{"id":95,"date":"2010-09-11T01:01:08","date_gmt":"2010-09-11T00:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glasgowdave.com\/?p=95"},"modified":"2010-09-12T12:41:24","modified_gmt":"2010-09-12T11:41:24","slug":"how-to-carbon-fibre-wrapping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.glasgowdave.com\/?p=95","title":{"rendered":"How To: Carbon Fibre Wrapping"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walking that knife edge between classy and chavy, I decided to get into the world of carbon fibre wrapping.<\/p>\n

I was getting bored of my plain old, piano black dash strip. There has always been a little too much black in the cabin and although shiny, this dash strip didn’t add a lot of interest. What’s worse is that it’s made of a very soft plastic. Look at it for too long and you’d scratch it. If that weren’t so bad, it’s also a magnet for fingerprints and dust. It was time for a change.<\/p>\n

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I’ve always wanted to be able to go back to factory spec if I decided that I didn’t like any of the mods I have done. I’m not too big to admit if I get it wrong. So, with that in mind I looked at replacement options for my dash strip. Mazda a good enough to offer a range of colours. The brushed aluminium caught my eye as it would tie in with the other silver accents in the car. Now, I’m a DIY kind of a guy so when I saw the \u00a3140 price tag<\/a> I though that I could save a few quid.<\/p>\n

First off I bought another piano black dash strip from a fellow mx-5.com member who’d swapped his standard panel for a colour coordinated Winning Blue strip when he bought his car. This meant that it was as good as new and only \u00a310. Plan A was to recreate the brushed aluminium effect. So I bought a can of silver spray paint and considered how to get the brushed look. After much deliberation I decided to test a wire wool approach on the rear of the panel. This is the result:<\/p>\n

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More scratched that brushed, huh? So I settled for simply spraying it untextured silver. Plan B, if you like. This is the result:<\/p>\n

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“Not bad”, you might think. But on closer inspection there was a certain patchy aspect to the finish. I knew that if I fitted it like that to the car it would annoy me over time. Me? A perfectionist? Never!<\/p>\n

Now, I’m quite good with a rattle can when it comes to painting but I wasn’t convinced that I’d get the finish I was after so I was in need for a plan C. I’d come across a 3M product called Di-Noc<\/a>. It’s a textured vinyl and is available in a multitude of colours and textures, included carbon fibre.<\/p>\n

Now stop right there! I know what you are thinking…<\/p>\n

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or…<\/p>\n

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That’s not what I was going for. Trust me on this.<\/p>\n

The stuff comes as a roll and has an adhesive backing. Application the flat surfaces is a peel and stick affair. Contours are a little tricky. What you need is the right tools.<\/p>\n

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The hair drier is my convenient replacement for a heat gun. By heating the vinyl up you can stretch it to fit most contours and curves. Just note that you can’t get it to shrink although you can get it to return to its original size after stretching. This video gives a pretty decent demo of what it’s all about.<\/p>\n