Carbon Fiber colors

CF parts are Carbon threads woven into a mesh and then covered with epoxy resin to harden it. It's possible they put dye or paint in the epoxy to change the color. You can paint over CF parts just fine, too.

They also may have put tinted vinyl over it as well.

Also i might mention that sometimes they put a coloring, like a dye into the resin part of the epoxy-resin mixture to give the coating a nice color.

I didn't even see that, i glossed right over...been a long day at work

I took a couple classes in college on composite materials, you wouldnt believe the kind of stuff you can do with carbon fiber, its simply amazing

I think its most amazing ability is to serve as a non-matching replacement for a perfectly good hood while having no practical purpose whatsoever.

No practical purpose? It's lightweight. It's about half the weight of a regular metal hood.

Originally posted by krdshrk@Dec 13 2005, 01:38 PM
No practical purpose? It's lightweight. It's about half the weight of a regular metal hood.

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Yeah that's what I thought. Why are some supercars made from carbon fiber then?

Because it's lightweight! And can be strong as heck!

Originally posted by krdshrk@Dec 13 2005, 05:38 PM
No practical purpose? It's lightweight. It's about half the weight of a regular metal hood.

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And so, dropping 20 pounds from the weight of an automobile that weighs at least 3,100 with just the driver has what practical purpose? Does it gain you...0.003 seconds on your 0-60? Man, that IS practical!

20 lbs or not, 20 lbs less is 20 lbs less. The CF hood is actually one of the best places to drop weight in the tC. Sitting in the front, the hood is one of the reasons for the tC's ugly weight distribution. The next replacement would be the battery I guess. The tC needs to lose weight in the front and on top.

I know that i am going with a Carbon Fiber hood. Also i am not going to paint it i like the Carbon fiber hood look to each his own right. Once i get all my lights smoked, Windows tinted and get a carbon fiber hoodit should look bad ass. Personally i think it will look bad ass on a IIP tC but then again thats me and its my car. Also Scion is about being different then the rest so why is it that some people on this forum look down apon people doing different things then the rest of the tC owners. I might not like every thing that people do to there tC but you know what if they like it and it was done with thought and done well then the hell with it. Ok that was a lil bit of venting but thats how i feel any one else with me.

right there with you bluesciontc. when it comes to the practicality of a carbon fiber hood yes its lighter and yes it will change the handling of the car. when it comes to 1/4 mile times its estimated that for every 100lbs you drop off of a car you get about a 10th of a second off your time in the 1/4. so yeah the hood could give you .02 off your time. better then a .003. every little bit helps. plus like bluescion said, some people just like the looks of it. some cars look really good with them. every bit of weight you take off adds up. its like when people take out the spare tire in the trunk when they go to the track. lets say all of that stuff weights 30lbs. ad that in with the weight off the hood your looking at 50lbs off.so you see it does add up after awhile. it just all depends on what someone wants to do with THERE tc.

i almost forgot, another way to make carbon fiber look a different color is some people will just have a pearlescent clearcoat sprayed overtop of the gelcoat also.

No, carbon fiber can be stronger than steel.

Carbon bonds on four sides - a nice number for atomic bonding. Carbon molecules have nice characteristics that allow amazingly strong intra and intermolecular bonds. When carbon molecules are formed into a tube shape, the, I forget.., polarity? Well, the attractions due to the electron configurations act together to create very intricate and very regular (as opposed to a weaker irregular) pattern. It'd be somewhat like a double helix.. now add thousands of helices and you'll be able to see what a carbon tube's bonds look like. That is all in just one strand. Millions and billions of these strands are woven together to create a fabric, carbon fiber fabric if you will, which makes the entire structure even stronger.

However, due to the shape of the bonding, CF is a bit more rigid than steel.



It's been a long time since I've been in a chem lecture - someone, please correct me if I'm wrong; I'm fairly sure I'm wrong on a few accounts.