oCarbon.com - looking for a few members to help us develop carbon fiber interior trim

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Jun 4, 2013 | 01:18 AM
  #1  
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 W204 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.

Check out some of the vehicles we've done in our gallery: ocarbon.com/gallery

See some of the more custom pieces we've done in our blog: http://ocarbon.com/blog

Few pictures of recent sets:








Frequently asked questions

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.
Reply 0
Jun 4, 2013 | 03:34 PM
  #2  
interested! email sent
Reply 0
Jun 4, 2013 | 07:31 PM
  #3  
I added an FAQ to the original post.
Reply 0
Jun 11, 2013 | 12:16 PM
  #4  
Lots of interest, but no one has pulled the trigger yet. I might be willing to lower the price a little bit for those who want to be daring and get a custom fabric (silver, red, blue, or one of the custom black weaves).

Shoot me an email at matt@ocarbon.com if you'd like to set something up.
Reply 0
Jun 15, 2013 | 08:07 PM
  #5  
Still looking for more people to commit to this. Would love to make a discounted set for some W204 owners. Haven't found one yet.
Reply 0
Jun 15, 2013 | 09:59 PM
  #6  
Matt, you did my trim 3-4 years ago for my B6 A4 and it was fantastic! I can tell you that with the cost of our aluminum trim in these cars many guys are probably nervous about doing this. The smallest piece for the door belt line which is about 5" long costs $200.00. And that's the cheapest piece on the entire car. If I had the wood Trim i'd be all over this. If any of you are hesitant about this, don't be. I have dealt with Ocarbon and they know what they're doing and the results are fantastic.
Reply 0
Jun 15, 2013 | 10:02 PM
  #7  
Quote: Matt, you did my trim 3-4 years ago for my B6 A4 and it was fantastic! I can tell you that with the cost of our aluminum trim in these cars many guys are probably nervous about doing this. The smallest piece for the door belt line which is about 5" long costs $200.00. And that's the cheapest piece on the entire car. If I had the wood Trim i'd be all over this. If any of you are hesitant about this, don't be. I have dealt with Ocarbon and they know what they're doing and the results are fantastic.
I appreciate the kind words!

I've been trying my best to find full sets of wood trim to use as cores so I can start doing core deposits, but haven't had any luck.
Reply 0
Jun 28, 2013 | 11:52 AM
  #8  
We got our first two sets of W204 cores in and will get started on them today. One is a full set of sedan interior trim, and the second is just the center console for a a C63 owner who already has the OEM carbon. I'll post pics as we make progress on these sets:


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Jul 5, 2013 | 12:48 PM
  #9  
Made some progress this week. This set was done in a custom 4x4 twill fabric.

Aluminum stripped, with one coat of bonding epoxy to affix the fabric:



Fabric is laid on:



A little bit of of effort and the extra fabric is trimmed and the pieces are cleaned up:




Reply 0
Jul 10, 2013 | 10:45 AM
  #10  
Some progress on the W204 sets. These pieces will be trimmed and sanded smooth after the epoxy cures, and then they'll be off to clearcoat.

The C63 AMG center console area:




Custom weave C300 interior trim set:



Reply 0
Jul 23, 2013 | 04:07 PM
  #11  
Couple teaser pics. I'll have some more of the full set in the next few days.



Reply 0
Jul 24, 2013 | 04:13 PM
  #12  
Few more pics of all the W204 pieces. We just need to let these cure a little bit more and they'll be done. There are a few specs of dust in the clear, but those will polish out very easily for a mirror finish.

Won't be much longer before we can get them installed and get some installed pictures.





Reply 0
Jul 24, 2013 | 04:43 PM
  #13  
Price?
Reply 0
Jul 25, 2013 | 12:55 AM
  #14  
Quote: Price?
It will depend on which W204 you've got and which pieces you'd want done. Email me at matt@ocarbon.com for a quote.
Reply 0
Jul 25, 2013 | 02:52 PM
  #15  
very nice...
Reply 0
Jul 31, 2013 | 05:34 PM
  #16  
The C63 center console set is almost done. Everything is turning out great. These pieces will get polished up and reassembled in the next few days.







Reply 0
Jul 31, 2013 | 05:57 PM
  #17  
looks amazing but i really don't want to drive my merc for 4 weeks with all these panels missing.
if i could find a spare interior trim on ebay i'd do it but so far no results
Reply 0
Jul 31, 2013 | 06:17 PM
  #18  
Quote: looks amazing but i really don't want to drive my merc for 4 weeks with all these panels missing.
if i could find a spare interior trim on ebay i'd do it but so far no results
Same with me
Reply 0
Jul 31, 2013 | 07:46 PM
  #19  
Quote: looks amazing but i really don't want to drive my merc for 4 weeks with all these panels missing.
if i could find a spare interior trim on ebay i'd do it but so far no results
Quote: Same with me
Unfortunately, it's our only option right now.

In the future, we will source some additional cores and offer a core deposit and exchange, but the cost will be significantly higher.
Reply 0
Jul 31, 2013 | 08:34 PM
  #20  
How does this work? Send you the interior pieces and you keep it for 4 weeks and then what? What happens to the my original interior and what kind of price are we talking about for the CF pieces?
Reply 0
Aug 1, 2013 | 12:15 PM
  #21  
Quote: How does this work? Send you the interior pieces and you keep it for 4 weeks and then what? What happens to the my original interior and what kind of price are we talking about for the CF pieces?
You send us your trim and we wrap it in real carbon fiber and send you back the completed pieces. Pricing will depend on which C class you've got and how many interior pieces you want done. Email me at matt@ocarbon.com with your vehicle info and I can get you a quote.
Reply 0
Aug 2, 2013 | 06:53 PM
  #22  
Quote: You send us your trim and we wrap it in real carbon fiber and send you back the completed pieces. Pricing will depend on which C class you've got and how many interior pieces you want done. Email me at matt@ocarbon.com with your vehicle info and I can get you a quote.
email sent ...
Reply 0
Aug 13, 2013 | 05:20 PM
  #23  
Few more pictures of the center console pieces buttoned up. Hopefully I'll have some installed pictures of both sets soon.










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Aug 13, 2013 | 05:27 PM
  #24  
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Aug 13, 2013 | 06:11 PM
  #25  
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