Need Carbon fiber rear flares

[turbobrat930]

Ok folks.... Some of you know my car, and others do not. My car is affectionately named B.O.B. for (Bucket Of Bolts). There is NOTHING stock on my car. The entire front of my car is clear gelcoat carbon fiber and 99% of the parts were made my M. A. Shaw and are from 1997!!!! M.A. Shaw made some truly incredibly great quality parts back in the day. As a testament to his quality, they are still on the car to this very day (the gelcoat has yellowed a touch, and the front GT2 style front bumper and splitter has some rock chips in it, as this car gets driven...HARD!)

I am wanting to find out who makes either stock 930 width rear flares in a clear gelcoat carbon fiber, or possibly a 934/935 width style flare in the same clear gelcoated carbon fiber. These need to be A SHOW car quality finish.... NOT a GT Racing, racecar quality, 10 footer quality!!!!! I can not stress this enough. My front GT2 style front bumper I had to source from Better Bodies, and they did such a *****ty job on their quality, I had a good 40 or so hours just to get it to the same level as the rest of the parts from M.A. Shaw were, out of the box.

So, since I have been out of the game for a decade or more, who has the BEST QUALITY parts in CF out there today??? These also have to fit as good as a reproduction part can (I get that they are not going to be 100% perfect like a factory steal piece would be), but they can be close.

I have been talking with Brian Bodart as he is getting into the game, but I do not think he will be ready this year to have the parts in production. I do not know if I can wait that long, as on the left rear flare, I have a bubble in the paint around the area where the factory weld is for the flare. I want to address that, before it gets any worse, and what a better time to go all Cf then after addressing that issue

[RarlyL8]

We have many parts now ready for production but it will be a bit before we get to the large body parts. A car is being built that will utilize all of the parts for display. Here is one of the engine shrouds from our latest run. You can see this is 100% carbon front and back, not an overlay or luminant. Layup is 6-8 layers with critical areas built up to OE thickness for proper fitment/height.









I need some info from you Brad on how your rear fenders are connected to the car and what improvements you would like to see. We don't want to bond-in which can warp or crack.
Thanks!


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[Axel84]

Brian - are these available soon?

Pricing?

[RarlyL8]

The shrouds are going (unadvertised) as fast as they can be produced. We will put them on my site once I have inventory, can contact me via email in the mean time.
Lots of other parts in development. The rear fenders are unique in their attachment to the vehicle; we'll need to develop that one on the car to get it right.

[flightlead404]

Beautiful work.

Brian one issue I've had with a couple of cars is fretting and general damage causing the mounting holes to enlarge, with some cracking radiating from the holes.

Is it possible to put a metal grommet or some sort of insert there to eliminate that issue?

[RarlyL8]

That is the type of feedback we need to produce a superior part.
The holes on the shroud are oversized to aid with installation; that area is also more thick than the rest of the shroud in order to mimic stock height. No fraying or cracking has been noticed during installation but we will look into that. This type of issue is what we are concerned about with the large bond-on rear fender panels like what Brad is looking for. Expansion rates due to temperature are much different with CF than with steel or fiberglass. The bonding material could cause warpage. Expecting a lot of R&D time involved getting that right.

[RarlyL8]

Apparently cracking or fraying is more a characteristic of laminated carbon fiber. The technique we are using is all layers CF so this will not be such an issue. You can damage our CF by drilling it or cutting it but wear and tear will be minimal. The strength and heat capacity are vastly superior.
I've started a thread over in the 911 Tech forum so as not to keep high jacking Brad's thread.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by RarlyL8

That is the type of feedback we need to produce a superior part.
The holes on the shroud are oversized to aid with installation; that area is also more thick than the rest of the shroud in order to mimic stock height. No fraying or cracking has been noticed during installation but we will look into that. This type of issue is what we are concerned about with the large bond-on rear fender panels like what Brad is looking for. Expansion rates due to temperature are much different with CF than with steel or fiberglass. The bonding material could cause warpage. Expecting a lot of R&D time involved getting that right.

The damage I have observed has been over time rather than due to installation errors, although over torquing is a common problem and causes crush damage. I have some of that on mine.

I wonder if there is something that is floating but captured that would work and avoid the issues with differences in thermal expansion. Just spitballing here.

[RarlyL8]

That type of damage/wear is indicative of fiberglass layers being covered by carbon fiber. Our products are 100% CF, that type of wear will not be an issue.

[turbobrat930]

Brian, thank you for the call the other night. So good to catch up!! No worries about hijacking the thread, all the CF goodness is welcome!

Will keep in touch about the rear fenders as well as some other bits. I really appreciated the time on the phone.