Carbon fiber for your Tesla!

[CarbonOne]

Hello everybody! My name is John and I thought I'd sign up today just to see what you guys would think of carbon fiber interior and exterior parts. If you guys would be interested, I'd like to join as a sponsor or vendor if possible?

Basically we do our work two ways.

We either reproduce whole replacement parts which generally offer a light weight replacement that also offers a much more sporty / luxurious / exotic feel to your car.

The second way we do our work is by taking existing OEM parts and wrap them in carbon fiber. Its called a wrap, but the more exact term is carbon fiber skinning. Its where you take the OEM part, sand it, apply real carbon fiber over it in a raw form, apply several coats of epoxy with sanding in between. Then to finish it off its clear coated, wet sanded, and hand polished to a factory like luster. Well thats how we do it. Other companies skip the clear coating to save a few pennies... Doing this usually adds weight to your car, but we're talking about ounces of weight so to most who want it for an exotic look. Adding 10 oz. of weight is no big deal.

All of our work is guaranteed for life against abnormal deterioration such as yellowing or warping, and not only that, we use nothing but premium quality materials!

So here are some pictures of some of our work and I hope you guys like it

Also we are working on corvette parts and viper parts so as soon as we have some done I'll be sure to post pics!

 

[CarbonOne]

 

[mpt]

I'd certainly like to add some carbon fibre accents.

 

[samcarney]

I would definitely be interested as I am considering interior and exterior carbon fibre accents offered from Tesla. Can you match the weave pattern used for the roll bar cover? What about pricing?

I am also located in the Chicago area, any details on your company??

 

[CarbonOne]

We not only can match the exact weave pattern, but we can surely beat the prices .

I have no official prices yet but roughly off the top of my head for the interior.

I can say...

Silver door pulls roughly $500
Those black wide scuff plates / door sills - roughly $1000. I've seen other companies charge over $1500 and I'm sure Tesla charges more ha.

Silver center console trim - $300

Black plastic shroud under the E brake - $300 (IMO it would complete the carbon fiber center console)

Then I could also do the side mirrors / side mirror bases but I'd have to see those in person to price them.

If anybody has any suggestions please let me know and I'll check it out

 

[CarbonOne]

P.S I would post company info but I'd be going against the rules so I have to wait until after I become a vendor / sponsor.

 

[Palpatine]

I am also interested in adding carbon fiber accents to my Tesla.
The exposed CF accent price from Tesla is really high so I did not purchase them with my car.

But I still like the look of those CF accents and would likely be a customer if an aftermarket dealer could make them look the same but at a more reasonable price.

There is certainly a market for this if you want to address it.

 

[CarbonOne]

Well we are more than interested in starting some parts. And like I said... Not only can we match the weave and size of the carbon fiber exactly... We can beat the prices!

 

[Lancelac]

I'm interested as well. I'd probably do the side air intakes and doorsills first, but could be persuaded on a few other parts as well.

 

[CarbonOne]

Well its pretty simple guys. I really want to start making parts for the Tesla Roadster but cant unless I have a volunteer.

In order to start making parts I need to create master molds off of an existing OEM part. From that mold I'll be able to reproduce parts from carbon fiber, fiberglass, kevlar, and such materials.

Usually when we have a new project we don't go out and buy the parts because that can cost thousands. What we do is invite over a person who owns that specific car, and is interested in the parts him or her self.

We don't hold the car at our place, we just remove the parts we will be making molds of. We then make the molds, and return the part to the customer in the same condition in which it came in.

Roughly a few days to a week later or more depending on the part, the customer gets his or her part for a fraction of the retail price.

For example a Viper guy brought us a bunch of viper interior panels so we can reproduce them. We completed the molds last week, and he will be getting the first reproduction parts for 65% off. Guaranteed to fit and look great!

I want to become a vendor but I cant make the jump unless there are parts to sell

If anybody is interested please feel free to call me at 708 522 3017. You can also txt me any time day or night. Its never too late or too early.

Also you don't have to be local, we have parts shipped to us all the time to either custom wrap in carbon fiber or reproduce.

 

[benji4]

I recently ordered a complete set of carbon fiber exterior and interior parts from CarbonOne for my Obsidian Black Roadster. The car itself is scheduled for build the week of 12/13, but I wanted to try and time the arrival of the parts and the car around the same time. The parts I ordered include a couple pieces Telsa does not produce including pieces for the entire hood and door pulls. Other than that it will basically be all the pieces in both the interior and exterior accent groups. I'm dying to see what this stuff looks like when it's all completed and shipped out to me (I am in Tokyo Japan), and installed on the car --- but will be nice to get the car first of course! I'll post pictures here as soon as it all comes together, probably around mid-January.

 

[TEG]

Yes, pix please! Blackout roadster with all possible carbon fiber sounds cool.
Did you get black wheels too?

 

[benji4]

No, at least when the car arrives the only options it will have on it are the infotainment package, solar guard windshield, and tire pressure monitor. In Japan, you get a $32,000 government rebate on the base car, but you get nothing on options or on the sport model. The cost of the base model here -- because of the very strong yen at the moment, is about $140,000! So with the rebate, it gets knocked down to around $108,000, but options because of the yen-premium really start driving up the price after that. So for now I'm sticking with the cast silver wheels and will look to upgrade maybe with something else locally after the car arrives. The car will be all blacked out and with lots of exposed carbon fiber -- but with silver wheels! I think the carbon will actually give some pretty nice results on a black metalic car --- the CF parts will appear lighter than the rest of the car or darker depending on the light and angle. Obsidian Black is an interesting color in that it appears almost mirror-like at some angles, but at other angles you get various shades of black and silver-gray. It's tough to see the effect in photographs, but this picture shows it off pretty well (note how the CF roll bar stands out against the rest of the car):

http://www.blogcdn.com/green.autoblog.com/media/2009/10/teslaroadstersportreview_007.jpg

Sorry for getting a bit off topic here! The other thing I'd like to mention about the aftermarket CF parts -- people at Tesla don't seem to have much of a problem at all with me getting this stuff from another vendor and are they also looking forward to seeing what it looks like when it's all put together. Because Tesla sales people are not working for commissions I think they are able to see things more from the customer's point of view. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to getting some pics up once this project is complete and hopefully it can help other people decide whether or not they want to order parts from CarbonOne.

 

[benji4]

A quick update on this --- I'm still waiting on the parts from CarbonOne, but expecting parts to start arriving around the end of this month starting with the door sills... One thing to remember is that these parts are completely hand-crafted and do take a lot of time to create, especially when new molds are needed as in the case of my order... My car is actually a bit later than I'd hoped as well, although it appears now to be about to arrive in Japan and hopefully I'll get a chance to see it later this week! I'll get another update in on the status of the parts as soon as I have more info.

 

[jaanton]

Not exactly for my Tesla, but I would sure like carbon fiber license plate frames with the quote "My other car is a <Tesla logo> Roadster". I've found lots of places for custom frames, but no place which does the custom quote on carbon fiber. Any clues?

 

[smoothoperator]

Carbon Fiber door sills are probably one of the best upgrades you can do. I had the normal velcro'd in plastic door sills and upgraded them to the cf ones and they look and feel amazing. I added a small gasket between the carbon fiber and paint so that it would not scratch the paint (due to pressure put on the CF from entry and exit).

 

[Doug_G]

Not exactly for my Tesla, but I would sure like carbon fiber license plate frames with the quote "My other car is a <Tesla logo> Roadster". I've found lots of places for custom frames, but no place which does the custom quote on carbon fiber. Any clues?

Here's an alternative suggestion, which I stumbled into by accident:

I had ordered a custom plate for my Roadster, but then to my surprise the car arrived with the very first Ontario Green Vehicle plate (GVAA 001). Geesh -- that's way too cool to take off the car! So I was thinking of putting my "N TESLA" plate on my ICE car. That's kinda like "My other car is a Tesla"... and you could put a CF plate holder on it.

 

[dsm363]

Carbon Fiber door sills are probably one of the best upgrades you can do. I had the normal velcro'd in plastic door sills and upgraded them to the cf ones and they look and feel amazing. I added a small gasket between the carbon fiber and paint so that it would not scratch the paint (due to pressure put on the CF from entry and exit).

Do you have a picture of the gasket you added? Was this something from Home Depot? I'm thinking about getting the CF door sills as well.

 

[CarbonOne]

Gaskets are a good idea! I'm getting ready to ship a few orders to members on this forum and I'll be adding gaskets on the edges. I'll be adding those 1/4th inch thickness foam strips. This will also keep a more sturdy part.

 

[felixtb]

hi carbonone,

how long, about, does it take you to complete a set of sills and send them out to Europe? I have ordered a roadster without the pre installed cf sills due to excessive price. however, yours sound both better constructed and are much cheaper. so now I am interested in adding this to the car

/fb