Has anyone done this yet? I emailed Jim at Rogue today to know if he could make the top carbon he said he could make the whole car carbon if I paid for it. I would like to see if anyone else has seen this done. May be putting my first born up for sale here soon .

 

Hmmmm, somebody mentioned this in a thread that was all about carbon fiber and the roof was done in CF. I wish I had saved the thread, but I will tell you that it looked bad A$$!!!!!!!!! DO IT DO IT

 

There are some guys over in Japan that make a roof skin. I'm to lazy to dig through the search to find the threads that have pics…

 

I will do some searches to see if I can find more info. Rogue said he could do an overlay on the existing roof or make a mold of the roof for a part that would have to be glued in place but it sounds like the overlay it way less money. He sant a pix of a classic with carbon top, awesome.

 

What's the point of gluing CF overlay on your existing roof? Unless the whole roof is replaced there's obviously no performance gain. Just get a sticker that looks like CF if you really want a fake CF roof .

 

I guess that is what the molded method is for, cutting my roof on and glueing the new panel on around the edges, but there is no way I'm cutting my roof off. The overlay would look great, be much cheaper, and I'm not racing, so sounds like the way I should go.

 

I was saying, there's no point in actually laying fiber down if you're just trying to make it look like your roof is CF (Aka, fake). Just get someone (Aesthetic Creations?) to make an imitation CF roof graphic, it'd be a LOT cheaper.

On a tangent, anyone that would hack their roof off and replace it with a CF one is out of their mind, if you ever rolled you'd be dead .

 

I've seen a lot of fake carbon and I hate it, wont use it. I'll spend the money. He even showed me some carbon fiber kevlar stuff that had colors one way and carbon the other .

 

Why do you say that? Someone on the E46 forums did it to their M3, replaced the factory roof with the factory M3 CSL roof and provided brackets.

They only really cut the roof itself, not the frame of the car. So I don't see why it would be any worse off in a roll-over than the factory roof is (if done right).

 

A carbon roof would look really sweet i think. But those crappy look-a-like vinyls really look nothing like a real carbon overlay.

 

+1

As long as they don't touch the Structural frame, it should not change anything.

 

That was iLLM3 and a few others....his car was sick....but his P-Car is sooo much nicer..lol

 

Yes there is a point. It looks good. And no vinyl won't look good. Not everything has to be about weight loss.

Also, no, it wouldn't make the car any less safe. The metal we see on our roofs is not load bearing & is just a skin. What isn't safe in a roll over is having a glass panel up there. Lot's of road debris come flying into the car when they break in a roll over.

It's different strokes for different folks. If I had the cash & a wife that would let me do it I'd skin my roof in CF in a minute.

 

Ok I found a post with the Japanese cars including a carbon roof but now I can't find it again. Looked great but wasn't a great pix. Now I wondering about pillars, carbon too? I don't think the cost would be that much more. Think this is what I will be doing but will keep looking into it.

 

I think the Japanese Co. was Duell....If you get a price let us know what he'll charge for for a group buy maybe we can all get a better price

 

I know Rogue owns classic minis but I will see if he would join the forum and maybe become a vendor and offer group buys. I know he offers good discounts for the forums he is on. It might help if others ask too.

 

off topic, but I think it was Daytonaviolet. He has every OEM CSL part on his M3. That's his daily driver now and has a GT3 in the stable.

Anyway, here is a picture of a MINI with a carbon fiber roof (scroll down the thread):
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...bon+Fiber+Roof

 

I checked with Rogue on getting a group buy on the carbon roof and he brought up a couple problems with that. First if we go with an overlay he would need the car here in AZ for about a week. If he made a mold of the roof and sold a carbon skin he brought up the issue of sun roof models. He did have an interesting idea for sunroofs of a full skin that has a low scoop where the sun roof is so from the outside all you would see is the scoop and not the hole. I want to go ahead with this, is anyone else interested and if so how would you want yours?

 

In the case of full faired recumbent bikes (bicycles with a body) like this



...they layer Kevlar on the inside due to the sharp razors that get created when carbon breaks in a accident. Might need a layer of Kevlar on the inside if one replaced the roof with carbon. If you rolled it and it broke and you were thrown up against it... Might not be pretty. Obviously if just doing a skin for cosmetics no issue...

 

Because even real carbon fiber isn't even close to as strong as steel. On the CSL you're talking about a car designed and engineered with a CF roof vs a car that has 1/2 the body stiffening elements (MINI). Cutting structural supports on any car isn't a good idea. The Roof in the MINI is an integral part of the body stiffening element, that's why the convertible weighs so much more, they have to incorporate all the stiffening elements directly into the chassis of the car.

 

The roof absolutely is structural. I'm not sure what you mean by load bearing, yes, the roof isn't designed to support the weight of the car, but it is designed to stiffen the chassis, and high strength steel is a LOT stronger than carbon fiber.

And you're right, not everything is about weight, but there are carbon imitation products out there that cost 1/3 the amount of real carbon overlay (Without the weight) and look exactly the same. I was saying there's no point in using actual carbon fiber to lay over steel.

Anyway, it would look especially silly if the person had a sunroof .

 

The duell is just a little cap overlay that you put on the roof....so it's not a weight savings thing, but it also doesn't alter the structural integrity.

from MU: http://www.motoringunderground.com/f...ighlight=duell



here you can see the roof still under the carbon overlay....check the corner

 

Those pics are awesome. So you could overlay the roof or have a skin made that could be glued in place. The question Jim brought up was about the sun roof. If you have a glued on skin would you just cut out the hole or would you go with his idea of a low scoop to direct air into the hole?

 

I bugged Jim again today about the roof and he said it would be in the range of $500 to $600 for a carbon skin but needs at least 5 orders to make it worth making the molds.

 

If I was a rich man…