Hello,

I am new to this forum hailing from thestate of Maryland in the United States. In recent years, I have donemore modifications to my wife's 2006 Mazda “Miata” MX-5 (at herrequest mind you) than I have done to all other cars combined in allof my years... This has been a very fun and extremely rewarding hobbyfor me, but we have pretty much come to the end of the mechanicalmodifications that can reasonably be done without a full shop; verylittle on the car aside from the paneling, frame and shell areoriginal parts at this point, and even some of that has been changed.

Unfortunately, my wife originallywanted her white car to have purple accents (and I mean a lot).Thankfully, she has come to her senses after seeing a friends WRXthat had a bunch of carbon fiber trim. Immediately she said “I wantthat.”

Now I have become pretty efficient atinstalling vinyl on the parts and pieces as the actual color ofpurple she wanted (you can see in the link below) was a chromepurple. This means buying chrome bits and then painting them withspecial chrome purple paint. The downside, chrome purple paint is notideal for applications in which you will be constantly touching,banging, or having road debris hit it. Basically it became a chippedmess after several months. Then I got the idea to vinyl wrap all thepieces in purple tint; that did the trick nicely.

So, my first inclination was to justpurchase vinyl with a carbon fiber pattern; this would have easilybeen the cheapest alternative. But me being who I am, I have spentabout 30 hours in research on carbon fiber. Long story short, I amdone with school and have a job in which I do not travel 30%-40% ofthe time, and my wife has been looking for some hobby to fill my timeinstead of annoying her... After day 3 of research she says to me “itlooks like you found your new hobby.”

With all of that, I am looking to getstarted in this hobby of making my own carbon fiber parts and pieces.From what I have read, there are three main options (I intend tolearn and perfect all 3) based on the part; Skinning, Wet-Bagging,and Infusion. I am pretty clear, though nothing is better than realworld experience, as to when you should use each application.

The technique that interests me themost is Vacuum Infusion. As I am part of a pretty large Mazda MX-5community, there is quite the demand for these parts in carbon fiber.Let me be clear, I am not attempting to start a business, butaugmenting my expenditures of this hobby would not be the worstidea...

I am very familiar with manufacturingprocesses as I have been working for a company, for over 14 years,who does it's own manufacturing in the United States. As I haveworked through the “ranks,” as it may be, I have been exposed tomany aspects of manufacturing. The most important being product wasteand avoiding it through more efficient practices. For example I cansee making a mold of 10 – 15 emblems being very efficient,especially if you are infusing. This would allow for all of theextra's to be sold immediately while minimizing reinforcement andresin waist. Well this is just my theory at this point.

Either way, I am very happy to havefound this forum and will be posting quite a few questions andcomments in the coming days. I have some equipment questions that Iwill post in the appropriate forums. Until then, I am very excitedabout this new hobby.

-Ray