Carbon Fiber front fascia?

kannibul

Good to know all 'round.

Now that you mention it, my neighbor has a FG hood that has been battered pretty good.

kenchan

+1 you can paint clearcoat...


heck even use adhesion promoter if you're anal as a primer.

Auto_Infantry

OP: If your going to paint over the CF I would just recommend you get an FRP Front Bumper because CF will still get chips and gouges no matter what. You should probably get a clear bra next time you paint. I currently have a full Carbon fiber front end on my Z and a majority of my car is CF. I did paint this cf bumper but I also have another in full cf too.



I get lots of compliments and looks with CF (majority from the popo) but I am getting tired of the look so I'm gonna be paint scheming the whole car pretty soon. The thing with CF is that if it is not prepped right, you can tell that the piece was cf that was painted. Dry carbon is actually much harder to prep because the weave will definitely show through if not prepped right. I'll post up a whole thread about carbon and the differences and such soon. I want to get you guys educated on some of the products that are out on the market. As far as price goes, currently for the 370 your looking to spend 1000k plus for just the front in CF.

We actually are having the Zele replica kit coming in pretty soon here, about less then a month. We also will be making the full Nismo replacement body kit (not the lip and add ons) in FULL CF Made to order.

SpawnAeroJohn

I agree and disagree. If you had a REAL carbon fiber bumper with several layers of carbon fiber and you hit something at the minimal speed it would take to tear dent or damage a urethane bumper. The carbon fiber one would just get a few scratches. The only up side to urethane is its cheaper by 50% or more, and the braking point when being bent is farther than a carbon fiber one.

That is assuming the carbon fiber is pure carbon fiber (again with many layers) and saturated in the best epoxy resin you can find.

Carbon fiber is also cheaper to fix (not cheaper to replace). Just cheaper to repair since you don’t have to use special adhesive promoters and special types of putty.

Auto_Infantry

I agree, carbon fiber is very strong when stretching and bending, but weak when compressed or exposed to high shock.

But, take for example a CF strut bar or wing, it won't bend or flex easily, but when hit with something at high speed or if something heavy dropped on it, it will crack. The high shock or impact will crack carbon fiber, not necessarily break it, but cause structural failure in which the carbon will be able to be bent or stretched more so then when not cracked.The crack will only get bigger and spider if more flexing and bending are applied to the piece. Once Carbon fiber is cracked, typically it is rendered useless. Even when repaired, it will never be the same strength as it was before.

As for applications of typical automotive carbon fiber, you won't need multiple layers necessarily. Typically you have different types of carbon for different applications. Most common in the auto industry are as follow: Hand Laid;made by layering up carbon fiber in a similar process to fiberglass, multiple coats of resin/material are laid to create a finished product often made with a mold, Vacuum infusion; a single layer (sometimes more) of carbon fiber material, laid into a mold and sealed with a plastic sheet (often times called "bagged," one end of a tube has resin and the other a vacuum in which the resin is sucked in over the carbon fiber allowing it to have minimal usage of resin (which causes weight and structural rigidity loss in cf) yet enough to make a strong durable part, lastly, we have Pre-Preg carbon or what some people call "Dry Carbon" not to be confused with the "Dry carbon look" where a flat clear is sprayed on to the finished product. Pre-Preg carbon is infused at the materials manufacturing plant with temperature curing resin. It has resin already bonded with the cf and must be stored in a container below freezing (don't remember the numbers off the top of my head). When applied to a mold, it is "baked" in huge ovens (again don't remember the numbers which can vary) which will cause the resin which it was impregnated with to begin its curing process. These are just a few of the different types of CF you will find.

The point of Carbon fiber is to create a strong rigid piece that also eliminates the need of multiple layering such as is found in Fiberglass or FRP which causes weight a majority of the weight. For example a hatch from a car can weigh in at about 50+ lbs. At hand laid levels you can cut that weight in half so about 25lbs. Vacuum Infusion we can achieve a little more then half or 3/4 of the hand laid weight so about 14-16 lbs. With Dry Carbon you can achieve a little less then vacuum infusion, about 10-13 lbs.

kenchan

something to think about when boarding the upcoming Boeing 787....
toray's doing billions of dollars business with them for all the large CF bits.

Auto_Infantry

The kind of CF work that is used in planes is not quite the same as in the Auto Industry, Especially when making CF sub-frame pieces and such. The pieces would look more like the CF drive-shafts of the Z. It won't look pretty with all the weave and crazy patterns. Some pieces will look like that but some parts are Carbon Fiber yet don't even look like what most of us are used to. Just look under your Z and you'll see what I'm talking about. Carbon can be used in different applications but what I mentioned is most common in the Automotive Industry. I'm working on a thread to help everyone out and learn about CF and hopefully i'll be done this week with it. Hopefully it will help many of the buyers get educated on what they are buying.