Hi all,

Just thought id put the cat amongst the pigeons by telling you im about to wrap my B-pillars, scuttle panel and centre console with an incredibly real looking carbon film.

The stuff im going to use is not glossy, its matt and therefore shouldnt look toss.

This isnt a thread to debate the logistics etc of how with it not being a real composite its pointless.

This stuff is in fact a material with a plastic/polymer type laminate over the top of it, applied with a heat gun it is not going to be an easy task to carry out but im confident it will be easier than stripping the infamous "gunk" off my dash and since forming a nice professional looking satin coat on my pillars is out of my boundaries with a rattle can i say why the hell not

I shall keep you all updated on my progress.


Phill

Good luck.
If it goes on well it could be a good answer to a manky centre console,although I would have thought you need to get the old rubber coating of first.

pics mate please

2nd that

3rd that.....

and a 4th.

Good luck

Are you going to use 3m DI-NOC stuff? I used it on my b pillers and it didn't last to long, but looked cool for a few months before looking tatty an being removed for gloss black ones.

Look forward to the pics, Phil! If it's done well and doesn't look tacky I can't see a problem with it. Leon yours looked good, shame it didn't last.

Had this on the roof and centre console of my last car. looked soooo good. been thinking of doing something with the Coop but dont really want to destroy looks of an LE

Where are you in the country Phil? i know a couple of good places in London outskirts

The stuff has arrived, it looks ridiculously real, so much so that at first glance my friend whos in composites went "*excited oh* single weave blah blah *technical speak*" and then upon closer inspection said "Oh, sticky? thats cool".

So, first things first, B-Pillars covered on Monday then centre console afterwards.

Im planning on soaking my centre console in MEK (if your unfamiliar with its, err interesting properties google it).
That should strip the gunk off then im going to start a battle with a hairdryer and a stanley knife.

If anyone has a better idea on how to tuck trim into curved surfaces please let me know since i have massive issues with it!

Still it should look better than that scratched bloody rubber!

As for what you said Matt i think im going to laquer the stuff i put on the pillars, should last a lot longer.

You do know MEK melts plastic?

Do not lacquer it mate. I did some trial runs. basically one coat will go over but doesnt make it glossy and the more coats you add the more the effect disappears.

2 coats of lacquer and the weave was only noticable if you really looked.

As for sharp corners and nooks, good luck. the stuff bends and flexs well when heated with a hairdryer. You can manipulate it but takes patience

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From experience. Yes.

Reminds me of the time I left a Scalextric car rear wing in a jar of white spirit to get some paint off.

Thought my sister had stolen it next morning!

You want to see what it does to mobile phones!!!!

Don't put the consol in MEK Phil, it will destroy it!!

It will melt any and all types of plastic. I've learned this the hard way.

Lol, im messing Jim, ive already seen what happens when it meets plastic! I too learnt the hard way

Right, my new centre console and hopefully B-Pillars are due to arrive in the next couple of days.

Ive already taken the wifes hairdryer hostage and have gone and got some extremely sharp craft knives.

Whilst looking for tips on how to best form it i stumbled across this video showing what it looks like with a laquered finish and im after opinions.

Click


I plan to apply it by doing the following;

Prepping the console (and repairing it if it needs it)
Cutting a rough size for the carbon
Heating to form it
Tidying it up
Putting it in a vacuum storage bag and sucking the air out and leaving it for a few hours.

Fingers crossed it will be enough to make a professioinal job of it!

i'd go with the laquered finish myself and hopefully it will be a stronger finish for the b-pillars as they are outside the car .

The clear coated looks more realistic imo, but not so sure if good adherence with the film could be achieved easily, perhaps using some plastic specific clear coat would be better...or priming it...give it few tries&durability tests first:)

It suggests using 3M primer 90 (IIRC) acording to the people who did that video so i shall be doing just that.

To me that video dosn't explain the whole process, I have found a video on Carbon Fibre Skinning.

And there's far more than just sticking it on then going over it with some laquer.

Watch the video and see how much more of a deep luster if you do it properly with resin Ets... the way they do it, it looks sooo much better and if I was going to use expensive Carbon Fibre on the centre console then this is how I would do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rTWaV1imzs