Carbon Fiber? experiences?

Hey, I recently was told something I should have thought of earlier, you can see the carbon fiber weave under paint. Does anyone have first hand experience with this? How bad does it look? Is it less apparent with some brands of body pieces as opposed to others? Thanks

Keith
79 930

I'm just bumping this to the top. I'm trying to figure this out soon so I can place an order and get my bumpers installed before I go back to the track on June 30.

Thanks

Well, carbon fiber can certainly be painted, with beautiful results. My friend's Ducati had a lot of painted carbon fiber parts (the paint supposedly weighs more than the part, though!).

Carbon fiber is stable once its produced. As long as its prepped properly, I would think that even bad carbon fiber could be prepped and painted so that it is smooth.

The quality in carbon fiber parts vary quite a bit. It depends on what type of cure it had (autoclave, oven cure, or even room temp cure), as well as how good the tools (molds) are. Typically autoclaved parts are cured with heat AND pressure while in a vacuum bag. Oven cure parts are usually cured with just heat and a vacuum bag. Some lower quality "wet layup" techniques are not even vacuum bagged and cure at room temp.

The strength and suface qualities do vary alot.

Chris