Hi Guys, 

Luckily I have plenty of spare wheels around. 

Hi Steve,

We supply materials to a couple of customers who are doing the same thing. Like you, they specialise in leather re-trimming but have added carbon fibre and other composite materials to their portfolio. It's always a 'skinning process' rather than a traditional moulding process which effectively means you're working without a mould, wrapping carbon around your former, wetting it through with resin then building up additional layers of resin (see something along these lines on the video that accompanies our Carbon Fibre Skinning Starter Kit). If the construction of the wheel allows you to slide a sleeve of carbon fibre over your former (you'd need a fully dismantlable wheel) then you could use carbon fibre braided sleeve - this is great because you would have no seam where the carbon meets itself. If you can't use a sleeve then you'll simply need to wrap the carbon round and then have a neat seam on the inside of the wheel (which would rarely be seen). One technique for getting a nice sharp cut edge on this seam is to spray the fabric in this area with a little hairspray before you cut it, that way, when you do cut it, it won't fray.

Once you'd built-up the resin, allow to cure fully then to some flatting back (without breaking down to the carbon). Trim the edges back either side so you have a nice smooth edge at either end. There's no need to polish it all the way to a fine finish, instead, fully cure the part off at this stage (a bake in an over for 8hrs at 50'C would be good) and then use a 2 pack automotive lacquer and spray the skinned part (you'll want to mask off the rest of the wheel) and then flat and polish the lacquer. The lacquer will give a deep shine and UV protection to the part.

I hope this helps.

All the best, Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales