What's your favourite carbon bits?

[RT-Performance]

I came to realise that not that there isn't that much after market carbon parts in demand in this forum.
Is it that it doen't appeal very well to your car or is it like many cases where those which are available is over priced and difficult to get hold of in the UK?

A little birdie once told me that the wing mirrors are made of aluminium and that it's a popular item to be stolen. A carbon replacement would be a good idea.
Is this really the case?

Usually popular items which are in demand to be made in carbon are:
Front lips, rear lips, cooling panels, rear valance or diffusers.

This is the A5 rear diffuser which we're in the process of making in carbon. I'll show some results later when it's done.



What are your opinions about this and what would you like to see in carbon for your car?

[P_G]

A5, looks more like RS4?

cf is great however most are put off by price of pure cf parts. Skinning is more cost effective but is it really worthwhile? I don't always think the finish is as good as a pure cf part and runs the risk of delaminating from the OEM part in time. And 3M Di-Noc looks cheap compared to both but is ridiculously cheap compared to both cf methods.

I guess the big isssues is who takes the initial R&D cost risk, you or the customer. And for it to be a profitable part for you to fabricate but cheap enough for people to want to buy you have to make so many that they will on more occasions than not exceed the actual numbers of people wanting to buy them.

But then you will get people like Jules and Danny that price (to an extent) is not an isssue so still worth perservering. Good luck.

[scaghead]

agreed does look like the rs4..if it is the case would be good to see done...out of curiosity have you ever done any of the Audi front grills..

[rs4lee]

always wondered about a carbon rear diffuser for my rs4 ...will watch this with interest

[RT-Performance]

sorry my bad. That is a pic of the RS4 from a different customer which didn't go ahead.
This was the satin Ti silver A5 wrap we did a few months ago and it was the diffuser for this car we was wanting to make because it was the only part which was lacking some omph!


We saw this article online and though it is a must have and hence we had this made.





Thanks for your input P_G.
My car has a carbon bonnet which was fitted 5 and a half year ago. Till this day the clear coat is still as good as the ones we sell now with the exceptions of a few stone chips which are hardly visible.
There is no yellowing and no fogging at all.

As well as that I have a full carbon trunk lid, carbon wing mirrors and before deciding to go spoiler-less I had a full carbon WRC spoiler as well. All of which where products we make and sell.

What you said about carbon skinning was quite interesting. I guess you was referring to vinyl which I agree is nothing like the real thing.
Though we vinyl wrap as well, I personally don't think carbon look vinyl is anything like the real thing but then again its a preference thing and yes it is cheaper.
Real carbon skinning is something which I'm currently experimenting.
Though at the moment we use a vac bagging process to form our carbon parts on a ceramic mould, I'm now attempting to skin my interior bits in carbon.
What this means is I I'll be gel, coating them before laminating real carbon on top using vac bagging process but with out a mould it self.
This is tricky because the parts with out a mould is slightly unstable and also there are no air channels to release all the air.
Secondly it's a very time consuming process and very labour intensive so I can't see how real carbon skinning can be a cheaper option. But what it does mean is that for those more delicate parts which has a lot of precision fixings like interior bits, skinning is a better option as you retain the OEM fitment.

Regarding pricing, you should take a look at our ebay items for sale. We believe we're very competitive as we tend to base our price on what the item is and what people are prepared to pay for rather than make a part and sell it for a lot simply because the nature of the car is a lot.

Ray

[Dave_Hedgehog]

looks good on a pagani, looks pants / max power on most cars, waste of money imo

and im sorry but that ST205 looks chav

[RS04YOB]

Never been keen on CF think it gets infectious if you get one part you ending going OTT and then it looks stupid, but saying that I am looking at a CF bonnet for the B7

[RT-Performance]

Its not very nice to have your hard work being compared to a chave.

You really do have to ask why you want it in the first place? Most of the time it's for looks. For me it's the difference in weight.
My origional boot weighs nearly 25kg inc the glass. My carbon boot only weighs 4kg.
For older car's it makes a massive improvement when you loose the weight to improve the power to weight ratio.

Regarding the B7, I've not seen one with a carbon bonnet but its something we can definately do if it's demand.
I have to honestly say I've not seen many Audi's with carbon apart from the R8's and TT's and I know the extra's cost an arm and a leg.

Even in the magazine article, the A5 diffuser isn't real carbon but carbon look hence why we made ours.

[Nobby]

Carbon fibre paddle shifters for the RS6? (standard ones are quite small)

[Dave_Hedgehog]

Its not very nice to have your hard work being compared to a chave.

You really do have to ask why you want it in the first place? Most of the time it's for looks. For me it's the difference in weight.
My origional boot weighs nearly 25kg inc the glass. My carbon boot only weighs 4kg.
For older car's it makes a massive improvement when you loose the weight to improve the power to weight ratio.

Regarding the B7, I've not seen one with a carbon bonnet but its something we can definately do if it's demand.
I have to honestly say I've not seen many Audi's with carbon apart from the R8's and TT's and I know the extra's cost an arm and a leg.

Even in the magazine article, the A5 diffuser isn't real carbon but carbon look hence why we made ours.

Not my intention to be down on your hard work and you have some impressive and worthwhile weight saving there

But from my perspective, I had 3 ST205 GT4s from new back in the day and I adore them still and around here if some dumb ass kid is driving around like an idiot they normally have a black bonnet hence my negative association with them, so maybe its a regional thing.

[RT-Performance]

are the paddle shifts for the RS6 removable? If so then that can be done.
We helped installed carbon shift paddles for a 350 fairlady last year and they're not very difficult to make.

Dave no offence taken. We where part of the GT4OC forum for many years and had quite a few customers from the TSS. The ST205 are becoming very rare now days and mine is part of the very few kept in very good working condition. Now days we're still official traders in the Celica club UK which is probably more of the modifiers club as well as an owners club.