audi, production08.27.2010

Working on 20oz 2×2 twill cabrio set right now so I figured I’d post up some pics of it.  The front door pieces are insanely long, almost as big as the A8 door pieces.

Unfortunately, cabrio core sets of trim are a little tough to come by.  The original core that was sent to me was from the UK, and was a right hand drive set.  Thankfully we were still able to use all the pieces except for the two dash pieces.  We had to order new ones, so the dash pieces are a little bit behind the rest of the set.

audi, carbon fiber08.13.2010

Those of you that are following the blog know that we’ve been making a bunch of sets with new, custom fabric.  Now we’ve got the first B5 set with the 8 harness satin (8HS) weave.  It is the same type of fabric found on the B8 Audi S4 and S5 OEM carbon fiber trim, so it is kind of cool to see it in a B5.  Keep in mind these pieces aren’t finished yet, they still need to be polished up, so there are a few imperfections still on the surface.

Stay tuned for more sets on different makes/models with this fabric.

These last two shots are comparison photos of the 8HS and the 20oz 2×2 twill.

audi, production07.27.2010

We’ve done a few B8 A4/S4 carbon fiber sets of trim so far, but up until now they have all been the standard 11oz 2×2 twill (you can see some of those sets in the B8 gallery).

We recently got a bunch of B8 cores from Germany so we figured it would be time to start getting a little more custom with some of them.  I’m hoping to have these sets trimmed and sanded smooth sometime next week so I can clearcoat them.  I’ll post more pictures as I make further progress on them.

First is the 20oz 2×2 twill.  This is the same fabric found on the B7 RS4 OEM carbon fiber trim.  The weave is twice as thick as the standard 11oz 2×2 twill.  I’ve done some blog posts comparing the 20oz and 11oz in the past.  Side by side it becomes apparent how much nicer the 20oz is.

Few close ups of the 20oz.

Up next we have a harness satin weave, known as 8HS.  I believe this fabric is very similar to the B8 OEM carbon fiber trim.

Up close you can see how tight the weave is.

Few more shots of the 8HS.

Lastly we have another harness satin weave, but this time it is a 5HS.  It is basically the same thing as the 8HS but with thicker bunches of fiber.

Few close ups of the 5HS.

Lastly we have some B5 pics of the 8HS.  We’re also currently working on a B6/B7 set with the 5HS.  Hopefully I can post some updates on these sets soon.

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 fiber05.23.2010

In our efforts to continually improve quality we’ve upgraded our clearcoat yet again.  The old clearcoat was very good, but it was hard to apply and was a bit soft for the massive amount of polishing the end product received.   After spraying the first round of the new clearcoat, I’m very happy with my selection.

I spent quite a bit of time researching online and came up with a list of some of the best clearcoats I could find.   I took the list to my local automotive body shop supply and after an hour or so of discussing the pros and cons of each, we whittled down the list.  I ended up going with a premium PPG™ polyurethane.  Everyone I talked to spoke very highly of PPG™ and this is their top of the line offering.  It’s more expensive than what I’m used to spending on clearcoat, but the end result seems to justify the price.  It is very similar to the old clearcoat in that it is a 3 part clearcoat consisting of 4 parts paint, 1 part hardener, and 1 part reducer (different types of reducer are used based on the ambient temperature of the room being sprayed in).

Few random pieces before being cleared.

And after.

B5 shifter piece

As you can see from these last few pics, the clearcoat goes on like glass and looks fantastic.  It seems to be much easier to spray than the old stuff and I was able to do these pieces fairly quickly.  This clearcoat does require more time to cure than what I’m used to (about 16 hours until it can be handled compared to only a few hours with the old stuff – 2 to 3 days until it can be wetsanded and polished) however I have some infrared lamps on order that will speed up these cure times dramatically.

And with my new clearcoat I made sure to pick up some new clearcoating footwear.   My sandals were getting caked with overspray.