Let me start by saying this mod is a little ricey but if you do it right the effect is great. Also I am sorry for the quality of pictures, I have to use my phone because the camera broke a few months ago and I don't have the money to replace it.

Ok lets get started:

SUPPLIES

~Small Rectangle Shaped Shelf Liner. Menards has it for $3 a roll.
~Silver Spray Paint
~High Grit Sand Paper
~Black Spray Paint
~Clear Coat, or Clear Effects (has small sparkles in it)
~Something to Paint
~Plastic Primer (optional) If your going to spend the other 5 bucks I'd suggest going with KRYLON


STEP 1

Sand down your plastic to make it rough so that the paint will stick to it without primer. Do not use rough sandpaper that is going to leave gashes in your plastic!!


STEP 2

Spray 2 light coats of the silver. LIGHT COATS!!


STEP 3

Cut a small piece of the shelf liner. This is your carbon fiber template. Get it as flat onto the dry paint as possible. Spray directly overhead with a good amount of paint, but don't make it drip!


STEP 4

Do every side, and keep a steady hand. It will look like this.



STEP 5

Now is where the magic happens and you mask your mistakes. Spray the black paint onto the item in streaks. If you screwed up and some squares smeared or didn't get enough paint use this illusion to your advantage and paint those spots dark. Leave spots unsprayed, it will give the cf illusion.



STEP 6

This step you cover everything in clear coat, or clear effects. I highly suggest clear effects because if gives the item the real cf look. My camera doesn't pick this effect up but it makes a big difference. Autozone sells this paint for around $6 a can.



STEP 7

Install your item


I did my coolant reservoir also.



Sorry my engine is so dirty. And again sorry for the bad pictures. But sit back and enjoy your new cf look:


Obviously if someone takes a magnifying glass to your item they will realize it is fake cf but you can fool A LOT of people. Especially if you use the clear effects.

there was a video of a body shop doing this to parts a few years back. same process, same result. im sure that from a distance, or just a really quick glance it looks convincing enough, but i'd rather have real carbon fiber. your parts turned out really well though.

i have to saay, i'm not a fan of carbon fibre. i understand its purpose, to be strong and light at the same time. BUT, as for replicating the look of carbon fiber, i would have to say this is probably the best method i could think of. if done properly, it would look ten times better than carbon fiber vinyl, simply because you can texture this, and give it depth. a+ good work.



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Wow, that turned out nice, did you used to work for APC? Kidding, I might have to try that sometime.

wow, those turned out great.



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Wow that is really freakin cool! I mean yet it's not REAL carbon fiber but man thats creative.

I could picture using this technique for things not just on cars just to add an artsy touch.


Well done def. 8/10 for creativity



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the fuse box lid looks ok, the coolant one on the other hand doesnt look so well.

Here is some of my pictures from a bike we finished about a month ago, similar technique. but just not as good as the real deal.
Good work though, I'll give you that.

Interesting idea




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Spencer wrote:Wow, that turned out nice, did you used to work for APC? Kidding, I might have to try that sometime.

LMFAO

Interesting. Not my thing though.

i like it! you could get real creative and do things like blue carbon fiber or red carbon fiber look to match the color of the car!

prob same system gm uses on the impala ss dashes

awesome little how to. i think i might try my hand at doin this on my interior and maybe some exterior pieces. how long did it take ya?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Tuesday, February 03, 2009 6:32 PM

Something like this takes about an hour. You just have to give the paint time to dry.

cool im gonna give it a shot. should be interesting how it turns out. wish i had a garage to do it all in though >.>

im not a fan of the whole fake c/f look. but it seems that anyone who does carbon fiber anymore isnt doing it for weight savings anymore anyway.


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You said any like 4 times in that sentence

That actually looks so clutch.
one upped the carbon vinyl you did!

Must you use spray paint that can withstand high temps when painting plastic components under the hood? Or normal spary paint will do? anything plastic shouldnt heat up enough to ruin paint right? also this isnt really related to this thread but Im trying to clean up under the hood of my car a bit. My question is can I remove that cloth material thing attached to underneath my hood? it looks a little ratty when I open the hood, or is that critical to protect the hood from the heat of the engine?

Well the black is on heaviest so it is resistant up to 500 degrease and the silver is on with just a very very light coat. I've had my coolant reservoir painted for about a month with no problems.

looks pretty hot man. good info. now you got me tempted to do it.

wow I want to hit myself for not understanding how to do this before

If anyone else is even a little bit confused as to how this works,
here is a link to someone who did a whole car like that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qDV5gR90zY&eurl=http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=carbon+fiber+how+to&hl=en&emb=0&aq=1&oq=carbon+fib

i wonder how my intake would look....


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Just finished up my trunklid for my sunfire tonight, my buddy has been selling this quite a bit lately, his hood, roof, trunk and spoiler on his SRT4 are all done with it. Doesn't look horrible, definitely a poor mans way of doing things.

Anyway enough typing.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Thursday, February 05, 2009 6:19 PM