Carbon fiber for your Tesla!

[CarbonOne]

About 4 - 6 weeks max. I'm finishing two sets tomorrow and a third set by the end of the week for other customers. The soonest I'd be able to start a new set would be next week. It will take about a week or two to finish taking into consideration what else I have going on here, and I'm thinking two weeks max to ship?

I'll post pictures .

[Sparrow]

I"ll ask a noobie question here. Do the Carbon fiber parts actually replace the corresponding parts on the car or are they just attached to the existing parts. I'm interested in at least the door sills since the driver's side door sill in my 2008 is beginning to tear ( a vertical tear from the inside bottom of the door sill up to the level portion of the sill itself). I'm guessing my weight pressing against this area (which has no reinforcement behind it) as I fall into the seat is causing it to flex and thus the tear has been forming.

[doug]

replace

[benji4]

Actually, there are 3 ways CF parts can be produced:

1) Replicate the entire part in carbon fiber. This is done be producing a mold from the original part, and gradually building up the part by adding layer upon layer of carbon fiber into the mold. This is the most time consuming and expensive way to produce the part, but also will give you the lightest part.

2) Same as 1), but the initial layers are done with fiberglass rather than carbon fiber fabric. The part is just as strong as solid CF, but weighs a bit more. The look and feel of the composite fiberglass/CF part is also identical to the solid CF part.

3) Wrapping the existing part in CF (known as "skinning"). This is by far the fastest and cheapest way to make carbon fiber parts, but it adds a few milimeters in size to the part, and also increases the weight of the original part since you get the total weight of the original part + the carbon fiber skin. The advantage here is cost only. No strength is added to the part so it would not be appropriate to produce a door sill by skinning -- for door sills you need to go with either solid CF or composite CF/fiberglass.

You can probably get door sills for around $1000 in solid CF, and maybe $700 with the fiberglass. That's a lot of money (well, is it for somebody that just spend well over $100,000 on a car?), but I think for the sills it's really worth it since the orginal part is so cheap looking, scuffs by "just looking at it the wrong way", and seems to break pretty easily as well. I realize that Tesla needs to save money on production so they don't go out of business losing money on every single car, but at least the door sills could have been done with a bit better material I think. It may also be that they want to tempt you into buying the interior CF accents!!!

All that said, there are some parts that might be basically just as good skinned -- I'm thinking a skinned center console piece for Roadsters 2.0 and above would be nice and am discussing this part with CarbonOne. The current center console is just so cheap looking, it would be nice to do something about it. Here is what Brabus did by the way --->

http://emotorauto.com/2010/12/07/201...port-brabus-8/

Is that solid CF or wrapped??? Not sure... they never responded to my emails asking about that part. I've ordered a number of CF parts from CarbonOne, still waiting for them to be shipped though. I'll get pictures and reviews up on the forum once they arrive.... right now it seems like a race between the CF parts and the car; both are late, but both seem like they are fast approaching the finish line!

[vfx]

... they never responded to my emails asking about that part.

With only about 1,500 possible customers, Only a couple of hundred that even know they exist, and about 50 who would actually send them a check, that is a pretty lousy business practice.

[benji4]

With only about 1,500 possible customers, Only a couple of hundred that even know they exist, and about 50 who would actually send them a check, that is a pretty lousy business practice.

Yes, very true especially since they already have the mold done! Creating the mold is by far the most difficult part of the process and by far the most time consuming. Neither Tokyo Brabus dealer (there are two in Japan both which I wrote to) nor head office responded when I asked via email about the part's cost and availabilty. I did read somewhere that Brabus only does Roadster customizations in Europe though, so maybe that has something to do with it...

[vfx]

I did read somewhere that Brabus only does Roadster customizations in Europe though, so maybe that has something to do with it...

Ok so it's not bad customer service, It's a lousy business model.

"Hey, let's tool up and make a product for 10 people!"

Benji your Avatar looks like a classic Vette

[dpeilow]

I wonder how Brabus was affected by the 2.5 nose change.

[Sparrow]

I've noted that the rip on my door sill seems to be where I normally put my hand as I slide my right leg under the steering wheel. I guess I have been squeezing the door sill with my hand and since there is nothing behind the inside section of the door sill it flexes the material enough to rip/tear. Anyways, I decided to go with the CarbonOne door sills and should have them in a few weeks.

[benji4]

The first part of my order from CarboneOne which I discussed a few weeks back has shipped -- door sills, gauge bezel, and door pulls, should arrive in Tokyo in about one week. I'll be reporting on the quality and finish of these parts as soon as they arrive and I'm able to get them put on the car. A second batch of parts (hood, rear wing, side air intakes, nav bezel, and vertical pieces above the door sills) will follow later....

Oh, by the way, I don't have my car yet! Delivery date is currently Feb. 18, so maybe the same day as the CF parts arrive.