Carbon fiber headlight teaser

B7 A4
#1

A while back I saw a set of blacked out headlights and decided I wanted to black mine out as well. But I am a “do it once and be done” kinda guy, so I planned it out a bit more and decided I wanted to get clear euro caps, silver bulbs to cut out the amber, and instead of a blacked out lip. A body matched carbon Kevlar weave for the lip.

Here is today’s progress

Wrapped. First stage is to lay down a black pigmented epoxy base and let it “tack up”. Once the epoxy tacks up you can lay down the fiber. Wrap it up before the epoxy dries, cut and tape up the ends to the back.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/25/vavame9y.jpg

You let the black epoxy dry once the part is wrapped, and you can start to lay on the epoxy layers with care not to foam up the mixture.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/25/2u5ubabe.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/25/uve4yzeg.jpg

Also started a side pillar.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/25/ra4aha4e.jpg

#2

good to see you finally starting doing the headlights man.

#3

Do you have any reference pictures of what your finial piece will look like

#4

I’ve never seen it done before, but I’ll have final pics in two weeks or so. I have to add epoxy layers and sand piece by piece

#5

WOW awsome. can’t wait to see more then.

#6

You really should be wearing rubber gloves when handling carbon fiber. The oils in your hands can be damaging to the materials and cause discoloration (shouldn’t matter too much for you though since you’re not applying heat to it). Also, you can also develop an allergy to the fiber and the resin isn’t great for your skin either, not to mention carbon slivers ain’t no picnic.

Other than that though, it looks like it will turn out decent. It would have been ideal to vacuum compact each ply. Can’t wait to see the finished product!

P.S. Only reason I mentioned the gloves was because I didn’t see any laying around in any of the pics. But if you are, then carry on. :slight_smile:

#7

Lol thank you OSHA for stopping by!

I wear gloves for laying down the base epoxy and the wrapping the carbon. Past that im just layering on epoxy with a brush so I don’t use gloves, it’s pretty clean, just make to sure you don’t spill.

I’ve yet to have a sliver, I’ve heard it’s pretty horrible, but I have gotten the epoxy on my arm before, didn’t do much but it was a pain to clean off. It’s so gunky nothing really gets it off well.

Vacuum bagging would be great, I’m just not committed enough to buy all that gear too, this will work fine for my needs.

What’s your recommendation for epoxy? I’ve read tons of reviews on various products, trying to find something that flattens nicely and doesn’t yellow in heat. Ended up purchasing west systems 105, but if you have suggestions id love to hear them.

#8

Haha no problem! I get all that OSHA shit pounded into my head everyday at work so I try to at least pass it on :wink:

I know what you mean about the vacuum bagging stuff. The biggest advantage to it is getting a nice uniform finish and using a bleeder to soak up the extra resin.

But for your application, I dont really have any specific epoxy recommendations other than making sure it is uv/heat resistant. I think what you got will work well just glancing at it real quick.

How are you wanting the finished product to look? Glossy? Matte finish? It might be advantageous to finish it off with a marine gel coat and wet and it to a nice shine.

I’m really curious how this is going to turn out! I’ve never seen something hand done inside a headlight that wasn’t cured in an autoclave or something similar.

#9

Going for a glossy look, I’ll look into marine gel coats.

Yeah my main concern is discoloration due to heat…time will tell

#10

Very curious to see how this turns out. I blacked out my headlights and love the look. Carbon would look go great with the rest of my DTM setup

#11

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/26/8u3a8umu.jpg

First sanding, more epoxy tonight.

#12

Dammit man, I have my hands full already. Stop giving me ideas!

#13

It’s a lot of work for these two pieces, I ended up making a full set of pillars too, but it should look real nice when its done.

#14

Incredible work. Looks fantastic at this point. Is the wrap you’re using expensive?

#15

Looks good! Can’t wait to see the final product!

#16

Needs two more costs of epoxy and then it can be finished off and buffed.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/26/ymuqyzys.jpg

You can see it picks up a real dark tone to it, the red is darker and yet the black has more light to it. Deepens up quite a bit and changes completely from how the wrap looked originally.

@My S5(afe) Hyden- the wrap isn’t too expensive, iirc I paid $90 for 40 sq ft.

So $2.25/sqft, I don’t keep up with fabric prices but considering it’s carbon fiber it didn’t seem too expensive at that price. What is really killer is epoxy. You need epoxy and hardener, and then just all sorts of materials like brushes, measuring cups, pumps, tape, mixing sticks, etc. it adds up real fast.

@jake -thanks bud :slight_smile:

#17

What hardener did you go with? If you went with the WS207 special hardener you should be ok with just that as it has UV resistant properties.

At the very least I would just throw on a UV resistant clear coat or something of that nature. Quick and easy.

I would say to apply a varnish or something of that nature but you’re supposed to reapply every couple years or so. Idk how that would work being encased in a headlight housing since its not really being exposed to the elements besides sunlight.

#18

Yep using WS207, specifically for the UV inhibitors, but I was also looking at UV resistant sprays…I’m not convinced on them yet…still looking at them though.

#19

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/26/4u5a3u3a.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/26/gerugepe.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/26/uny9e2yr.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/26/7umu6y3e.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/26/8uha8eve.jpg

Got quite a bit done today. The headlight pieces are pretty close to being ready for a final sanding and polish. B and c pillars still needs lots more epoxy. If you look at the c pillars you’ll see they look very bubbly, the Kevlar isn’t very friendly to the epoxy, doesn’t seem to absorb it as well as the carbon fiber does.

#20

Yeah, I agree. The way I look at it though is that its not going to hurt anything unless you are looking at going another route as far as UV protection.

Those headlight pieces look really good!

Yeah, Kevlar is denser than CF so it requires a little more work to get the resin in there. Thats where the advantage to vacuum bagging the parts comes in, as it gets all those little air bubbles out.