I purchased a 10" Corner Majic box from Wicked CAS http://www.wickedcas.com/product.php...4&cat=8&page=1 and decided that I wanted to cover it in carbon fiber. I took a few photos of the materials and process to cover the box. Here you go...


Materials

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Carbon fiber bought from Ebay, 45 dollars or so

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Several different grits of sandpaper, 400 and 600 can be used with water

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Fiberglass resin and hardner, some kind of brush or roller to apply it (I perfer using a brush because it didnt "lift" the carbon fiber off my piece once it started to get tacky, gloves, a container to mix the resin and hardner in, sandpaper, and a can of UV Clear spray, this will prevent the resin from yellowing over time.

 

Here is the corner magic box. I was able to order one unfinished.

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Box comes with speaker terminals and 16 guage speaker wire. I ditched the 16 for some 12.

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Next cut the carbon fiber to size, I allowed 3 inches extra and trimmed it back after it was bonded to the front.

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Coat the area you want to carbon to stick to with the resin and hardner. The ratios of hardner to resin are on the package, but remember, the more hardner you add, the less time you will have to work with it. After your first batch you will get an idea and you can adjust it from there. Once you coat the piece with the resin/hardner mix, it will automatically level and become sticky. This will hold the carbon fiber mat in place. Be sure to smooth out any wrinkles. I would also recommend covering the parts woth the most curves first. Those are the tough parts and it is easy to seperate the fibers which will reveal the item you are covering. *HINT* Paint your surface flat black, incase you do seperate a few threads, your work piece will blend in with the mat, so it will be less noticable.

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Here is the mat in place, allowing the mix to sure a bit before I add some to the surface.

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If you look closely on the last pic, you can see some of the biege color from the box showing through. That was on the backside, but you can see how the fibers can get seperated and why some flat black under would help cover that up.

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Now you will coat the carbon mat with resin/hardner mix. I skipped the photos from this part because it can get messy and I like my camera w/o resin goo stuck to it.

Here is after I did one layer of mix. I let it dry and then cut out the hole. Here you will just keep adding layers untill you have a good amount of resin over the mat. Later you will be sanding the resin down to get rid of any high or wavy spots, and you want to have enough protection so you dont sand into the mat. Dont worry if you end up sanding and realize you need more resin, you can always clean up the surface and add more. Then begin sanding again.

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It this picture, you can see a spot where it had a pit. I wanted a perfectly smooth finish, so I sanded down untill I removed the pit. Think this was done using the 120 grit. Just keep sanding untill you remove all the waves and pits.

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Here it is washed up and still wet.

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Now you begin moving up the grits of sandpaper untill you have the smooth finish you are looking for. Clean the surface inbetween sanding and examine the areas you need more work. This is an important step so take your time.

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Here is one of the last pictures before I coated it with the Clear UV spray. After washing it with detergent and water, it will still be a little hazy.

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Final

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I also added some felt to the back to keep ot from rubbing around.

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OH...Securing the box. I got tips from these links...

https://my350z.com/forum/audio-and-video/186474-nazar-s-carbon-fiber-magic-box.html

http://www.wickedcas.com/gallery/v/m.../ZcornerInstr/

Basically I removed the tail light and used washers, locking washers, and nuts to secure the bax to the metal frame around the inside of the tail light. There is enough room between the tail light housing and the metal body to hold a washer and bolt.

 

very nice! another cf DIY'er. Its so labor intensive.

Did you have issues with the resin wanting to run to the bottom ( or wherever gravity wanted to pull it?)

 

wow. That looks great good job. You saved a pretty good amount of money going this route correct ?

 

wow, very impressive!

 

Yes, you have to angle the box as to keep most of it horizontal so the resin wont "pool" up on the lower parts of the curves.

 

I dont know what Wicked CAS charges for a CF Corner Box, but this was fun to do and Yes, I did save some money.

 

In between these two pics, what did you use to cut out the hole so perfectly?
After how many layers of resin did you do this?

 

nice job-sub ing as a reminder!

 

I removed a hacksaw blade from my hacksaw and watched carefully where I was cutting. Not a bad job huh!?

LAYERS OF RESIN....Ummmm 4? Enough so that when after sanding there was still a nice coat on the surface.

 

very very nice

 

Great job. Im going to tackle a similar job myself

 

Shes for sale for those interested....

https://my350z.com/forum/audio-video/355842-fs-carbon-fiber-corner-magic-box-wicked-cas.html