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Okay, I'm a carbon fiber ***** and I cannot deny it. I have to exercise a great deal of restraint not to go overboard with the stuff! My Supra for instance had gloss finish carbon fiber door panels
Every year around Christmas DBCarbon runs a holiday group buy and I jump on it to buy some pieces. this year I got a gauge surround in matte and a hazard switch in gloss to go with my existing ignition switch in gloss. It's taken me this long to finally install it as it's been cold and I was frankly hesitant as to how much I was going to have to take the car apart after looking at the piece!
Thankfully it all worked out although the hazard switch surround fought me like no other and the wiring for the gauges was NOT easy to reach. Hopefully I've introduced no new squeaks but I'll know soon enough
If anyone has questions fire away! The Youtube vids don't cover this and they all start with cars that have already been taken apart some so they don't show you how tight some of the trim pieces can be - grr! But I have no regrets now, this looks great but is pretty subtle.
Stock! Rings are OEM Porsche
Pulled apart and gauge pod removed - an impressive number of screws to get to this point!
Gauges added, looking good!
Complete! Hazard and microphone installed, it all works too! Whew!
The matte looks very nice. I never cared for any of the glossy CF finishes as they liked a bit cheap to me but the matte is slick. Are they using the OEM part and then covering it in CF or is the whole part make from scratch? I would think that making stuff from scratch would be cost prohibitive and never fit as good as OEM.
This was an OEM part covered in CF, it fits like OEM obviously. It does look damn nice and I originally intended not to have any glossy but a mixup on my part awhile ago landed me a switch cover in gloss so I did the hazard in gloss too. I also have an e-brake piece in gloss I've yet to install. I may also do some of the door hardware, some switch blanks, and the batwing eventually. I have the switch blanks in gloss now. The sills along the door with the cubbies might look good matte, I have gloss sill covers that say turbo already from the PO. I won't do vents or the center console etc. as that seems overboard and my console is silver. A matte console might look outstanding though in the right car, the finish really is very nice!
Anyway, if anyone decides to do this piece Here are some tips: The whole gauge pod has to come out, remove microphone cover and hazard surround to expose two torn screws, the gauges are taken off with two screws, and then about 15 are undone from the plastic underneath to allow this hood to come undone with just three screws holding it lol. I'd suggest having a little felt on hand as the piece I received had none and Porsche uses it to prevent squeaks! Took me less than two hours of careful work to do this, a second set of hands to do the gauge pod harnesses is a good idea and the hazard switch must be pulled through the front and the harness taken out separately which at least one YouTube video sort of showed. T10,15,20 were the torx I recall using and painter's tape to protect the finishes, my plastic pry tools weren't strong enough to pry out the hazard switch :-O
Also, the piece was very well done as have all of the others this company has shipped. Before I began this install I looked closely to make sure that too much material hadn't been added and that there was no odd edge to it as the fit is tight. The part looked great, the edges sealed, and the carbon didn't thickly wrap around the part. It fit as well as OEM honestly. Painting or dipping this part would work, di-noc wrap perhaps? But I doubt the result would be better. The OEM piece has that rubberized stuff on it so prep might be fun lol. Anyway, I can take more pics of the installed piece if anyone wants but it's subtle enough that only a driver is likely to notice it
Was looking today at the horseshoe, I think it might look awesome in matte! The sill pieces with the switches for frunk and trunk etc. would look nice too.... this isn't helping my addiction lol! Hard to wait for the next group buy!
04-23-2017, 02:41 PM
DBCarbon interior upgrade :)
