Carbon Footprint

How To Dress Up Surfaces With Self-Adhesive Carbon Fiber Sheets
Story by Jim Youngs, Photos by Steve Graber and Jim Youngs.

The unmistakable look of woven carbon fiber just screams high performance. It also typically screams “pricey” and “difficult to work with” properly. Well, we found a way to get a carbon fiber look and do so rather easily without breaking the bank. Called Performance Carbon, the minute Sly Machines told us about this stuff our minds went into overdrive imagining all the applications we could use it for.

Available in five colors (black, silver, red, blue and pink), Performance Carbon sheets are either real carbon fiber or glass fiber with a strong adhesive backing. The sheets are available in three sizes (7.87” x 9.45”, 18.90” x 23.62, 18.90” x 47”) and are flexible enough to conform to curve surfaces, feature automotive-quality adhesive and can be trimmed with scissors and razor blades. And as you will see, can be put through a computer-operated vinylcutting machine for intricate designs and even coated with clearcoat or other paint.

Though we considered a bunch of ideas for using Performance Carbon, we settled on two projects, (though there will surely be other uses with the leftovers)—a Cobra dash and some slick graphics on a Grabercars La Bala...

This is only a taste of the story, for the full story and all the how-to photos, check out the December 2008 issue of Kit Car Builder magazine, or read the article from the new "Articles" area of the Kit Car Builder Web site.