This gray / silver Mazda RX-8 came by to have me vinyl wrap the hood of his car with the 3M Di-Noc matte carbon fiber vinyl material to cover over his factory black hood that he had on there. The owner of this car drove up to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County from San Diego county to have me do the vinyl work on his car. The weather was a bit over cast that day, so the carbon fiber weave in the vinyl did not stand out that much when photographed. From further away, the vinyl appears more of a solid flat/matte-ish and then when you get closer you start seeing the carbon fiber weaves in the vinyl.

As comparison, the eyelids on the headlights are real carbon fiber pieces.

Before:


After:












-Don Nguyen

 

I can dig it and I'm no CF fan myself. But it looks better than most CF hoods. What can one expect this to cost? And how does this stuff stand up to car washes, sun exposure, etc?

All the blue painted pieces inside look horrible though.

 

I would be tempted to do my roof or exhaust shrouds in this. +1 on the blue parts....

 

This stuff on the exhaust shrouds would last about ten minutes. The roof would be okay.

 

Any side and rear shots of the car? Looks good from here.

 

I don't have any any shots of the car, because you wouldn't be able to see the hood from those angles.

-Don

 

No problem. Just wanted to see if you have some pictures of it.

 

the thing with di-noc is if you know what it is, you can totally tell its just a wrap

 

Is that a cf hood? Why di-noc a cf hood?

 

Not trying to fool anyone. It's just a look. I am sure the majority of people out there with lighter carbon fiber hoods aren't exactly getting them to shorten their times from their home to the grocery store.

Yes.

 

Most CF hoods weigh more than the stock alumn hood. They're wet CF with fiberglass.

 

Just like Subarus then.

 

You have a point with the weight/functionality thing. So I'm guessing the guy wanted this done just for the look?

 

Yep. He had an actual carbon hood before that had vents in it. He no longer wanted that look/style anymore, so he had me wrap this hood for his car instead.

-Don

 

Don't know, smells like rice.

 

are there any seams in the wrap on that hood?

 

No.

 

Looks good. What does something like this cost approximately?

 

Dry carbon is the only way to go if you wanna save a bit of weight.
Besides that, the biggest functionality is the vents, but again, that depends on your setup in the engine bay whether it would help cooling or not. No point to get vented hood if you have stock engine bay...unless you just want the look.

 

Materials alone is around $100. Labor is going to vary from area to area, even from installer to installer in the same area.

-Don