Topic: carbon fiber skinning

[Helios]

I'm wondering if anyone here has tried carbon fiber skinning? I'm not talking about the 3M Di-NOC carbon fiber film. I'm talking about real carbon fiber applied over an existing plastic, metal, or fiberglass piece then clear coated and polished? I've watched a video online of the process. It looks fairly straight forward, but time consuming. The pieces I would want to cover will be rather large...oh, let's say the size of Norm's side skirts.

[Sol Asylum]

What's the benefit of doing this?  If all you want is the carbon fiber look then I would say use the film or maybe look into hydoprinting.

If you are just going to add a layer of carbon fiber to the part you will have a lot of time involved prepping the part because you don't want the CF to delaminate off after you are done. You also might have to worry about the added thickness causing clearance issues when installing the part(s).  Not to mention how much time and money you are going to spend just trying to do a layer of CF over the part.  If you haven't worked with fiberglass cloth before you are in for a learning curve when it comes to laying down the material so that it is straight and free of air bubbles.

[Helios]

The benefit is that the film does not look good enough and I'm concerned that it will peel over time as a few of the film projects I've done have already. Skinning makes the part indistinguishable from a full carbon fiber piece and it will last. At most you might add 1/16th" to the thickness of where it will contact the body of the car. I doubt it will cause clearance/ fitment issues.

[GXP_Matt]

Agreed, with SA, you better be a pro lamination expert or there will be wrinkles/uneven areas/ gaps in the carbon where you can see the paint underneath.  Why not just leave the skirts body color?  I'm really not a fan of making things look like they're made of CF when they aren't, and if you get close enough to tell that it isn't film you'll be able to tell that it's just a cosmetic layer.

[Helios]

I haven't ordered the side skirts yet. So, they'd still be primered ready to paint from Norm if I decided to go ahead with this particular project. So you mean to tell me that you can tell that the following examples are just skinned and not full carbon fiber? You've got better eyes than me then.

[1LILNDN]

I don't think they were done by someone just starting out . trial and error will be what your in for . Just like the Film being C/F or other finish . I watched ASAP do the Film in Denver and it took him about 5-6 hr. just to do the Hood film . ( Just the front of hood and around headlights N grill )

[Helios]

I'm thinking of using this patterned carbon fiber:

[TomatoSoup]

There was a company that did that process on parts.  They did it on a couple of Solstice 'boomerangs', but it was $1000+, IIRC, just to do that!

STOP THE PRESSES: I found the link... http://www.apsisusa.com/Lamination%20Real%20Carbon/Lamination%20Black%20Carbon/Pontiac/Solstice/Pontiac%20Sostice%2006-UP.htm

[cdflint]

I have Madmods interior pieces that were done by that company. He mostly does Corvettes and can get really costly but it looks great. I have the rear pillar, boomerang dash, dash handle, insert next to the handle on dash and doors, door sills, under the steering wheel and the pieces on the side of the dash next to the doors. I got a great deal from Madmod.

[TomatoSoup]

Pppppthpthpthpthttt!