Tutorial: Carbon Fibre mirrors
Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:07 pm
Apparatus & Materials:
1) Scissors
2) Masking tape
3) Tamiya Smoke spray (PS-31)
4) Clear durable plastic (Bank money-bag etc)
5) "Duck" brand carpet tape
6) Solder (or wire in general)
7) X-acto or similar hobby knife
Fine point sharpie
Procedure:
Masking the mirror
We will be using this mirror from the HPI tuner kit. Other mirrors are easier to mask, however this one is going on my shell and it has all the difficulties that come with masking. A perfect example. Remember to only use one piece of tape on the mirror, this simplifies the process.
Please notice that we want to keep the masking on the faces as smooth as possible. To do this we bunch the masking tape into the corners as above.
IMPORTANT: Please notice that the crease is only one line and that the masking tape is in full contact with the mirror except where the crease is. The picture below shows another view. I hope it makes it clearer.
Next, we take our scissors and trim off the crease we just made along with any excess masking tape that hang over the edges.
also use the hobby knife to trim where the scissors can't reach.
Like so:
Carefully remove the tape making sure not to rip it. Stick the tape on a piece of plastic, this plastic shouldn't have any creases. Also make sure the tape is laid flat with no bubbles. This will be our stencil.
Take your marker now and trace this shape exactly, ignore the little box I added on.
Flip it over, tape it down and trace the shape on another piece of plastic. It helps to tape both pieces down to ensure that they are both perfectly flat while tracing.
Tada!!!!!
My mistake: Cut your shape on the inside of your sharpie line, so that it is the same size as the masking tape from earlier.
Now take your carpet tape, your plastic, and stick the plastic on to the sticky side of the tape.
Tip:Place the side you put the sharpie on between the plastic and the tape. This way you don't accidentally rub it out with your fingers while cutting.
Do not remove the paper side as yet. Carefully cut the shape out. Again ignore the little box I have extra.
Now you have 2 choices. Paint the pieces you cut out before you stick them on or after.
I chose to paint after I stuck them on, that way I have less fingerprints (we use the solder as a wand to reduce fingerprints also.
On the shell before paint. The sharpie colour annoyed me and if you wanted you could have stuck the sharpie side out, so that you could erase it before painting.
However, the smoke paint hid this and it was no problem. My letter "R" was on the bottom of the mirror, so that was no problem.
Here is the finished product, not fully dry, but I just wanted to snap a quick pic for completeness. Remember you are painting on the plastic side.
Thank you for reading, please remember to take your time while doing this. Don't be afraid of failure, because you can easily peel the "CF" off the mirror if it came out bad. Leaving you with your original mirror.
I know, cuz this was my 2nd attempt on the same set of mirrors
Regards,
Maxx
1) Scissors
2) Masking tape
3) Tamiya Smoke spray (PS-31)
4) Clear durable plastic (Bank money-bag etc)
5) "Duck" brand carpet tape
6) Solder (or wire in general)
7) X-acto or similar hobby knife
Fine point sharpieProcedure:
Masking the mirror
We will be using this mirror from the HPI tuner kit. Other mirrors are easier to mask, however this one is going on my shell and it has all the difficulties that come with masking. A perfect example. Remember to only use one piece of tape on the mirror, this simplifies the process.
Please notice that we want to keep the masking on the faces as smooth as possible. To do this we bunch the masking tape into the corners as above.
IMPORTANT: Please notice that the crease is only one line and that the masking tape is in full contact with the mirror except where the crease is. The picture below shows another view. I hope it makes it clearer.
Next, we take our scissors and trim off the crease we just made along with any excess masking tape that hang over the edges.
also use the hobby knife to trim where the scissors can't reach.
Like so:
Carefully remove the tape making sure not to rip it. Stick the tape on a piece of plastic, this plastic shouldn't have any creases. Also make sure the tape is laid flat with no bubbles. This will be our stencil.
Take your marker now and trace this shape exactly, ignore the little box I added on.
Flip it over, tape it down and trace the shape on another piece of plastic. It helps to tape both pieces down to ensure that they are both perfectly flat while tracing.
Tada!!!!!
My mistake: Cut your shape on the inside of your sharpie line, so that it is the same size as the masking tape from earlier.Now take your carpet tape, your plastic, and stick the plastic on to the sticky side of the tape.
Tip:Place the side you put the sharpie on between the plastic and the tape. This way you don't accidentally rub it out with your fingers while cutting.
Do not remove the paper side as yet. Carefully cut the shape out. Again ignore the little box I have extra.
Now you have 2 choices. Paint the pieces you cut out before you stick them on or after.
I chose to paint after I stuck them on, that way I have less fingerprints (we use the solder as a wand to reduce fingerprints also.
On the shell before paint. The sharpie colour annoyed me and if you wanted you could have stuck the sharpie side out, so that you could erase it before painting.
However, the smoke paint hid this and it was no problem. My letter "R" was on the bottom of the mirror, so that was no problem.
Here is the finished product, not fully dry, but I just wanted to snap a quick pic for completeness. Remember you are painting on the plastic side.
Thank you for reading, please remember to take your time while doing this. Don't be afraid of failure, because you can easily peel the "CF" off the mirror if it came out bad. Leaving you with your original mirror.
I know, cuz this was my 2nd attempt on the same set of mirrors
Regards,
Maxx