CF lovers - check what Kyle just did!!

[ChrisRL]

Kyle at Only944 just completed this for me - to say I'm over the moon about it is a gross understatement!

He told me he was experimenting with a leather/CF combination and asked would I like one for my S2...



Will obviously post photos of the install just as soon as I can. Gonna buy me a fancy golden shield an' all! :-)

Very excited!!

[fejjj]

That is Sweeeeet!

[333pg333]

Looks like evening wear for Barbie. ;-0

[flash968]

spandex on a fat chick - just plain wrong

[ChrisRL]

Spanx, right?

[flash968]

lol - that too

sorry, but i hate the look of carbon fiber, and it just says "ricer" to me. makes me laugh knowing the origin of the look, and that it was a complete accident that it ever happened.

that being said, i love the function of carbon fiber when it is for reasons of weight or strength. thankfully that fad is finally dying out, and we are seeing it less and less. there have been cars i have opted not to buy, purely because it had either aluminum or carbon fiber dash work, with no option otherwise.

i guess i'm just too old to get it.

[ChrisRL]

Ooh, goody, a story! Do tell us about CF got onto cars, flash! Or was it how that look was initially arrived at? Curious minds want to know!
No, seriously, really!

[flash968]

lol - way back in the early 80s, hexcel was messing around with carbon fiber for military aircraft. it had not yet made it to other applications. one of the guys there, who raced an RX-3, decided to try to see if he could make a hood for his race car, using standard fiberglass technique. before he could get it out of the mold and primed, his uncle or grandfather (i can't remember which) died suddenly. he had to leave the hood unfinished on the mold. while he was out tending to his relative, one of the other local club racer kids, with too much money, and a following of other ricer kids, not realizing that it was never intended to remain unfinished, saw the hood in the mold, thought it was cool, and wanted one. it went from there.

i saw the whole thing happen, and was just as dumbfounded at the time as i am now. like i said, i think i am just too old to get it. i don't get the whole "flat finish" thing on cars either. that's what they looked like when we rattle-canned them because we couldn't afford to paint them.

[ChrisRL]

Yup, that's what it is.

Having been in the entertainment business now for quite a few decades, I can tell you that it goes alternate generations. One generation likes ratty finishes? The next will love mirror gloss. And then the one after that will be back to matte.

There's not much long term conscious planning gone into it - it's just, like, man, you're driving along the freeway, and, like, every car is pearl white. Or grey. Or black. And then comes a matte yellow one and it stands out, like... and it's like, man, cool, I want one too!

Like that, kinda sorta.

The reason you've been having a hard time getting your head around it is because there's not enough in it to get your head around... :-)

[v2rocket_aka944]

Originally Posted by flash968

lol - way back in the early 80s, hexcel was messing around with carbon fiber for military aircraft. it had not yet made it to other applications. one of the guys there, who raced an RX-3, decided to try to see if he could make a hood for his race car, using standard fiberglass technique. before he could get it out of the mold and primed, his uncle or grandfather (i can't remember which) died suddenly. he had to leave the hood unfinished on the mold. while he was out tending to his relative, one of the other local club racer kids, with too much money, and a following of other ricer kids, not realizing that it was never intended to remain unfinished, saw the hood in the mold, thought it was cool, and wanted one. it went from there.

i saw the whole thing happen, and was just as dumbfounded at the time as i am now. like i said, i think i am just too old to get it. i don't get the whole "flat finish" thing on cars either. that's what they looked like when we rattle-canned them because we couldn't afford to paint them.

do you work at hexcel? i buy a lot of their product for work.

[flash968]

no. back in the dark ages (read: reagan era), i was a mechanical engineer for DOD projects. they were a vendor.

chris - yup - i've also been in the biz for a few decades now, and i agree about the ebb and flow of trends. i started during big hair, went through rap, went through grunge, went through the ***** brigade, and now still hanging in there amongst all of the "download artists". i've been able to understand, and even appreciate most things to one degree or another, but given the fact that i know that it is unfinished, i can't seem to get past the feeling that i just want to go in and paint it and make it finished.

whatever. i am quite certain that many of the things i like in a car would not meet with the approval of the kids today either.

[ChrisRL]

Which is the whole point, right? Individualism. Uniqueness. As an expression of freedom. Or of free choice, at least : )

[flash968]

yup - it's not like anybody is telling me i have to have it in my car, and i'm certainly not telling somebody they can't have it in theirs.

[ernie9944]

He!He!There you go flash

[911tracker85]

Which is the whole point, right? Individualism. Uniqueness. As an expression of freedom. Or of free choice, at least : )

yea, but once someone does something unique, then EVERYBODY does it and no longer unique. just following a crowd.

[Gawernator]

*holds up hand* I still have one of the original all carbon fiber shifter boots Kyle used to make, bwaahah

[p-talk]

I like this leather/CF combination look, it is unique in that it's "two tone". But the question is, how with the CF cloth feel in your hand? I like the look of leather, but the real reason I love leather steering wheels and shift knobs is because the leather is easy to grip in almost all weather.

Looking forward to seeing it installed, and a report on the feel.

Originally Posted by ChrisRL

Kyle at Only944 just completed this for me - to say I'm over the moon about it is a gross understatement!

He told me he was experimenting with a leather/CF combination and asked would I like one for my S2...



Will obviously post photos of the install just as soon as I can. Gonna buy me a fancy golden shield an' all! :-)

Very excited!!

[flash968]

agreed about the leather. the friction is key to accurate shifting. a slick surface is bad.

to go one further, the new shift knob shapes suck. proper shifting technique does not involve the fingers. the new knob shapes force you to "pistol grip" them. that's bad.

the knob should be ball shaped (like the OEM knob), and rest in the cup of the palm of your hand. you then shift by moving your hand, rocking as needed for leverage, not by gripping, pushing, and pulling with your fingers. any kinesiologist will tell you that the key to accuracy is to involve as few parts as possible. using this technique does that. it's one of the first things you learn in race school.

[ChrisRL]

Here's a test fitment, there's a bit more trimming to be done and as you can see I messed up the flimsy plastic crest cap some.



However, it all fit together pretty much exactly as Kyle described, no probs anywhere except for pushing that darned plastic cap in too hard (using a vice, of course, very soft jaws but next time I'm going to use something to direct the vice pressure just to the sides of the cap, and not the top.

I used around six layers of toweling and I thought that would suffice to retain the contour of the crest top, but obviously not...

[Gawernator]

Very nice! Be jealous, I have one of the rare all carbon fiber ones by him xD

My hands turned raw trying to fit that thing on