Interior Trim Mod - Carbon Fiber

S

Silverstar

Veteran
 Costa Del Sol
My car has brushed aluminium interior trim which I like but whoever had the car before hasn't done a great job of looking after them:

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All of the trims have these marks the centre console and the trim around the ventilation controls being the worst and look pretty bad so I have been thinking what to do with them. Since they cost and arm and a leg from BMW I decided to take another route. I spent time in lock down working out why professional carbon fiber skinners charge so much.......it's exceedingly hard work! :( But I decided to take on the challenge and skin them in carbon fiber, so far I am quite pleased with the results. :)

They are still works in progress, they need a little more work to finish them off and then I need to do the trims on the door cards but here are some photos of progress so far. I'll take some more photos once they are all completed and mounted back in the car.

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Silverstar said:
My car has brushed aluminium interior trim which I like but whoever had the car before hasn't done a great job of looking after them:

IMG_8981.jpeg
IMG_8980.jpeg

All of the trims have these marks the centre console and the trim around the ventilation controls being the worst and look pretty bad so I have been thinking what to do with them. Since they cost and arm and a leg from BMW I decided to take another route. I spent time in lock down working out why professional carbon fiber skinners charge so much.......it's exceedingly hard work! :( But I decided to take on the challenge and skin them in carbon fiber, so far I am quite pleased with the results. :)

They are still works in progress, they need a little more work to finish them off and then I need to do the trims on the door cards but here are some photos of progress so far. I'll take some more photos once they are all completed and mounted back in the car.

IMG_5183.jpeg
IMG_8586.jpeg
IMG_0648.jpeg
IMG_9895.jpeg
IMG_1386.jpeg
IMG_7401.jpeg
Click to expand...

WOW !! that looks cool and much improved from the brushed aluminium look. Where do you get the material from, and is it self adhesive or do you have to apply glue first ?. Following with interest :roll:
 
Thanks guys! It definitely isn't an easy job. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being hardest I would say it's around 8. You need a lot of patience and time to do it right and it's a messy job! I did some practise pieces before attempting the trim in my Zed.

The carbon fiber comes as a fabric which you have to lay with epoxy resin. I got all the bits from easycomposites.co.uk I have to say their support both pre-sales and technical (which I used a lot!) is superb. They have a video that gives you insight as to how to do it:

https://www.easycomposites.co.uk/#!/composites-tutorials/carbon-fibre-skinning-rifle-stock
 
I have today mounted all the pieces in the car. It's quite difficult to capture the beauty of carbon fiber on camera due to the highly reflective finish and looks way better in the flesh but I've tried my best, here are some photos:

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Here's a close up of the weave:

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Just the trims on the two doors left to do now!
 
Get an extra set of panels and trims, sell ready made on exchange basis, you can sell a few for sure, breakers have plenty laying around. Nice job as well, :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
THAT looks bloody awesome.....the contrast with the red interior is perfect and looks a very very good job too. Top work sir... :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
I went for the matt finish wrap which is a much easier and cheaper option. I had considered using Carbonized to have them done like yours which do look superb. Great job!
 

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Thanks for the comments everyone!

Penelope said:
I went for the matt finish wrap which is a much easier and cheaper option. I had considered using Carbonized to have them done like yours which do look superb. Great job!
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Your wrap looks great too :thumbsup: red and black sure is a classic combo! I think if I had the E85 / E86 due to the 'real estate' of the large dash panel I would probably have some sort of design or pattern airbrushed / painted on. I was considering that for my car but the pieces really aren't that big for the pattern / image to show properly hence went this route.

sticky said:
Get an extra set of panels and trims, sell ready made on exchange basis, you can sell a few for sure, breakers have plenty laying around. Nice job as well, :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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This thought has certainly crossed my mind and I do have some extra carbon fiber fabric so I might well do that. :thumbsup:

I removed the trims from the door today, why has BMW made everything on the Zed just that little bit more complicated compared to their other cars. I thought the trims were separate from the door handle but no it's one just one piece all welded together. Which means I have to break the plastic welds and glue them back again like the dash pieces. :thumbsdown:

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Related question, as I'm considering doing this at some point (so far I have one spare piece tucked away!).

This section below - does the leather section seperate from the other section you've now wrapped?

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Timmyboybunter said:
Related question, as I'm considering doing this at some point (so far I have one spare piece tucked away!).

This section below - does the leather section seperate from the other section you've now wrapped?

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Hi Timmy, yes as with the door trims I posted above this trim is plastic welded to the leather piece. You have to use a Dremel or similar to grind the welds from the rear and then use PU adhesive to bond the pieces back together again. Oddly I had two of the old weld points that didn't allow the piece to sit flush with the leather after I tried to reassemble it, so I had to grind off those two weld points altogether to get it to sit flush.
 
I'd love to try this stuff:
https://ulticarbon.com/product/forged-carbon-fiber-dry-fabric-by-the-foot-35-inches-wide/
And a how-to vid:
https://youtu.be/snqU6VxJg8w
 
I do like that you've done this properly rather than just sticking some vinyl over everything as is seen so often, top work sir! :thumbsup:
 
Z4C_er said:
I'd love to try this stuff:
https://ulticarbon.com/product/forged-carbon-fiber-dry-fabric-by-the-foot-35-inches-wide/
And a how-to vid:
https://youtu.be/snqU6VxJg8w
Click to expand...

I do like forged carbon fiber, it's quite stunning when done right. I didn't know it was available in fabric form but even so it's much more complicated to skin than the other fabrics. That fabric seems expensive although might be a bit easier to apply, if you have left over off cuts (which I do from the job I have been doing on my car) you can just rough cut it and apply that but you need to vacuum bag it.
 
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