carbon fiber fabric frays at the edges unless held together with tape. i have experience using the stuff too. and right now i am helping build a FSAE car with carbon underbody, carbon wheels, and carbon wings. that stuff absolutely looks nothing like carbon fiber fabric. cabron fiber fabric comes on a roll, exactly like fabric, and fells like a really heavy fabric would. it is stiff and doesn't conform to edges as a dry fabric. if you took carbon fabric and adhired it to anything without properly coating it with the resins, it would look like ***. when you see carbon when it is not adequately coated you will see what i mean. additionally carbon fiber without an autoclave has very little strength, and would only be good for visual purposes. the stuff takes a good 24 hours to cure, and because the weave is what give it strength and good appearance, you cannot sand layers off if you get an air bubble. if your doing it in your garage for the first time, expect to either have a ****ty final product, or else take a few trys and expect to make many mi$take$.

i don't know what kind of experince you have using the stuff, but sense you said your first steps WOULD look like that i'm guess you have little to none. i retract that statement if indeed you are using real carbon fiber fabric with an autoclave with vacuumbagging system, using a mold to hold the fabric in place. all things that cost way to much for anyone to be doing out of there garage. keep in my that i have seen people say they have real carbon fiber dash trim, when in reality it is nothing more then a plastic sticker with carbon fiber look to it. it comes shiney, and in sheets. it is adhesive, and easy to work with, but it is not at all carbon fiber.

 

yeah, i know the difference between CF vinyl and actual CF. all im saying is that CF does look like that in the first steps before the resin is added (if you are not using vacuum bagging) and airbubbles are eliminated with a propane torch.

you also forgot that not all CF fabrics are as 'reall heavy' or 'does not conform' around edges. there are different weights to CF fabrics. such as 5.5 oz, 1.5 oz. the medium im using is a thin one, so edges are not so hard to cover.

here is a link to sirlancelot's CF overlay project:
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=113115

if you click the link, you can plainly see the CF is neatly wrapped over the edges, and the CF is also somewhat shiny.

 

i question weather that stuff is actual carbon fiber or if it just carbon appearing vinyl or the adhesive cabon look stuff you can get. the reason i say that is because looking at the climate control knobs, there is just a tiny amount of cabon there, and having experience using the stuff, there is no way laying carbon with resin would look that uniform. also, using the real fabric, it is hard to follow complex curves with it without deforming the weave pattern. all things his example don't show. when he shows pictures of the process and the materials used i will believe it. until then my bet is it is just imitation carbon.

additionally, finished carbon has a totally glossy finish to it unless your using peel-ply which is only used for adding additional layers. the reason it is glossy when it is finished is because the resins form a "gel coat" over the layer of carbon. unfinished carbon is also shiny because it is like polished charcoal. additionally i know there are different weights to the fabric to choose from. there are also different twills, different threads/inch, different composites (glass filler, kevlar). you can get unidirectional weaves, and you can get bidirectional weaves. my assumption is just that making those parts with real carbon fiber just doesn't happen in your garage. last observation, i spent 200 dollars in resins alone back when i was working with it out of my garage. the fabric was an additional 150... i got the smallest quantity of resins availible from the place at the time.

 

oh and once real carbon cures, no propane tourch in the world is going to remove the defect from an airbubble. that stuff is solid as a rock (well at least until it starts to splinter and fail) , and nothing but cutting it out and redoing it will fix it.

 

i know that, i meant to use the propane torch after the flood layer has settled in, not cured.

 

lookin good man...hope to see it in person at an sclc meet!

 

thanks blacklancerr, i hope to see you guys at a meet too!

 

Nice setup. I like what you did.