Carbon fiber question?
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Banned
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 166
Originally Posted by 280gty
My custom CF interior on my Ford cost $8K and some of it is full carbon fiber and some carbon fiber overlaid.
My full CF parts was done by a guy who builds aftermarket CF parts for Ferraris and the overlaid CF parts were sent to an aircraft shop that worked on the Stealth Bomber.
The overlaid custom CF parts will need to be replaced by full CF because there is always inadequate 'bonding' to original parts... so I wasted half my money on those parts.
CF is fragile as hell and quality varies greatly depending on the guy doing the work and CF does not hold up well to shapes with sharp angles...in other words, there are some parts that can't be carbon fibered well.
For example, the C6 corvette has less CF body parts than originally intended by the manufacturer because some CF made parts did'nt hold up well during its production and they used fiberglass instead.
Even the most experienced CF guy can't gaurantee longevity on custom made parts CF parts... and it takes years of practice and your own natural creative ability to do it well, which means if you're not a perfectionist, you'll never be great at it.
Search on the net and there may be some guy making cheaper custom CF but quality and fitment probably suck.
High quality mass produced 100% CF parts are only made for Porsches and Ferraris, etc.
Mass produced CF parts for Hondas and such are not 100% Carbon Fiber...except maybe the CF Rooftops for the Honda S2000 which costs from $3,000 to $5,000.
According to my custom shop, if my entire car's exterior panels were handcrafted CF, it's would cost around $30,000+ and it would take almost a year to complete.
My full CF parts was done by a guy who builds aftermarket CF parts for Ferraris and the overlaid CF parts were sent to an aircraft shop that worked on the Stealth Bomber.
The overlaid custom CF parts will need to be replaced by full CF because there is always inadequate 'bonding' to original parts... so I wasted half my money on those parts.
CF is fragile as hell and quality varies greatly depending on the guy doing the work and CF does not hold up well to shapes with sharp angles...in other words, there are some parts that can't be carbon fibered well.
For example, the C6 corvette has less CF body parts than originally intended by the manufacturer because some CF made parts did'nt hold up well during its production and they used fiberglass instead.
Even the most experienced CF guy can't gaurantee longevity on custom made parts CF parts... and it takes years of practice and your own natural creative ability to do it well, which means if you're not a perfectionist, you'll never be great at it.
Search on the net and there may be some guy making cheaper custom CF but quality and fitment probably suck.
High quality mass produced 100% CF parts are only made for Porsches and Ferraris, etc.
Mass produced CF parts for Hondas and such are not 100% Carbon Fiber...except maybe the CF Rooftops for the Honda S2000 which costs from $3,000 to $5,000.
According to my custom shop, if my entire car's exterior panels were handcrafted CF, it's would cost around $30,000+ and it would take almost a year to complete.
Über User
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 9,532
From: lemont, Illinois
most of that stuff is not full carbon fiber because it is carbon fiber kevlar, its made to be stronger and still light, otherwise in a small collision teh hoods and crap would explode, witht eh kevlar mix it has the abillity to flex more. the CF NSX and Supra were not painted, if your gonna go through the trouble and money to get a custom carbon fiber body, why hide it? if it comes stock with carbon fiber than paint it all you wnat cause it will be advertised it as a carbon fiber body car. if it is jsut a hood or some small bolt on crap i say paint it, otherwise your car doesn't match.
Thread Starter
Banned
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 166
But i just want a carbon fiber body for its massive weight reduction not to show off. Also my car is known as the Black Crow (noticed the username?) and you cant call it black if the body isnt coloured black right? Also is the body of super cars 100% CF or a mix of CF with kevlar?
Last edited by BlackCrow; Jul 17, 2006 at 01:43 PM.
Thread Starter
Banned
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 166
But i dont want to gut out the interior. The only thing i'm going to do in there is a roll bar, bucket racing seats and racing harness. With a racing steering wheel (with those devices where you can switch steering wheels with a push of a button). I like the interior too much to have it gut out. What i basically want is for the Black Crow to become super car like.
Taste My Rainbow
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 2,418
From: LOST VEGAS
ok you want a fast light weight car and your not going to gut the interior??? Your just wasitng money. You wont get the amount of weight reduction that you want by leaving the interior in. Dump all of the A/C, Power options, stereo and speakers.
Big Poppa
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 4,499
From: Mission, British Columbia
carbon kevlar is easy to see the difference, it has yellow streaks through it, and is harder to work with, cause it doesnt cut very well, 15 foot cut will dull scissors in no time. carbon done in the correct way (vaccum bag, then autoclave cured) is not brittle, and very light and strong, it takes alot to break, carbon loves compression, if you bend a panel, it takes alot of flex to break, just aboot 60 deg of bend in fact. for awhile before jfairladyz got busy, he was creating 280zx parts that were very good quality, and were stuff not available on the market
Registered User
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 11
From: Lexington, KY
Seibon makes bumpers, doors, fenders, hatch, and hood for the car but thats about as close as youll get to a complete c/f car short of paying 100,000+. 100k may not even cover the R&D and molds. Then theres the c/f shortage right now that has driven the price of it way up.
Our Z has the c/f hood, hatch, and rear bumper. Then we made a roof overlay and overlays for the top of the fenders. Working with c/f is not easy to learn. We even used c/f cloth to make a headliner for the car, not easy. Even if you go to school and learn the stuff to do it and how to do it, you will require years of traing before you could thing of taking on a full car body project. We recently had the Cwest c/f bodied S2k in our sho and honestly, it didnt look that good and those guys are "experts" with more experience than most.
Just my .02. If you go through with it, i wish you luck.
Our Z has the c/f hood, hatch, and rear bumper. Then we made a roof overlay and overlays for the top of the fenders. Working with c/f is not easy to learn. We even used c/f cloth to make a headliner for the car, not easy. Even if you go to school and learn the stuff to do it and how to do it, you will require years of traing before you could thing of taking on a full car body project. We recently had the Cwest c/f bodied S2k in our sho and honestly, it didnt look that good and those guys are "experts" with more experience than most.
Just my .02. If you go through with it, i wish you luck.
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