carbon or not to carbon

FranA3

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hi all ive got a 2004 pre facelift a3 sport in brilliant red and so far i have got black wheels black mirrors and black grills but cat decide 2 do my interior trim which is silver at the mo in carbon fibre look alike film or not to match the black theme going on outside what do u think good look or tacky ??
 
I'd say do it.

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Try the CF... it's vinyl, you can always take it off and vinyl it gloss black.

I tried the mirror housings twice in vinyl, it looks good but its the biggest PITA.

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Interior is much easier.

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This btw is the 3M Di NOC dry carbon look vinyl.
 
Personally I prefer piano black, but that's not to say the carbon doesn't look good. Entirely up to what you prefer, but agree on changing the silver to match your black theme.

Just out of interest tho, didn't the sport come with gloss black trim? My '05 Sport did
 
Gryphoon01- that looks the ********. Did you do that yourself?? If so, can you please link to the 3m vinyl and give some indication of how hard it was to do? Cheers!
 
yeh they will be $500+ big money! saying that, how good are OSIR quality? id hope they are as good as oem for the money they charge!!
 
yeh they will be $500+ big money! saying that, how good are OSIR quality? id hope they are as good as oem for the money they charge!!

I think they will be mate. I had a reply from OSIR to say their dumbo carbon mirrors are imminent, so we'll see. I do fancy a set like.
 
theyre always good fitting so the money is worth it, oh did you get a pm from someone about your tyres rico?
 
Try the CF... it's vinyl, you can always take it off and vinyl it gloss black.

I tried the mirror housings twice in vinyl, it looks good but its the biggest PITA.

Interior is much easier.

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This btw is the 3M Di NOC dry carbon look vinyl.

how did you get it to smooth around the trim in the ashtray?
 
, oh did you get a pm from someone about your tyres rico?

I did Phil, cheers. He's in NI, but not got back to me as yet, despite initial interest. Did it come from you?
 
I did Phil, cheers. He's in NI, but not got back to me as yet, despite initial interest. Did it come from you?

yeah im sure i sotted him mentioning something about needing a set canny mind tbh mate
 
they look like 8l covers mate, maybe just hte angle though

Sorry mate. The covers are from the facelift A4 I had. Just using the picture for reference as I am sure they do covers for all cars
 
Bought the CF vinyl from ECS Tuning ... it's the 3M DiNOC stuff... fairly easy to work with. The only thing I found to be a major PITA was the mirrors because of all the complex curves. I've since removed them and not sure if I will try again any time soon. The rest of the install was fairly easy. When you apply the vinyl and than heat it with a heat gun, the vinyl moulds to whatever is under it. than you just find the trim outline and carefully cut around it and press in the edges with your nails. Just need to make sure the surface is clean for it to stick properly.

The 3M stuff is surprisingly easy to deal with and ECS Tuning has the vinyl in CF, Matt Black and Textured Black.

The whole thing just takes time and patience.
 
i think im going 2 give it a go it doesnt sound that hard 2 do just a little bit of patience to get it right i'll try and sort it before audis in the park fingers crossed anyway lol cheers
 
id let the guys at ocarbon do wone if it was my choice personally could even get a group buy, trouble is theyre in the usa
 
well i have now done the carbon trims and it looks awesome i get the 3m di-noc carbon fibre wrapping vinyl here's a few pics
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Great work there buddy!! How long did it take? Was it easy to get the door trims off? Can you give me a clue!?

Can you give me some instructions as I am going to try this at the weekend!!
 
thanks james , no didnt take that long to do just have to be carefull when your doing it otherwise its strait forward enough , the trims come off by getting a screw driver in by the top by the handle and gently prise it off the rest will follow as for the ashtrap / gearstick surround open the ashtray pull on the front of the surround by the ashtray and it will pull up it needs a bit of force tho but it should come up the ashtray has got two hex screws on it where you pulled up the surround from and at the back of the ashtray get a srcrew driver in there between the ashtray and the cointray under the climate control it will pop up then you can remove the ashtray but dont forget to undo the wiring for the ashtray led light hope that helps mate
 
Thanks - thats spot on. Really helpful

And the carbon fibre application. Is that simples??

Did you just lay the carbon over and cut roughly to size and then heat??
 
no probs its easy enough to do what i did was cut it to big then stick it on then heat it to form the shapes under the wrap do it from the edge tho you will have loads of air bubbles otherwise but its not that hard to do if it doesnt go on properly before you heat it then you can take it off easy
 
no probs its easy enough to do what i did was cut it to big then stick it on then heat it to form the shapes under the wrap do it from the edge tho you will have loads of air bubbles otherwise but its not that hard to do if it doesnt go on properly before you heat it then you can take it off easy

looks good mate, I've just finished my drivers door inlay, currently have passenger/driver inlay and gear surround done. You've done the same as me in that the drivers/passenger vinyl goes different ways, think you've done passenger weave goes towards the windscreen and drivers weave goes away. I really wanted them both to point towards the windscreen but didn't have enough vinyl to do it, and I've spent £50 on it so far as I wasn't happy with it the first time I did it (rushed) - no way I'm spending anymore lol.

How did you get it so neat around the chrome of the gear surround? I ended up wrapping over that too to get it neat. (could be rushing it again)

I need to redo that anyway so the weave is going around the car, e.g. passenger to windscreen, across gear surround to the right and then driver to back, if you get me.
 
yeah i didnt notice till someone pointed it out in work today lol , what i did with the ashtray was cover it as normal then cut the middle out of it so its covering the chrome to then heated it up then got my finger nail around then edge so it goes in the grove between the chrome and the black bit on the piano black like on my car then got a really really sharp razor blade / stanley knife and very carefully went round the edge then pealed the wrap off to reveal the chrome
 
cheers dude im happy with the results so far will get some more soon and do my wing mirrors , its not that hard to do just fiddly and have to take your time doing it otherwise it will look *****
 
cheers dude im happy with the results so far will get some more soon and do my wing mirrors , its not that hard to do just fiddly and have to take your time doing it otherwise it will look *****

May have to ask you to do it please :) as i have very little patience lol!
 
saw an R8 carbon fibre steering wheel online that would have looked awesome with that carbon trim. £1200 tho, before delivery!