2" back from the front lower bumper lip. The splitter will be connected to this, and the entire splitter with the new "drop" piece will be overlayed. I think it will give the front a more aggressive look. You may have to see it to understand. Basically, the splitter won't butt right up to the bumper; there will be a roughly 2" piece the whole way around that "drops" the splitter down, but will appear to be part of the splitter itself.

[Capt. Obvious]

I was wondering when someone would do this. It should look pretty darn good.

I vote you make a carbon overlay for the roof next.

[F16HTON]

Roof overlay will not work...the CF and metal expand at different rates...will not last outside for a full summer...

Would look great for a couple of months though.

[rxrep]

I was wondering when someone would do this. It should look pretty darn good.

I vote you make a carbon overlay for the roof next.

I was thinking of that, but I have to keep watch on being "too much". The true test is to pull in to any parking lot full of teenage ricers. If they like it, it has to go, lol.


With the roof, I'd really have to do more research, because I'd have to worry about the whole piece peeling off at high speeds. I'd need to make sure that wouldn't happen. I'm not sure the resin itself would be enough to hold it to the prepped metal.

EDIT: Plus, the thing that Greg said ^^^^ which I hadn't thought of.

[bmags88]

I bought some 2x2 carbon fiber on ebay for $20 shipped. I might do some interior peices. we'll see how it goes.

[Capt. Obvious]

I was thinking more along the lines of basically making a giant roof "sticker" that is held on with 3M tape but also "tucks" under the wind sheild (you'd have to remove it to install it though), rear window and the rain gutters.

I bet you could make it work with a little thought.

[F16HTON]

That could be easily done...instead of 3M tape you could use polyurethan body parts adhesive.

Only real issue is that moisture will ge underneath.

[dirtybrd]

GAY!

[actlsub9]

I was thinking more along the lines of basically making a giant roof "sticker" that is held on with 3M tape but also "tucks" under the wind sheild (you'd have to remove it to install it though), rear window and the rain gutters.

I bet you could make it work with a little thought.

Like this... http://www.slymachines.com/catalog/p...n-fiber-sheets

Although the largest sheet they sell is 18.9"x47" so you couldn't do the roof in one shot.

[rxrep]

GAY!

Surprised it took about 24 posts before someone went there, lol.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time I tried something only to look at the end result and say "WTF was I thinking"?
We'll see.
And it would ghayX2 if the car didn't have performance mods, with more to come on that end, too.

[F16HTON]

Like this... http://www.slymachines.com/catalog/p...n-fiber-sheets

Although the largest sheet they sell is 18.9"x47" so you couldn't do the roof in one shot.

You could split the roof right down the middle and alternate the weave. Get a perfect template made and it can be cut on a vinyl plotter for perfection.

[dirtybrd]

Surprised it took about 24 posts before someone went there, lol.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time I tried something only to look at the end result and say "WTF was I thinking"?
We'll see.
And it would ghayX2 if the car didn't have performance mods, with more to come on that end, too.

I only say that because personally I don't care for it. Like I said earlier it looks like colored fiberglass. I do like it in it's weight reducing aspect, but adding to a car just isn't my cup of tea. And Lee you have a beautiful car, i hate to see it CF'd out.

[dirtybrd]

Lee do you run spacers on your wheels? They are VMR reps, correct?

[rxrep]

VMR version 1's. OG, baby. Version 2's are for puzzies.
They are et42, and I run 8mm spacers all the way around for total et34.

[PRY4SNO]

Props on your adventure Lee, I'm sure it'll look sick so long as you don't go too far out.

Good luck, and don't forget to post pictures of your progress!