Hi Wozza, what adhesive are you using to mount the covers the mirrors.

Thanks

       
                                                                                                           
                                                                                                           


Carbon Copies Ltd

I see this thread is pretty old now, but is there a chance you could post up any pictures of how you made the mould, or similar moulds?

If someone else has fronted the cost then yeah go for it!! Start with group buys on STOC and similar forums if you can. Preferably get him to do the donkey work, you just recieve money via him and send out the parts. Less hassle that way. Plus a lot of the forums have been bought out by companies now profit orientated so have strict trading rules and many charge quite frankly rediculous fees to be a "trader" on the forum.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

Thanks for the comments and advice everyone. Fortunately for me a third party is prepared to stand the cost of the moulds and prototypes (other products on the way). He is heavily into the Ford seen and feels that the demand is there. I believe a photo shoot with one of the modified car mags is already arranged for the end of the month.
If demand is there then I think I will be going down the multiple mould/pre-preg route, as you say Warren the time saved will outweigh the increased material costs. Diolen certainly has its place but I have always found it has a blueish tinge and the weave is not as pronounced. The other issue is you can't really get a polished edge, it is always a little fluffy. I agree with you FLD a bit of a waste of good carbon but the market won't stand the price of a complete mirror back once the time to make and fit all the little mounts on the inside has been added. Not my thing really but business is business and if it pays the bills that's good enough for me.

Warren

Carbon Copies Ltd

Deffinitely do this!  I made a batch of pinto and x-flow turbo manifolds but struggled to get rid of them.

Diolen does look slightly different next to carbon. 

The fiesta ST (mk 7) has the potential to be a very popular car with lots of performance modifications hitting the market.

Something like this should do well as I imagine it wont be too expensive and being easy to fit and remove will make it more popular amongst regular folk.

You might want to forward pictures and a description to FastFord and Performance Ford magazines as they both have "new products" sections showing the latest "cool" and peformance products.

Out of autoclave prepreg would probably be the best way to go for quantity manufacture as once youve got decent templates and had a couple of practices, you will be able to lay them up and bag them dead quick and just chuck them in the oven.  Often with such parts, the money saved in your time well offsets the increased raw material cost.

If it looks like its a seller, then maybe look at a couple of other trims/vents or grills to do so you can offer a matching package.

Coming from the "ford" scene myself, be aware there is always tons of interest in gucci parts for the cars but with most fords being cheaper cars, in many cases they dont actually have the money to spend so make sure you get firm orders before making any as you dont want to be left with stock you have to sell off cheap.  Youll find the top spec cars like the RS and ST's will when new have a fair following for such parts but like any ford, they quickly devalue and as such once they move onto thier second or third owners people want nice things but struggle to justify the cost of carbon bits on a dirt cheap car.  So the lifespan will likely be limited for the product.  The bigger the part the bigger the problem obviously.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

This is quite common for VX/elises.  Mirror covers, binnacle covers etc are all available.  Just stick them over the top.  Seems a waste of lightweight carbon composite to me though, perhaps black diolen might be the way forwards to reduce cost?