Hi all,

I'm new to the forums here. I've owned my 996 C4Cab 3.4l for about 7 yrs now and am looking at upgrading it's looks slowly (and shave a little weight but appearance would be 1st priority). I've got a general and more detailed questions about CF and certain CF products.

1) In looking for CF hoods and steering wheels, I see long term owners complain about cracking and state that it's normal. Is this very common across the major CF brands? If so I'd probably be concerned about CF-ing my car for short term looks only. What other gotchas should I know about CF?

2) I'm interested in DCTMS' CF steering wheels. Brand new installs and reviews appear to be quite promising. Have there been any longer term use reviews (say over 2 years+)? Are they prone to cracking? Have there been any cracking or other problems?

3) As for CF hoods, I see there's a wide range of brands ranging from $420 -> $3000 :-
a) are the 100% CF hoods less rigid requiring hood pins? Or are there 100% CF hoods that are rigid enough not requiring hood pins? Also I was cautioned on having the car too front light. Is this a big concern?
b) I've pretty much ruled out Dry processed CF hoods as the extra price over wet process for the weight savings and loss of rigidity (requiring hood pins) isn't of value (to me at least). Have I viewed this correctly? Or is my perspective incorrect?
c) The loaded question about brands now. I understand Deft, Seibon & VIS for their standard end CF hood models are wet based processed overlaid fibreglass underneath. i.e. they're processed the same way. But their RRP non-eBay prices vary by about $1000! All initial installation reviews across all 3 brands are the same - great to excellent. This naturally pushes me towards the Deft $420 option. However, are there any long term owners who can review the Deft CF hoods? i.e.
- do they crack?
- does the gel coat "yellow" over time?
- if they had to do it all over again, will still pick Deft over the other brands?

Thank you for any assistance you're able to offer. I've done a search for long term reviews but it's been hard to find except the odd "CF cracks but that's normal" statements.

 

Cracking of the carbon fiber interior parts is pretty common. I have a buddy that has most of the available CF trim on his 2000 Cab and a lot of it is pretty faded/clouded and some pieces have cracks. This is particularly true of the steering wheel. I have seen this in both the CF and the wood trim.

On my 2000 996 I have the CF gearshift ****, and it has one crack in it.

 

AnakChan:
I have no experience running CF steering wheels, so I will not comment. As for hoods and some suggestions.

For my applications, hood pins are a necessity (track use). Some owners elect to not use hood pins and that is their decision.

Here is what I look for on hood pin use: 1) Construction of the hood- the options you are looking at right now are fiberglass with a single (or two maybe) layers of Wet laid CF. The structure of this hood will be mostly fiberglass and UV gloss. The hood latch is what I look at next: Is it composed of fiberglass as well? If so, you should consider running pins, reason being that over multiple times of opening and closing the hood, that latch is going to get some good pressure put on it from the metal mechanisms holding the hood down and hooking on to the latch. Overtime the fiberglass will break down and might snap.
VIS used to put metal latches in their hoods, which was nice because you did not have the issue mentioned above, but, VIS did not really reinforce the metal latch into the hood. All they did was put the latch in the correct spot, then filled it in with fiberglass to secure it. You did not break the latch, but the latch really was not attached to anything either.

The term Dry carbon is not really correct terminology. What has happened is that people use the term to reflect the look of the product (no gloss) as opposed to the process of making the product. You can make a "dry carbon" hood just as strong or as weak at a "wet laid" hood. Companies are capitalizing on this look right now without really creating the product.

I have had issues with Seibon in the past. For the most part their gloss and weave is nice, but the larger pieces they make, you can run into fitment problems. The old saying of "check the gaps" come into play here, and then personal preference. My opinion is that if I am going to shell out some dough for a hood (wing, etc) it better fit right out of the box. There are some that say it is "part of the business" to need to take a car to a shop to get the part touched up, I say that is B/S.

As for the "yellowing" of the CF parts. As you probably know, this comes from UV exposure. The more UV your car gets the more likely you will get the discoloration over time. The better companies add more UV protection to their resins than the cheap companies do, and they have a tendency to last longer when cared for properly.

Please feel free to PM me if you want for more info.

 

Dharn55 & Turbo911cm,

Thank you for your responses and insight into CF. I'm glad I did ask for long term use of CF. At first glance, CF is definitely looks extremely attractive but it seems long term use it could be a higher maintenance to keep up with the good looks & lighter weight.

I think now I'm leaning more towards CF use for internal (in-cabin) rather than external (and probably in smaller quantities like just the steering, shift ****, and handbrake). Especially from the factors Turbo911cm has provided and some other research I've done on my own. I probably can deal with small cracks on CF in-cabin whereas cracks on larger CF pieces like the hood would probably make me cry. In addition to yellowing, it seems it's inevitable - even with manufacturers having UV coating, it seems it's unavoidable, just merely a matter of time. My car is more or less "outside", there's a roof over it, but it's not a closed garage.

About the hood pins, the reason why I wasn't keen on them was 'cos my car will be used for street use only, I won't be taking my car out on the track, so wanted a more street look. But if I'm ditching the CF hood idea, I guess it wouldn't matter, unless I make boat loads of cash and don't mind changing hoods every few years.

It's a pity that SkinzWraps isn't available in Japan. Once again, thank you for your time.

P.S. i read somewhere that Deft offers only 6 month warranty, sorta kinda short but seeing how long CF lasts from it's original looks, I can understand why.

 

Sorry to raise an old thread. I thought I'd update by saying I ordered, finally received and installed my CF steering wheel from DCTMS :-

 

Nice wheel.

 

Is that a safety flare?

 

Yep, don't all Porsche's have one? I thought it was standard issue. Maybe it's just a Japanese thing.

 

It is a Japanese thing. I didn't look at your location before I posted.

Funny thing is a lot of guys that have Japanese cars in the USA try to get that flare to be more JDM. haha.

Nice wheel btw, you should replace your **** to match your wheel.

 

Nice wheel. Does it provide any noticeable improvement in legroom?

 

Somewhat it does. My legs do slide in/out more easily but (and not that I condone this!!) it's also harder to hold the wheel with my thighs :-



Kudos to DCTMS, I'm highly impressed with their workmanship.

 

Wow on that CF in the middle of the grips at the bottom half. That is an awesome idea, and really sets this wheel off.

If anyone is "thinking" about a wheel upgrade go for it! Its one of the best mods I've done, such a direct interaction of driving the car.