Carbon fibre RS style door cards

[puddy]

I decided to replace my ugly beat up stock door panels. They're warped from 40+ years of use and have big ugly speaker holes that hold no speakers.

So I bought the hardware kit from Appbiz and the kit & pattern was great. I wanted to do something a little different than typical vinyl door cards. I happen to have a neighbour who plays with carbon fibre. So I had him make me up 2 rectangular panels for $160 that I could cut down to the shape of door cards and have some bits left over for other small random things. The panels didn't turn out as I'd hoped, the weave and resin was not very uniform but I figured they look better than what I had anyways.

I didn't anticipate that cutting the panels would leave frayed edges from the carbon strands. I found that a jig saw worked better than a dermal tool for cutting. Either way in the end there is still fine frayed edges. So I'm going to try to find a nice small rubber edge cap/ trim to hide this or possibly remove the panels and give them another coat of resin. Some day. But for now they will work.

So this is how they turned out. Probably a lot of money to spend for something that doesn't really save a lot of weight compared to other door cars materials. But I like the look of carbon fibre so I'm satisfied with how they turned out.

[somoney311]

I like that look.

[rywats]

McMaster-Carr online has a bunch of rubber edging that would work.

Cool look, but the consistency of the weave would drive me nuts.

[JacobS911]

Looks great!

[puddy]

Originally Posted by rywats

McMaster-Carr online has a bunch of rubber edging that would work.

Cool look, but the consistency of the weave would drive me nuts.

Thanks I'll check their site out.

I agree the pattern will probably bother me. I had 2 pieces and 1 was worse that the other. I should have planned things out better ahead of time and used the better piece on the drivers side.

[JohnJL]

GT racing sells those too.

Next time, or for others working with cf...a wet tilesaw with a standard diamond blade cuts cf like butter and no chipping or frayed edges.

[puddy]

Originally Posted by JohnJL

GT racing sells those too.

Next time, or for others working with cf...a wet tilesaw with a standard diamond blade cuts cf like butter and no chipping or frayed edges.

Cool thanks for the tip!!

Here the GT racing link for those that don't want to itch from carbon fiber strands.
911 Door Panel in Carbon Fiber Part# 20P

[pksystems]

Thin cutoff disc on an angle grinder worked great for mine. Then wetsand the edges. Your panel doesn't look very glossy. Did you use enough resin?

[Elombard]

They look good. For me CF is a modern material for modern cars...say 2005 and later? I would cover those with vinyl or leather. Get some sound absorption and look period correct. Some careful work with 3M trim glue/spray and a piece of backed material and they would come out great.

[puddy]

I think my neighbor who made the panels used only 2 layers of carbon and didn't use alot of resin, I would prefer them to be glossier looking but i'll live with them as is for now. Afterall my car is mainly track car, not intentionally but I did the math a realized I put more kms on at the track than on the street. So i don't expect perfection. So its all a learning experience and i'll know what to do and what not to do next time.

BTW I tried a small cutting disc on a dremel and its created a lot of dust for me. But i'll try wet sanding the edges and see if it cleans them up.