Some carbon bits

[Alecci]

Recently bought myself a '00 Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 TS as an additional daily drive. True to my habit of not being able to keep any car I buy in standard condition for a long period of time, I immediately sought to modify it in some way and struck a good compromise between fun, reasonably cheap and anticipation of furthering the Maserati and future Alfa Romeo projects. Since there doesn't seem to be any off-the-shelf interior carbon bits to be had, I reckoned I'd make some myself.

Here's the results:

The items are only skinned in (real) carbon fibre, they're not cast. Although neither up to workmanship nor my own usual standards, I'm still fairly satisfied taking into consideration that this is my very first attempt ever at something like this.

 

[outrun]

Looks great mate. What other plans do you have for the Alfa?

 

[Alecci]

Looks great mate. What other plans do you have for the Alfa?

Don't know as of yet, will definately be doing some more interior bits in carbon and replacing some **** OEM ICE. Then we'll see, thinking about doing a facelift conversion and polishing the handling a bit, but who knows. Will pick up my other/next project car, a '08 Alfa Romeo 159 3.2 V6 JTS Q4 next Saturday, so presumably most of the energy (and funds) will be spent on that.

 

[vantastic]

I cant see the point tbh, why add weight to make it look lighter? sorry but dont see any point

 

[hodroyd]

As he says Van, they are only skins, so what's a few milligrams between friends..??

 

[Andyk]

They are looking good.......Will really lift the interior.....Van, thats hardly going to make any difference to the performance of the car...I think Alecci has made these for the look........Anyway if you are worried about that bit of weight hurting performance then there is a better way to get your car to handle better and go faster.......Learn to drive quicker......

 

[VMSRTI]

I cant see the point tbh, why add weight to make it look lighter? sorry but dont see any point

Just for the **** of it!
Looks good Alecci

 

[CatmanV2]

I'm wondering if there is a service you may offer here, Alecci. I have some bits that could do with freshening up....


C

 

[Alecci]

I cant see the point tbh, why add weight to make it look lighter? sorry but dont see any point

The point at this stage is to make it look better, not to make it lighter, and to gain some practice and learn how to use the carbon fibre before I start casting bits instead. I doubt there's much weight improvement to be had from replacing small interior plastic items with small interior carbon items. Sure enough, in a race car every single ounce would arguably matter, whereas in a daily drive I think not. It would make bigger difference if I myself went down a pound or two.

As he says Van, they are only skins, so what's a few milligrams between friends..??

Depends on the type of milligrams, right?

They are looking good.......Will really lift the interior.....Van, thats hardly going to make any difference to the performance of the car...I think Alecci has made these for the look........Anyway if you are worried about that bit of weight hurting performance then there is a better way to get your car to handle better and go faster.......Learn to drive quicker......

Thanks, you hit the nail there mate, these ones are done for looks only as I doubt there's a sufficient weight decrease to expect from replacing small plastic bits with small carbon bits to really motivate this for a daily drive. They make good practice, however, for the future when I plan to really start making bits for lightening purposes.

Just for the **** of it!
Looks good Alecci

Cheers for the compliment, I'd say they look good for being newbie jobs, but I aim to improve. Practice makes perfect as they say.

I'm wondering if there is a service you may offer here, Alecci. I have some bits that could do with freshening up....


C

I've actually been thinking about offering this as a service once I get good enough at it. With the present results I probably wouldn't have the audacity to charge anyone for anything near its real worth, taking into consideration the time you have to invest in order to get good results. As I'm improving, however, I think it's a fair guess that I'll be able to achieve better results in less time and then perhaps we'll be getting somewhere.

 

[CatmanV2]

I've actually been thinking about offering this as a service once I get good enough at it. With the present results I probably wouldn't have the audacity to charge anyone for anything near its real worth, taking into consideration the time you have to invest in order to get good results. As I'm improving, however, I think it's a fair guess that I'll be able to achieve better results in less time and then perhaps we'll be getting somewhere.

I would certainly be interested in offering some bits as a guinea pig

C

 

[Alecci]

I would certainly be interested in offering some bits as a guinea pig

C

Good to know mate, but as I said I need to improve first. There's a different set of standards when it come to quality if you compare between a daily-drive Alfa Romeo and an enthusiast's Maserati. For the latter I for one would neither expect nor accept anything but top-notch work - and I'm simply not there yet. I'll get back to you when I've worked up some skills and we'll see what we can do. Offering this as a service might help finance my own projects, so not opposed to the idea as such.

 

[CatmanV2]

Good to know mate, but as I said I need to improve first. There's a different set of standards when it come to quality if you compare between a daily-drive Alfa Romeo and an enthusiast's Maserati. For the latter I for one would neither expect nor accept anything but top-notch work - and I'm simply not there yet. I'll get back to you when I've worked up some skills and we'll see what we can do. Offering this as a service might help finance my own projects, so not opposed to the idea as such.

Good stuff, sir. I'm not going anywhere

C

 

[hodroyd]

Alecci, keep up the good work..!!

 

[vantastic]

Sorry, my point may have come across wrong, your work looks good and may look better than old faded scratched parts, but to me you either use real carbon or nothing, its all a bit boy racer haulfrauds styleee

I will get my coat and hide

 

[hodroyd]

Hahaha, OK you recovered that a bit..!!

 

[vantastic]

My 155 came with this stuff, it will be removed

 

[Andyk]

I will get my coat and hide

Off you go then..... ;-) ...............



Thats not the best jon I've seen on an interior retrim Van...Can see why you want that off.

 

[hodroyd]

That does look a bit yuk..!!

 

[Alecci]

My 155 came with this stuff, it will be removed

Even though it does nothing for weight reduction, real carbon fibre skinning looks much better than somewhat poorly wrapped vinyl in somewhat poor condition. I can clearly see why you'll have it removed, I would too.

 

[vantastic]

So you can see why not a fan