Well i've been i'll all week, and felt the symptoms last week so i thought i'd order something for me to do while i was ill, must admit, felt pretty rough so didn't start till late, and it wasn't too bad as it was only about 15 minutes work each day. little and often as they say.
so this arrived in the post form carbonmods
i decided to redo my b pillars and strut brace, i had previously done them in vinyl and the strut brace had done ok, but the B pillars had bubbled terribly. i didn't like the carbon covers for either as fitment always looked off, so i thought i'd skin them instead. i also want to make some adjustments to the rear strut as i wanted to remove the square dots and the zed hole.
i used a car plstic bumper filler, isoproben or something, very easy to work with
and then used my little orbital to sand it all down
then i prepped the B pillars
first step was to apply the black resin undercoat to hid original colour through the CF, and also to leave a tacky surface to adhere the CF to later
next step was to wait 4 hours and then lay the CF over, this i found to be the hardest thing, the original overlay is easy, but then the folding round etc on corners and trying to tape it down underneath was an ar$e of a job, not only that, the black resin although tacky if you pt it face down would start to work through the CF. also everything is tacky, and sticky and you can't catch the weave otherwise it throws the aesthetics off. well this is how it looked after
next stage was to apply the top coat and then leave to dry, i must admit again this wasn't so easy as some tape came undone once it was wet, and trying to hold something on a single nubbin underneath and paint it while everything is tacky is a little tricky.
any way next day, came down to check and all had hardened off. it only had one coat so far, and it used this opportunity to trim off all the excess, as it was easier to handle once the CF had set with the resin. took me about an hour with a stanley blade to tidy it all up. i cut it right back and this is what i got left with
i originally just CF over all the holes as it was easier, and then cut them out today. a little untidy, but then its all hidden underneath anyway.
i have also tested fitted all the parts and they fit perfectly, thought i would do that before wasting any more time prepping a piece of material that wouldn't fit
one thing i did notice was that some of the resin had soaked under the weave and all parts needed another coat. which i've put on today, i'll leave it for 24 hours and then start the flattening and polishing process.
i'll add more pics when its polished and finished, so hopefully saturday or sunday evening.