audi, carbon fiber11.09.2010

A few months ago I got in contact with a member on Audizine to see if he was interested in having my first custom yellow carbon/kevlar trim set in his car.  He happily obliged.

I worked on his set and watched the progress he made on his car.  So while it has taken a while to get to this point, I couldn’t be happier with having Rodolfo as the first official oCarbon sponsored vehicle.  You can check out some more images of his new website emortal.co (it will be re-launching very soon).

Stay tuned for a proper photoshoot and a full rundown of mods.

All photos courtesy of Rodolfo Lamaestra

audi, carbon fiber09.15.2010

Got these pieces clearcoated up today.  I’ll probably wetsand them down a bit and do another few layers of clearcoat because I really want these pieces to look good.

After sanding and before clearcoat.

After the first few coats.

Couple of detail shots on the vent piece.

Few closeups of the MMI piece.

Keep in mind the colors on these photos aren’t 100% accurate.  They have a bit of a pink tone to them because of the lighting in the shop (the fluorescent lights with the skylights are making the colors goofy).  After these firm up a bit I’ll take them out in the sun and get some pictures in natural lighting.

audi09.11.2010

More and more B8 customers have been asking me if they could get vent and MMI pieces made in carbon fiber that matched the OEM carbon atlas trim.  I had some extra cores laying around so I figured I’d give it a shot.

The fabric I’m using for this is an 8 harness satin weave (8HS).  From what I can tell, it is identical to the fabric used on the OEM pieces.  While I’m confident that the fabric will be a match (or a very close match) I’m still uncertain of how close of a match the overall pieces will be.  Audi tends to use resins that have a slight brown tint to them, where as mine are totally clear.  Audi’s pieces are popped out of a mold and unfinished, where as mine are clearcoated and polished.  The only way to find out how close of a match they are is to go ahead and start making them.

These aren’t the best photos, but since the pieces are still in production and have a while to go, it doesn’t matter much.  I’ll take some better pics after I trim off the excess fabric and sand them smooth.

Up first is the vent piece.  If you look close, you can see the outlines of the edges of the piece.

The MMI piece.

Few detail shots of the fabric.

audi09.10.2010

Almost done adding resin to these pieces.  After they cure I can start sanding them smooth.

audi09.10.2010

With a little bit of resin on the pieces you can start to see their true color (especially compared to the pieces with just raw fabric).  These pieces will be going in the oven for cure in the next few days and then sanded smooth.  After that, they’ll be ready for clearcoat.