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oCarbon.com - looking for a few members to help us develop carbon fiber interior trim
Hey guys,
My name is Matt and I'm the owner of oCarbon. We've been hand making real carbon fiber interior trim sets for high end European vehicles for the last 9 years (mostly Audis and BMWs) and are now looking to offer our services to Mercedes owners.
We need to find a few W220 owners who'd like to have some carbon fiber interior trim made for their vehicles. We'd be able to offer a pretty significant discount to anyone willing to send us their trim for a few weeks while we manufacture a set for them.
These sets would be made using actual carbon fiber, epoxy, and clearcoat (no fake vinyl or stickers or anything else of that nature) wrapped over an OEM set of trim for a perfect OEM fit. Different fabric weaves and colors are available for a more custom look.
Our standard pricing on these sets will be very competitive, and those that take advantage of this introductory offer will get heavily discounted sets.
Interested? Shoot an email to matt@ocarbon.com with your full vehicle info (model, year, chasis code, auto/manual, what type of trim is currently in the vehicle) along with what you'd be interested in. If you've got good photography skills and are willing to help us with installed pictures and/or an install guide, this would be appreciated as well.
Q: Can you give me a little more info about the process?
A: Sure. You'd remove your current trim and ship it to us. We would take the original trim, remove excess material, wrap it with real carbon fiber, coat it with epoxy, sand it smooth, spray it with clearcoat, and buff it to a shine. The whole process takes about 3-4 weeks, and we'd then return the set back to you.
Q: So you won't be making molded pieces?
A: Nope. We've found that molded interior trim pieces never really fit right and they don't look as good as overlaid parts. Using an original OEM piece as a base means all the OEM tabs for a perfect fit.
Q: What about the added carbon? Won't that make the pieces bigger?
A: No. We sand down wood cores and we remove the aluminum from aluminum cores to make room for the extra carbon fiber and epoxy. We rarely have any fit issues with pieces, and we guarantee fitment, so if for some reason something doesn't fit quite right, we'll fix it until it does.
Q: Where are these pieces made? I'm worried about quality from overseas companies.
A: Everything is made in house in our facility in Glendale, AZ. We control the process from start to finish. It costs more, but the end quality is much, much higher.
Q: Speaking of quality, can you give me more info about the materials you use?
A: Most companies use a cheap 5.7oz 2x2 twill fabric for their parts. This fabric has gaps in the weave and can be susceptible to weave distortion around complex corners. We only use name brand (mostly Japanese based Toray) 11oz 2x2 twill, that has a much thicker and tighter weave. Again, it costs more, but it makes a huge difference in how the end product works. We also use only the highest end epoxies that have UV inhibitors to prohibit fading and yellowing. We finish the pieces in high-solids polyurethane clearcoat for a deep, glossy shine.
Q: Since I'm helping you out with development, shouldn't these sets be super cheap or free for me?
A: We're a small company, just myself and a few employees. We'd love to be able to just give the first few sets away, but we don't have a ton of capital to be able to develop a bunch of new products, so we're asking a few of you to share the cost of development with us. You'll get a fantastic set of real carbon fiber trim for your vehicle, at 20-40% of the cost of some of our competitors. It's a win-win for both of us.
Q: What about a warranty?
A: We offer a full, one year warranty on every product we sell, even these development products.
Q: Can you make other interior parts? Exterior parts?
A: Probably. We're focusing on interior trim parts for now, and might be open to simple overlaid exterior parts. Email us if you'd like a quote.
Q: You didn't answer a question I had.
A: Shoot an email to matt@ocarbon.com and I'll do my best to help you.
Long time no updates, but I'm still looking for w220 owners who want sets made, particularly those who want some more custom pieces. We've got a lot of new colored fabrics in as well as some black ones with cool weaves.
I'd really like to find a few people who'd like to go the custom route so I can get some more installed pictures of the custom fabrics we offer, along with some of the more custom pieces. I'm willing to give some discounts to those who are willing to be a little more adventurous.
If you see anything you want or have any ideas and want more info, feel free to shoot me an email at matt@ocarbon.com and we can discuss your options.
A few recent pics of custom pieces we've done.
This is a 2x2 twill fabric with threads of reflective red running through it (it's also available in copper, gold, silver, blue and green). The pics don't do it justice:
We've also been doing quite a few standard colored kevlar sets, like these few in red, yellow, and orange:
Aluminum coated fiberglass too:
Some non-traditional black weaves as well:
Keep in mind we can also do things like mirror caps, door sills, center caps for wheels, you name it:
We just got done with these red carbon/kevlar seatbacks for an Audi A3. We haven't done anything like this for a Mercedes, but we could in almost any fabric. Email me at matt@ocarbon.com if you're interested in something like this:
I want the carbon fiber interior trim to match my front carbon fiber lip, rear spoiler, roof wing ! But I will not go with this company, I have a 05 Audi A8 and they did a carbon fiber trim for me, but it took more than 5 month, I believe its a one man company and I sent them my wood trim and they made it with carbon fiber overlay. They sent me piece by piece back and total took more than 5 month to complete 11 pieces ! They doing Audi cars more than Mercedes for some reason, That's whey they didn't come here any more. Their job is ok, for the price.
12-18-2013, 07:25 PM
