What did you do to your FX / QX70 today?

CF vinyl won't require any special care. Just wash it like normal. Don't polish it though, not sure what would happen, but there's no clearcoat on vinyl so nothing to polish. The roof on my BMW is wrapped in CF and I just wash it like normal. It takes a little longer to dry because of the pattern, but other than that, no difference.

On your hood, you may see stretching on the nose where it curves down, not sure how to avoid that. And I don't know if wrapping the hood is a great idea. Every wrapped hood I've seen on any car looks cheap. The roof is a little better since it's higher and you don't look down on it, but the hood is obviously "fake". If they made a real CF roof cap for my BMW, I would do that in a heartbeat. I'm considering re-wrapping my roof in gloss black but am just lazy. CF vinyl looks good on smaller stuff, but not in large areas.
 
Back on the subject of CF roofs/hoods, there is a new material just coming to light.

It's made by LG actually, basically it is vinyl, however it is VERY thick, to the point that it is damn near impossible to work with from what I hear.

A local shop has ties to another shop in HK and they were the first to pioneer the product on cars. Here is a few of their results:

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As you can see the effect created by the vinyl is extremely realistic, basically it is impossible to tell that it is not real CF.

Now the problem with this is, that as stated above the material is rare, expensive, and damn near impossible to actually lay properly. A few friends and I are working with our local shop to get the material out to Vancouver cause the installer wants to give it a go.

I can post more pictures for those who like more pictures, but after looking at cars that were previously done the stuff looks phenomenal.
 
Is that the 4D carbon fiber vinyl? Pics look similar to that. Been meaning to try it out, seems to be clear over the CF pattern which would go a long way toward helping with the depth.
 
Wow looks sick. The 4d carbon doesn't look as real as that (except for the manufacturer's photos of course :tongue:). Keep us posted on what you figure out!
 
That's what I've been trying to figure out. All the photos of 4D vinyl look like that, but then I have some samples and they look nothing like that. But they were never from the same manufacturer, so I can't tell if some manufacturers have that look and others don't or what's going on. That's the problem with Chinese vinyl, they all use the same photos, but then there are a bunch of factories producing different products.
 
This is sick looking!! Suddenly my roof wrap looks like crap compared to the detail and shine this stuff has. Thanks for sharing! Depending on how much it is, still worth investing in a material that not only delivers the visual effect but also due to thickness will last longer.

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KyTy3OFF said:
Yes, that is one part that bothers me the most, just above the grille. And it sucks that unlike solid colors, you can see stretching on CF material, and it looks ugly (when I messed up couple places on interior, it just turned into plain black). what made me feel a little bit better was how the shifter hole came out on the interior (it is such a unique shape) - and since the CF will go inside the hood, I hope it won't show stretches on the outside. I wanted to do the roof (and I will in the future), but it would take a lot of time to disassemble my aftermarket roof racks and then OEM ones (and I haul bikes quite often, as it is super nice down here in Houston now). So i figured, hood would be the next easiest thing. One question I had, do you use anything special on your roof (like a conditioner of sorts for CF) when you wash or when you polish?
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I wash it with same car shampoo as the rest of the car. Once in a while to restore the shine I apply tire foam onto a sponge and then work it with the direction of the CF lines, so it doesn't show streaks and just let it dry, Last for a good amount of time.
When waxing your car, by hand or with the orbital tool, mask the edges to prevent from accidental smear of wax. I learnt this the hard way, got a bit on my roof corner and took me a while to get it out of the vinyl.

As to stretching and application, it all depends on the thickness of the vinyl, I went with a slightly thicker, it was a bit harder to work with but that prevented me from distorting the straight lines of the CF pattern and maintain nearly perfect straight lines through out the entire roof.
One thing I can suggest if I was to wrap the hood, work from the center out towards fenders, that way it should allow you to maintain the clean look of the lines. Try to apply as much as you can avoiding the heat gun at first .... corners should be last.
 
Here in Vancouver, the shop is said it will be about $800 for a roof.

The price is bound to come down, but the installer won't know until he can do a few cars to gauge how difficult it is or if it is even worth it to try and use the impossible film.

The shop in HK which did the car above, as well as a few others has given up on the product, they have entire dealerships wanting to do roofs and they simply say "no". The product is apparently that difficult.

This is not 4D film, this is a completely different product, it comes straight from LG. the thickness when compared to regular film or even the glossy CF 3M film is like double or triple.
 
I have been reading about this new clear carbon wrap. Meme is right about how thick it is and difficult to lay it down. One guy i know said he had to go to france to a training facility to learn some new techinqes to lay this new vinyl down.

Really love how this new clear carbon looks. Looks so damn real. Im thinking of redoing my roof this. A shop in long island has this new clear carbon. Quoted around 400 to do the roof. Its pretty steep of a price. Gotta sleep good on this one.

If this new carbon clear is way thicker, im wondering how much added weight is being added to the vehicle.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337
 
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Wow, at $800, you're starting to get close to paying a shop to lay real CF on there. How thick can it be? A clear bra is probably 3x as thick as normal vinyl and it's hard to work with, but doable. I could see how it would be hard to get it to shrink in order to contour to the roof. That was a problem with 1st generation CF vinyl - it would melt before you could get it to contour. Same with 1st generation chrome vinyl.

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$400 isn't expensive, that's only like $100 more than standard 3M vinyl wrapped roof. So if they really can do it for that price, it's good. If the guy went to France, is this a Hexis product?

Bklynjohn718 said:
I have been reading about this new clear carbon wrap. Meme is right about how thick it is and difficult to lay it down. One guy i know said he had to go to france to a training facility to learn some new techinqes to lay this new vinyl down.

Really love how this new clear carbon looks. Looks so damn real. Im thinking of redoing my roof this. A shop in long island has this new clear carbon. Quoted around 400 to do the roof. Its pretty steep of a price. Gotta sleep good on this one.

If this new carbon clear is way thicker, im wondering how much added weight is being added to the vehicle.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337
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shadow191 said:
That's what I've been trying to figure out. All the photos of 4D vinyl look like that, but then I have some samples and they look nothing like that. But they were never from the same manufacturer, so I can't tell if some manufacturers have that look and others don't or what's going on. That's the problem with Chinese vinyl, they all use the same photos, but then there are a bunch of factories producing different products.
Click to expand...

Have you experimented with applying a nice layer of clear onto the 4d vinyl then sanding it down? The 4d manufacturers claim that this will work, but i havent seen much on this on the interwebs
 
Jonathan time for some blackout headlights...

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Grill looks sweet though. Nice work on the DIY...
 
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