free samples02.28.2010

Just got done stuffing a little over 120 envelopes with carbon fiber samples.  I’ll be dropping them off at the post office tomorrow morning so people should start seeing them in their mailboxes in the next few days.

That being said, I was totally not prepared to have so many people take advantage of this.  I picked up some more envelopes and shipping labels this evening, but I’m probably not going to have time to stuff more envelopes until next weekend.  If you made your request before 7pm PST, then your sample is ready to go.  If you made it after, just hang tight and I promise I’ll get a sample to you soon.

Thanks guys!

carbon fiber02.27.2010

I’ve been saving scraps that I trim away from the parts I make for a few months now and have a HUGE stockpile of them, so I decided to start giving them away as free samples.  Most of the samples will be the standard fiber I use, 11oz 2×2 6k twill.  However, I have some specialty fiber samples as well, so some people might get multiple samples.

The typical sample is probably going to be about 2″x4″ but since they were scraps they will come in all different shapes and sizes.  Some people will get bigger pieces, some will get smaller pieces, so it’s all luck of the draw.

To claim your sample, follow these steps:

1)  Become a fan of oCarbon on Facebook.  If you’re already a fan of ours, you can skip to step two.

2) After you’ve become our fan on Facebook, we’ll need you to send an email to samples@ocarbon.com.  In the subject line put “free sample.”  In the body of the email, put your full name and the address you want your sample sent to.  That’s it.

Once a week we’ll gather up the sample requests that have been emailed to us, match them up with the fans on Facebook, and send out the samples.

And don’t worry, your information is safe with us.  We promise never to share or sell your information with anyone.  We also won’t sign you up for any annoying email newsletter or send you a bunch of unsolicited emails.  We hate spam just as much as you do.

Feel free to share this post with your friends and post it on the Audi forums, but please, lets keep it within the Euro community.  I’d hate to run out because this was posted on some JDM forum and those guys snatched up all the samples.

audi, production02.26.2010

I had totally forgotten about this core until recently.  Originally, I purchased it for a customer interested in having a carbon fiber set made for his D2 A8L sometime in 2007.  Unfortunately, the customer ended up selling his car and didn’t want the trim anymore, so the core sat unused for a while.  A few months later I decided to take a crack at it without a customer ready to buy.  I got the fiber laid up and the resin applied, but I wasn’t happy with the results so I never finished it.  A few weeks ago while cleaning out my garage I discovered it and decided to try to salvage it.

I spent a few hours carefully grinding and peeling away all of the old carbon fiber.  After I got it all off, the set was ready for a second attempt at being beautiful again.

An overview of the entire set.  There are 12 pieces total, but I’m unsure if this is a complete set or not.  I’ve never done a D2 set before, so I’m not even sure where a lot of the pieces are located in the car.

The two front door pieces are by far the longest pieces I have ever made.

Shifter plate.  No idea if it is an automatic or a manual (I don’t even know if a manual was offered on the D2).

I’m assuming some of these are ashtray covers.

Dash pieces.

Center console pieces.  These two pieces were pretty intense and took a lot of work to get them to where I was happy with how they looked.

I’ll be sure to post more pictures under the D2 tag as I finish up this set.  Still no idea of pricing, but it would probably pretty expensive considering the amount of pieces and the difficulty of some of them.

audi, production02.25.2010

Was able to find someone with an A3 that was willing to be a test mule and was able to make some progress on it this week.  It is only one piece on each door and the shifter plate, so there aren’t that many pieces to wrap.  Hopefully in the future we can find some other pieces in the A3 cockpit to wrap as well.

The fiber went on the pieces pretty easily as the door pieces are very simple.

After a few coats of resin, these pieces are set.  Should only take a few days to cure and I can start to trim them up and sand them smooth.

production02.10.2010

I spent most of the day clearcoating multiple sets of carbon fiber trim and decided to document a bit of the process to share on the blog.

These sets had already been shot with 2 coats of clearcoat last week.  After the clearcoat cures, they get wetsanded and are shot with clearcoat a second time.  This second round of clearcoat really makes oCarbon carbon fiber parts stand out.  It gives the pieces incredible depth and a great looking finish.  You can still see some of the wetsanding grit left on the parts, this is wiped up before the additional clearcoat is shot.

Between every session of clearcoat the spray gun is disassembled and cleaned.  A clean gun is essential to any paint finish.

Back together again.  The pressure regulator at the bottom tip allows for control of the amount of airflow into the gun.  Too much pressure and clearcoat will spray everywhere.   Too little and not enough clearcoat will be shot.

The clearcoat we use is a premium 3 part automotive clearcoat.  It consists of the clearcoat itself, a reducer, and a hardener.  Different types of reducers are added into the clearcoat depending on the temperature and humidity on the day the clear is being sprayed.  On a rainy day, when the temperature is lower and humidity is high, a different type of reducer would be used than on a normal sunny, summer afternoon.  The hardener is obviously added to facilitate the hardening of the clearcoat.

The clearcoat is mixed in a 4:1:1 ratio (clearcoat:reducer:hardener).  If you fill up the clearcoat to the 3rd level, you then fill the reducer up to the next 3rd level, and the hardener up to the final 3rd level.

Before mixing, the clearcoat is very cloudy.  It gets crystal clear after a few swirls with a mixer.

A B6/B7 shifter plate that has been wiped down and is ready for clearcoat.

After two thick coats of clear, the shifter has its traditional gloss look.

B5 hazard trim piece that gets the same treatment.

From time to time, little globs of clearcoat get shot out of the gun and end up on the surface on the part.  This is where wetsanding and polishing come into play.  All of these pieces will have their minor imperfections wetsanded smooth and then polished to a shine.

That’s all for now.  I’ll post more pictures as I finish spraying the rest of these sets and get ready for polishing.