GUIDE- How To Make a Carbon Exhaust Surround

Ok guys due to my lack of time getting the GB up and running I thought in the mean time I would put up a how to thread so here goes.

Firstly this can be done for very little money, (between £40-£90) depending on which method you choose, but be warned it does take a lot of time.

And I hold no responsibility for anyone damaging there paintwork in the process, this is simply how I made mine and I had no issue.

Parts needed.

-Junior Hack saw (Optional)- see step one

-Masking tape (Optional)- see step one

-Pen (Optional)- see step one

-Roll of Duct Tape or Releasing agent

-Fibre glass kit

Should contain

-Gloves

-Mixing Cup

-Resin

-Hardener

-Fibre glass sheets

-Mixing stick

-Brush

-Good quality filler

-Good quality stopper

-Blade and/or scissors

-File

-Various grades of sand paper from Fine to course

-Wet and dry

-Primmer

-Tiger Seal or equivalent, or a Good quality re-fix tape

-Pannel Wipe

Now this bit is up to you, choose one of the following lists

-Silver Rattle Can

-Black Rattle Can

-Fine Mesh Bag

-Carbon Skinning Kit

-Carbon Wrap

-High Temperature Adhesive

-Heat Gun or Hair Dryer

Step One- Making the Template

If you have a spare bumper-

If you have done the same as me, and sourced a bit of bumper then I suggest you do as I did,

-Clean your bumper piece

-Lay a piece of masking tape onto the area, and mark using a pen the shape you desire

-Cut out using a junior hack saw.

-Using a flat file I Kept this flat on the top edge and sides to get a perfect line, then rounded the corners.

-Using a Course Grit Paper neaten the edges, (Doesn't need to be perfect remember as this is only a guide)

-Cover the Whole Bumper Piece with a layer of Duct tape, making sure no plastic is left exposed, but try to keep the tape in one layer so its as flat as possible. OR you can use a fibreglass releasing agent.

-You may find it useful to tape the surround to a stick on the underside and then to a work bench, for ease latter on.

If Doing this on the car-

Now I didn’t actually try this myself but the same principles as above still stand. But for ease I would suggest you remove the rear bumper so you can work with the fibreglass easier.

-Clean the whole area you are going to be working on

-Cover the Whole Bumper area with a layer of Duct tape, making sure no plastic is left exposed, but try to keep the tape in one layer so its as flat as possible. I would suggest you cover at least and extra few inches around the area you are fibre glassing, OR you can use a fibreglass releasing agent.

Step Two- Laying the Fibre glass.

Now no matter which way you have chosen to do, (On car or on a spare bumper) the following steps are the same,

-Lay one layer of fibre glass sheet over the area, a cut to size leaving a couple of inches surplus, Repeat so you have two layers of similar size.

-This is up to you, you may find it easier to lay one layer of sheet, over the area and lightly tape into place to prevent movement when brushing the resin on. I didn’t bother but if doing this on car I would recommend it.

-Mix Your Resin and hardener up following the ratio’s given to you on the packet of your chosen brand. For example 10:1

-Brush a thin layer of the mix into the sheeting, until it’s fully soaked in and making sure to keep the sheet in contact with the bumper at all times, remember if it lifts this will effect how well it fits latter on. Take your time.

-Once you have done Layer one, repeat with the second piece of fibreglass sheet, I found two layers was enough but if you wish you could do a third.

-Then Leave for the recommended time frame to fully dry. I gave mine 24hrs to be sure.

Step Three- Shaping the surround.

Ok so now your fibreglass should be nice and dry so-

-Carefully pull the fibreglass of the bumper and place to one side.

-If you have done this on your current bumper I suggest you remove the duct tape and clean the bumper asap to prevent marking your paint.

-Now Trim (using a blade or scissors) the excess fibreglass leaving you around 0.5-1cm around your required shape.

-I Then used a file kept flat on the top and gently sanded to a flat line.

-Repeat on the sides.

-Then sand the corners to a nice curve giving you a rough shape for your surround. Keep offering it up to the bumper and play with the shape until you are happy.

-Then work your way through you sand paper grades getting the edges nice and smooth.

Step Four- Skimming with Filler.

-Using the instructions on your filler make enough up to cover the surround once over. Be sure to mix it well.

-Lightly cover the whole front to the surround until you are happy everything is covered. And leave to dry for the instructed time frame.

Step Five- Sanding.

-Start with a medium-coarse paper and gently start to sand the filler. Try to sand with the palm of your hand or use a block, rather than using your fingers, other wise you will be left with finger marks in the filler.

-Give a quick going over with a slightly finer paper, but this doesn’t need to be perfect as it will need to be skimmed again.

**Remember to reframe from going down to the fibreglass where possible**

Step Six- Skimming

Repeat Step Four again, but this time use you’re finest grade of sandpaper. And work up to a super fine wet and dry.

-Once happy with the surface give a good clean, and wipe stopper in any air whole you can find. Take your time to find all of them.

-Leave the stopper to dry

-Use super fine wet and dry to sand the stopper back leaving only the holes filled. Repeat again if necessary.

Step Seven- Prepping for final stages

-Now I would suggest you Prime, and flat it back with wet and dry.

-Even if you are going to wrap it, it may be a good idea to paint as well to give you a nice surface to wrap on to. I decided on painting it.

Step Eight- Finish’s

So you have three options now, Wrap, Paint or Skim.

WRAP-

-Flat back the surface to remove the shine

-Lay some wrap onto the surround and cut to a rough shape leaving a few Inches each side.

-Spray a good layer of High Temperature adhesive onto the surround

-Now remove the sticky backing to your wrap and gently lay into onto the centre of the surround working your way out towards the outer edge.

-Use a heat gun or hair dryer to help manipulate the wrap into shape, and make sure to remove air bubbles as you go.

-Once you have got to the edges fold the wrap around onto the underside a stick it in position. You can always cut it on the underside into slices to help you get a nice smooth edge of the corners.

PAINT-

Either paint one colour or to get a carbon effect to as I did-

-Paint the surround a medium toned silver, allow to dry.

-Then get a layer of fine netting and lay over the whole surround making sure to keep it in contact with all the area’s, and fix securely, if it can move it will ruin the finish.

-Now Spray the whole surround black, though the netting and allow to dry.

-Once dry remove the netting.

-Now depending on your silver will decide if you wish to skip this bit, but my silver was very bright and it didn’t look good, so I gave it another layer of black across the whole thing lightly to dull it down and make the silver more subtle. Again allow to dry.

-Now give it a good couple of coats of clear coat. Allow to dry

-Then give it a good wax to bring to a nice shine.

SKIM

Now I have no experience in Carbon skimming but there is a good guide that I have linked bellow-

I should have some pictures of this soon, as I gave one of my surrounds to a member as a thank you, and he is currently in the process of skimming it, I will update this bit accordingly when I get some pictures.

Step Nine- Fitting

-Clean the bumper with some panel wipe

-Either put a couple of tabs of tiger seal or some re-fix tape on the reverse side of the surround, and press into place.

And DONE... now have a beer

Thanks for Reading and I hope this helps some members in the future.

Good Luck

Jake

Very nice, might give me something to do on winter nights

Tied and failed lol but yours looks great

Awesome : D Love little build threads like this nice work dude. The end results came out great!

Good guide, dude

Very nice, might give me something to do on winter nights

That's what its all about just having a go.

Tied and failed lol but yours looks great

how did you do it was it a similar method as I used?

b;3538158']Awesome : D Love little build threads like this nice work dude. The end results came out great!

Thanks buddy

Good guide, dude

Cheers Josh

The finished product looks great Jake

That carbon effect paint is amazing. Not seen that before.

End product looks superb.

Or you could just buy one in real carbon

http://www.theboostlab.com/store/products/MKIV-Supra-Carbon-Fiber-Heat-Shield.html

lmao nice find jamie

Good guide mate right up until JP blew it out the water with his link.

Or you could just buy one in real carbon

 

http://www.theboostlab.com/store/products/MKIV-Supra-Carbon-Fiber-Heat-Shield.html

Ace find. That'll be on my christmas list haha