We just got done with the silver “carbon fiber” trim on the oCarbon GLI and it turned out fantastic.  I’ll get some better pictures added to gallery shortly.  In the mean time, I’ll give a full run down on how we made these pieces for those that are interested.

First we started with the GLI’s original trim pieces and made some molds to help us conform the fabric.

Once the molds were done, the original pieces are ground down to make room for the added material of the fabric and epoxy.

Few quick coats of white paint so that the black pieces aren’t so different from the silver fabric.

Getting a fresh vacuum bag rigged up.

The pieces are laid on the raw fabric and tape is applied so that pieces can be cut out in the correct size.

Mixing up some bonding epoxy and applying it to the pieces.

The fabric is then placed on the pieces.  No attempt is made to wrap them around the edges at this stage, as the fabric is way too rigid and will just curl back up.

The pieces are then put into the mold, placed into the vacuum bag, and the bag is sealed up.

The vacuum pump gets turned on, which sucks all of the air from the bag.  Within a few minutes, the bag has pulled the fabric tight up against the mold.

The pieces are left to cure under a heat lamp for a few hours.

After a while, the pieces are carefully pulled from the bag.

The parts are starting to take shape.

After the parts have been removed from the mold, the excess fabric is trimmed off.

Epoxy gets brushed on, layer by layer.

After several coats, the epoxy is finally thick enough to allow the pieces to be sanded down without risking cutting into the fabric.  The parts are placed into an oven for a post cure for 24 hours.

After allowing ample time to cool off from the heat of the oven, the parts are ready to be trimmed and sanded.  All of the extra epoxy is ground off from the edges and the faces are block sanded smooth.  This process leaves the parts a litte bit hazy.

Next comes several coats of high solids automotive clearcoat, to give the pieces a traditional carbon fiber gloss.

After clearcoat, a few imperfections are always present, so the parts are wetsanded with a very high grit sandpaper.

After a few passes on the buffer, they are all done and ready to be installed.

We start with an e60 wood core that gets sanded down to make room for the extra material of the carbon fiber and epoxy.

After laying the pieces out on the fabric (we went with an upgraded 20oz 2×2 twill for the M5), we carefully cut it out to the appropriate sizes.

We then mix up some bonding epoxy and apply it to the pieces.

A few hours later, the fabric has been applied and the first major step on the trim is completed.  This week, we’ll start adding epoxy to the pieces to give it the gloss and depth that most people associate with carbon fiber.

We start with the raw fabric wrapped onto the original plastic parts.

Then gradually add epoxy resin.  You can see that the kevlar doesn’t soak in the epoxy very well, so the texture of the fabric can still be seen somewhat on the surface.  This will have to be aggressively sanded smooth after the parts are cured.

The radio face has multiple sections that will need to be drilled out by hand.  This is, by far, the most time consuming part on the set.

These will go into the oven for a post cure in the next couple of days.  After that, they’ll get trimmed and sanded smooth and ready for clearcoat.

Here it is all finished up.

We took the original trunk trim and ground it down to make room for the fabric and epoxy.  We went with a custom fabric to match the customer’s interior trim.

At first we were just going to wrap the front of the piece and paint the bottom black.  But then we decided that would make the part incomplete and the CTS-V deserved better, so we wrapped the entire part and planned on cutting out holes for the trunk latch and the plate lights.

The customer requested that we remove the Cadillac logo, so we filled it in and sanded it smooth.  The logo can no longer be seen.

Added several coats of epoxy.

Sanded smooth and clearcoated.

And the finish product.