I don't get this new craze! I saw a 300GT at a local car show all dressed up in CF, it looked like ***.

I can maybe see a wing or maybe even a hood, but to apply the whole car with CF is kinda outta place. Anyone with me on this. I mean isn't CF to lighten the vehicle?

<<<Charles puts on Flame retardent suit,

 

whatever floats your boat-

i like CF but its gotta be done right.. i.e. vacuum bagged and hopefully dry/pre-preg.

but 90% of the stuff you get on the market isnt.

you must hate my Z then eh?

 

Actually yours is pretty nice looking. Like I said its all in how you apply it I guess.

 

Dont get me wrong, I love carbon fiber!, but i think people get f-ing crazy when they start carbon fibering their entire car

 

There is a Super Black here somewhere with lots of carbon fiber and it looks freaking amazing.

 

...is that a the top secret kit in cf? niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!

 

i agree on how you apply it... if too much then it's stupid unless it's dry

on the side note: carbon fiber is currently on a world wide shortage, price has already begin to increase.

 

Ive spoken to a bunch of vendors and that whole shortage thing is from my understanding just what everyone wants you to believe. The companys are leading ppl to believe that theres a shortage of this material in order to raise prices. Its basic economic theory, when the deman is high people are willing to pay more especially for something they are led to believe is an exclusive product. Im not 100% sure on if what theyre saying is right but the way i figure it is that carbon is used in many things right down to pencil lead so if there was a world wide shortage then we would have shortages of things other than 350z bumpers. I mean I may very well be wrong but common sense, tons of things are made up of carbon that there is no shortage of, to me from talking to different manufacturers from vis to carbon creations and it seems to me that it is all marketing hype.


I agree if its crappy carbon fiber it looks bad but there are plenty of cars that have cf all over em and they look amazing, one of the members here with the ings kit that was made for rays engineering for one of the major shows has tons of cf and it looks amazing. The better the quality the easier it is to pull off.

 

Are you talking about the guy with the full Ings cf n-spec kit, with hood and gt wing? If so, yes... that car is beautiful. My personal opinion is if you wanted/plan on doing alot of cf body parts like that and Chebesto's car... get a black car. I mean your's still looks alrite Chebesto, but if it were black, wow... DAMN! Nitrouz has a pretty sweet black with cf c-west kit on too.

 

I am more a fan of CF for weight savings painted to match the car, though I do have CF hood, and dash kit. I like it as more of an accent to the veh, but it ultimately comes down to personal preference.

 

Chestors car is HAWT!!!

 

the shortage is for carbon fiber in weave pattern (1K, 3K...)

 

the shortage is real, they're not trying to rip people off. its just when supply goes down, companies HAVE to increase their prices to meet their products.. sorta like gas stations (to a degree).. APR, CC, Fiberimages, they're all getting hit with the CF shortage... just give it some time.. supply will catch up and then there will be a surplus maybe after the war..

as far as my car goes... that's why i painted the thing last week... too much black on the nose looks like i got a car bra on.

ill post picts of my two-tone this weekend.. i get the baby back tomorrow morning.

 

delete

 

Boeing and Airbus are two big drains but there are other large projects underway like giant windmills that scavenge air to generate electricity that recently began draining the world supply. It is a trickle down supply chain. Toray is a big raw material manufacturer that has been working to get another plant online before year end. It is a real shortage as the raw material gets diverted from the weavers and other post processors. Most bite the bullet and pay the price, which has doubled in the last year. But we have had no trouble getting it, we just pay lots more.

 

+1 on the paint savings part.
But all in all, lets think about it now. I'm pretty sure vendors see that CF is popular now and the demand is going up for it! It's the simple supply and demand. More people are starting to want CF and the vendors realize they can sell it for more. If there was a real shortage don't you think the vendors would get smart and sell the CF parts for the price of a Urethane part (or whatever) + how much it costs to paint it at least. Give or take some! It seems vendors are using the shortage as an excuse to push the price to that equation I just stated!
No shortage:
Urethane + paint = CF
In a shortage it should be more than this theoretically, I would think!
If there was a "real" shortage I think the prices of CF would be a bit higher than what they are now! Plus I wish I could remember the car that will be coming out soon, but the main frame of it is CF! Doesn't seem like a shortage to me, IMO!

 

i agree outsider thats why i said what i said but ppl seem to disagree oh well.

 

I don't like it but celebrate the difference.

This car can have nearly anything done to it.

I'm busy adding a hundred pounds or more to the car with heavy subwoofers, amplifiers, and sound proofing at the same time people are going to carbon fiber to lighten their car as much as possible.

Show it, race it, dress it up, leave it stock ... I love the Z.

 

Automotive use is not even a blip on the radar screen as far as carbon fiber uses go. It amounts to nothing compared to all the worldwide projects specifying the use of carbon fiber. What I paid $15 for a year ago I now pay $28. That's per yard. Sounds cheap until you factor in waste, multiple layers etc. Prices are a function of the market demand. Toray, one of the worlds biggest, raised prices partially to fund a new plant to add capacity. Yeah prices will fall again, they always do. But I have no crystal ball.