What to look for when buying carbon fiber. A consumer information post

I was motivated to make this post based upon an experience I had a few days ago. Not knowing my background in CF a guy at a car show invited me to have a look at his Ferrari that he had just kitted out with a lot of aftermarket carbon. All proud he showed me his car and to my horror I could not believe how BAD the quality was. Now this is not me being picky but rather I was concerned because the owner was happy with what visibly was a product that was significantly inferior to a properly made part. He raved about how the company was great to deal with but as I poked further I realized that he had been duped and he did not know it.

As a company who takes pride in making high quality parts, and as a long time F-Chat sponsor, we wanted to make this information post to help those in the market for carbon parts make informed purchasing decisions by showing what to look for and what questions to ask when shopping for carbon.

When buying you must be sure to deal with a manufacturer or an authorized dealer of a manufacturer. The industry is full of re-sellers who merely add parts to their ‘catalogue’ with no first-hand knowledge or manufacturer support.

Things to look for on the parts:

Straight away look at the part and look at the pattern of the carbon. The weave should be STRAIGHT. You should not see waves in the carbon as this is a sign of poor workmanship, poor processes or both. Quality parts are made from pre-preg carbon that has been skillfully hand laid and autoclave baked under pressure to ensure the strongest and lightest part possible. The weave will often be the first sign of this.

Most carbon parts are clear coated to bring out the look of the carbon. Cheap parts look like they have a thick ‘candy shell’ coating of clear. This thick clear is an almost instant give away to cheap carbon. The clear will cloud or yellow and is very prone to cracking especially at stress points. Quality carbon parts have multiple thin coats of clear applied that are hand buffed between coats. Although much more labor intensive this gives a deep shine that is very durable.

Things to look for from the vendor:

Does the vendor show images of THEIR PARTS INSTALLED? Again you should be buying from a manufacturer or an authorized dealer for an established manufacturer. There are a lot of sellers out there who show one or two pics of a part shot on a table. In most cases they have never fitted a part themselves and in other instances they have NEVER held a part in their hands. They buy the parts from an offshore vendor with no product support and no recourse if there is a problem. Even a copy of an OEM part needs to be trial fitted as there are a lot of tolerances that can only be tested on a car.

Does the vendor supply installation instructions with the parts they sell? Even the most basic of aftermarket parts should come with some sort of installation instructions and or a product care guide. After having spent a lot of money it is not nice to get a box with a part in it and nothing more. Established companies spend a lot of time making sure that a product is market ready and give their customers the tools to make their purchase experience a good one even after the inventory leaves their premises.


I could go on at length on this subject but I think the point is made and hopefully will spawn some constructive discussion. I will also add that there are some excellent vendors out there that have lots of experience and offer top rate customer support. One of these is fellow F-chat sponsor MAcarbon who offers excellent carbon offerings to the aftermarket.

At Carbonio we can proudly say that we are directly involved in the design and manufacture of all of our products. We test fit prototype and production parts to cars and we do durability testing BEFORE we offer a single unit for sale. All parts come with installation instructions we wrote from our own first-hand experience, are serial numbered and fitted with tamper proof holograms to show their authenticity, and carry our unlimited mileage guarantee backed by a company with over a decade experience in the industry.

When looking for carbon fiber for your Ferrari price should always be a factor but there are many other considerations to bear in mind to ensure that your purchase is everything it should be.

We hope this thread will be of help to anyone looking to upgrade their ride.

 

Hydro clad or hydro dipped CF look parts should not be confused with what we are discussing here. This post is all about real carbon fiber and not carbon look which is a whole field of its own.

For those who do not know, hydro cladding is a process where a decal that contains a finish (in this case CF but could be just about anything) is floated on top of a bath of water. A part is then immersed through the decal which transfers itself to the part taking up all of the nooks and crannies of the surface. Hydro cladding is as similar to real carbon fiber as gold paint is to real gold. It only fools the least knowledgeable of folks much like some people mistake a Mustang for a Ferrari because they both have a horse on the front.

Back to the topic at hand we just want to have customers look for the right things and ask the right questions when buying real carbon. There are all kinds of quality levels out there and the prices are not always an indication of what you are getting. This is why customer education is important.

 

There are no naive or dumb questions except for the ones left unasked.

Regarding the carbon Ferrari uses they actually mandate the same construction and finishing methods for interior trim pieces as they do for parts that appear in the engine bay or on the exterior of the car. For this reason the parts are all treated the same and therefore will look the same and to answer your question it is the level of quality to expect from OEM, Carbonio, or any other vendor.

We have been lucky in our business to do a fair bit of work for the OEM and their standards are very specific. What many people fail to realize is how important the labor and finishing component is to making a part in carbon. Good raw materials are a minimum requirement but if those materials are not handled correctly then all of their quality cannot make up for a lack of skill by the builder. Imagine two suits made from the same high end fabric but stitched together by two tailors of very different skill levels.

 

For the F430 we sell a limited offering including airboxes, shift paddles, and our rather popular cup holder upgrade. Where we try to differentiate ourselves is that we hold inventory and do not make parts to order. Nobody likes to wait so we pride ourselves on being able to ship purchases quickly. At present there is no UK agent that would hold inventory so the fastest way to get parts is to order directly.

Regarding the engine lid louvers I can recommend the ones from fellow Fchat sponsor MAcarbon as I know they will be good.

As for the rear diffuser the only quality offering I can be sure of is the OEM Ferrari. Again as discussed at the beginning of this post there are a lot of vendors online who sell a diffuser for the F430. Most are shown just photographed on a table or sometimes an image of a car fitted with an OEM diffuser is used to represent the product. I know matter of fact that most of these offerings come from one or two offshore vendors and having seen those products in the flesh I can confidently say that their quality falls far short of what should be acceptable for the Ferrari owner.

 

Carbon fiber is still considered an "exotic" material but as time goes on it has become far more accessible. We feel that anyone purchasing a carbon fiber product should be aware of differences in quality.

 

There seems to be a lot of talk in the forum lately about carbon fiber so we thought we would revive this thread to make sure that Ferrari owners looking for carbon on their car had the best information available to make informed buying decisions.

Note that there are BIG variations in carbon fiber out there and that buyers need to be careful to ensure they get parts that are to the standard of their prized possession. The original post and subsequent comments should aid in this process.

 

Hi gents, this write up is probably more pertinent today than ever.

Definately a good read for anyone looking to add carbon fiber to their car.

 

Photos normally only identify the worst quality of parts. Things to look for is how straight the weave of the carbon is and if the surface looks uniform and free of obvious flaws. Away from that it can be hard to tell how good a part is until you hold it in your hands.

In this industry a lot of confidence comes from established manufacturers who offer comprehensive information pre-sale and knowledgeable service post-sale based on first-hand product knowledge and experience. We at Carbonio re-iterate that we are involved in every step of our products from design through to final testing and do so before the first one ever makes it to the customer.

Don't be afraid to challenge other suppliers as to why they do not have comprehensive INSTALLED product photos on EVERYTHING that they sell and in addition installation manuals. If they have done the necessary product testing this info should be readily available and part of their marketing materials.