audi, carbon fiber06.13.2010

Lots of progress on the B8 vent and MMI pieces.  These will be getting sent out on Monday so hopefully we’ll have some installed pictures shortly.

Before we start, the black pieces are for the B8 A4/S4 and are done in a 11oz 2×2 twill.  The red pieces are for a B8 A5/S5 and are done in a 6oz 2×2 twill red carbon/kevlar hybrid.

About a week ago after the resin had cured.  Still a lot of work needed to be done to get these pieces looking good.

An hour or so with the Dremel and all the excess fiber is trimmed and grinded off the pieces.

These pieces are clearcoated and wetsanded.  I tend to do multiple coats of clearcoat, allow it to cure, wetsand, then more clearcoat.  I feel as this really enhances the overall look of the higher end pieces and gives them stunning depth.

After the second round of clearcoat, the pieces look great.

Couple of close up detail shots around the curves.  These pieces are extremely difficult to wrap because of how complex they are.  It usually takes multiple attempts to get it right.

The same pieces in red for the B8 A5/S5.  The pieces are very similar, but have some subtle differences.

More detail shots.

Finally we have the shifter pieces.  I’ll get these wrapped up and out to their respective owners in the next few days.  Can’t wait to see how the vent and MMI pieces look with the rest of the set.

audi, carbon fiber06.10.2010

Still working on the shifter plate but I got some images of the dash and door pieces installed.  I think it turned out very nice with the metal trim around the carbon fiber.

audi, carbon fiber06.01.2010

Took me a while, but this set is finally done.

Had some trouble with the metal edges of the trim.  I couldn’t get them to stay in place long enough for the glue to set, so they kept popping out of place.

Ended up having to use some quick setting epoxy to get everything to stay in place.

These will be getting shipped out shortly, hopefully I can get some images of them installed in a week or so.

audi, carbon fiber05.31.2010

and once again I’m very happy with the results.

When you see the images of this set right after it was clearcoated, you may notice specs of dust or imperfections in the clear.  All of these need to be wetsanded and polished out of the finish.

After wetsanding with high grit sandpaper (1500+) the set looks dull and matte.

A dime sized bit of compound is spread over the piece.

After polishing, the piece still has a thin coat of compounding residue that needs to be wiped away with a clean microfiber towel.

On the right, the compound has been removed.  It still needs to be wiped away on the left.

With all of the compound wiped clean, the piece is complete.

Few more pieces being polished up.

And in no time at all, the rest of the set is completed.

I’m loving this new clearcoat.  It was a breeze to wetsand and polish this set.

audi, carbon fiber05.28.2010

and it looks fantastic.

It might be hard to tell from these photos, as they look very similar to photos of most every other set I’ve posted, but I can see there has been a definitive upgrade in quality of the overall finish of the parts.  They are much smoother and the gloss appears to have a “deeper” shine.  I suspect the depth is because the new clearcoat is much easier to spray and goes down with minimal orange peel (orange peel is a bumpy paint surface similar to the peel of an orange.  You can see it quite regularly on sub-par paint jobs on cheap cars.  Even high end cars sometimes have orange peel from the factory and need to have paint correction done to them by an experienced detailer to have it removed).  Because the clearcoat goes onto the part with less orange peel, it takes less wetsanding to get the part smooth, which leaves quite a bit more clearcoat on the part.  This is the only explanation I can come up with for the increased “depth” of the pieces.  I am very happy with the end result and am very pleased I took the time and effort to look into upgrading clearcoats.  It’s amazing how a small tweak can lead to such drastic improvements.

The pieces are reflecting a ton of light.

I love this shot.

This set is on its way, hopefully I’ll be able to post some pictures of it installed very soon.