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__________________ 08 FitSport (5MT) Storm Silver - My modded dd 09 FitSport (AT) Taffeta White - My stock GE8 as her dd 04 G35Coupe (6MT) Silver - My modded weekend touring car. 09 370Z (6MT) Silver - My weekend sports car.
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Looks good. Quality work. no stretching or anythng.
It would be more badass if you took off the roof and did a full real CF roof cap :)
That'd actually make the roof heavier (cf material + the loads of resin). Although if you made a mold of the roof and made it out of pure carbon/fiberglass, then I can see that being beneficial. However, if the roof is a load bearing/structural piece at all, that might pose a problem.
looks good! but, how is the reliability on the vinyl against the elements? I actually bought a very small roll of carbon fiber vinyl just to see and I have to say that it looks amazing and it stretches. Its made by a Japanese company called Hasepro.
looks good! but, how is the reliability on the vinyl against the elements? I actually bought a very small roll of carbon fiber vinyl just to see and I have to say that it looks amazing and it stretches. Its made by a Japanese company called Hasepro.
This stuff is rated to last 4 years, when applied to exteriors such as cars, and was designed to be used that way. I can't say about what you bought, because each manufacturer has their own way of making things and different ratings/quality, etc
That'd actually make the roof heavier (cf material + the loads of resin). Although if you made a mold of the roof and made it out of pure carbon/fiberglass, then I can see that being beneficial. However, if the roof is a load bearing/structural piece at all, that might pose a problem.
It's always nice to have options/alternatives :)
-Don
I would have thought that CF would be lighter than the metal from which the roof is constructed? Also, isn't the weight/strength of the carbon fiber entirely dependent on your fiber:resin ratio?
I've never laid CF before (though I've been researching to try it out :D) and from what I've seen, everyone seems to suggest that honing your techniques to be able to use less resin would yield a stronger, lighter piece? Plus, I would think that, as long as you retain the cross-members (or whatever they're called) that reinforce the roof, that using CF as your outer roof panel would make little difference in the rigidity/safety of the car.
just my .02
just to clarify...i was referring to the idea of completely removing the metal roof from the car and replacing it entirely with carbon fiber....not an overlay
Looks nice, but it should be noted that it's not carbon fiber, and definitely not dry carbon. It does have a similar look to dry carbon but dry carbon is prepreg carbon which must be vacuum bagged and cured in an autoclave. The material shown seems to be the popular carbon look vinyl.
Here is a shot of one of my full carbon roofs.
Looks nice, but it should be noted that it's not carbon fiber, and definitely not dry carbon. It does have a similar look to dry carbon but dry carbon is prepreg carbon which must be vacuum bagged and cured in an autoclave. The material shown seems to be the popular carbon look vinyl.
Here is a shot of one of my full carbon roofs.
Yes. Read my entire original/first post. It is stated that it's not real cf. Saying it is "dry carbon" is also just putting it in lemans terms, since dry carbon is a process and not a "look" per say. Although it is fairly distinctive from the other methods of carbon fiber manufacturing.
Looks nice, but it should be noted that it's not carbon fiber, and definitely not dry carbon. It does have a similar look to dry carbon but dry carbon is prepreg carbon which must be vacuum bagged and cured in an autoclave. The material shown seems to be the popular carbon look vinyl.
Here is a shot of one of my full carbon roofs.
I dont think anyone here actually thinks its real carbon fiber, lol.
It is just the look, a spinoff of the black roof trend, thats all.
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Can't wait to sell my truck, so I can finally buy a fit!
Looks nice, but it should be noted that it's not carbon fiber, and definitely not dry carbon. It does have a similar look to dry carbon but dry carbon is prepreg carbon which must be vacuum bagged and cured in an autoclave. The material shown seems to be the popular carbon look vinyl.
Here is a shot of one of my full carbon roofs.
That work looks nice! Though, in the original post, the OP clearly states that this is a vinyl wrap
Here are the pictures of the 1 series I did. As you can tell from the pictures, I also did his mirrors and tinted his tail lights for him using some film. I may be doing an E60 this friday with the cf material as well, if any local members want to drop by and check it out.
My apology for a statement this morning, I wasn't trying to infer the material was being misrepresented. In fact I read the original post and knew it was specified as vinyl but later came back and read some follow up post referring to resin and weight, which of course wouldn't be relevant to this material, I forgot it was clearly specified.
It is nice work and I've seen quite a lot of this material used on bimmerforums and northamericanmotoring. A company on bimmerforums refers to a similar material as Farbin Ciber, or something like that, pretty clever.
I would have thought that CF would be lighter than the metal from which the roof is constructed? Also, isn't the weight/strength of the carbon fiber entirely dependent on your fiber:resin ratio?
well theres alot of things that play into it.... but it really just boils down to practice, practice, practice.
if your talking weight vs. strength, the starting point is the type of carbon fiber you use. The weave stuff you see used in automotives is insanely heavy, for somthing like a roof thats generally flat you would definitely want to use a twill. From there its the skill of applying the right amount of resin, but also the mixture of the resin plays a huge part (and the mixture depends on how quickly you can lay and bag).
From there you get into the tricks... how many layers do you need? do you want to add in a layer or 2 of kevlar? You can greatly cut weight and increase the strength up to a factor of 4 by sandwiching in a honeycomb filler (the trick I was taught was to use 1/8" housing insulation, which will greatly reduce your overall costs and from the testing we did, the results were almost identical in strength and it came in at the same weight).
working with CF is such a black art. at least now, there are people out there willing to discuss their techniques. I was lucky enough to get into some project work with some really knowledgeable people who taught me alot (although its been a number of years and I'm starting to forget alot)
Thanks for all of the comments guys. Remember, we are all car enthusiasts here. If you ask me, I wouldn't use this material on any of my cars, but that's because I am not a fan of CF at all. However, I do know my vinyl, and this is the best cf looking material to come out on the market to date, and that's what excites me.
If anyone is talking about function over form, I have a turbo M3 and a widebody M3 track car, so I know about function ;) However, I personally think they go hand in hand together.
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