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Hi, I've had a few parts from Fibre-Lyte here in the UK in the past but whilst awesome quality their plain weave carbon fibre isn't a good match for the stock material Associated or Yokomo use, it seems to be to shiny? the stock parts have a matt/satin finish. I was wondering about finding some stock looking CF and sending it to Fibre-Lyte, has anyone had similar thoughts or can point me in the right direction?
Thanks.

kenooze made a front tower for his rc10 kinwald build that looked very similar to the yoke weave (slightly golden prepreg 2x2 twill carbon as a rough guess). Maybe worth giving him a shout to see if he can find anything. Based on what Derby Dan got done with his G10 WCS top deck I think Fibre-lyte will be more than happy to accommodate.

From recent experience they said they would build parts for me from pencil layout designs, they are super helpful

Kenooze's carbon:

making something shiny into something semi-gloss or satin is easy.

lightly wet-sand the part with something like 2000 grit wet/dry paper. It won't be exactly like the finish of the original, but it will be satin.

Thanks for the replies guys, I've just come off the phone from Fibre-Lyte, they can supply matt finish as a special order So I'm going to send some parts in for them to work from, I'm hoping will be a close match to original parts, I'll update as and when...

Fiberlyte uses a high gloss resin, and there are different grades of finishes- also most of the time they use Twill weave, not 3k plainweave as Cedric has on that tower. Sanding either wet or dry will produce a result different than you want because it changes the light reflection of the top
layer and dulls the "depth" of the carbon tremendously.

HI

I just discovered this subject.
I can't remember from where come the plate I used for this tower.
I just focused my brain on the right thickness.

Do you want more pics of the finish ?

YZ-10 wrote:Hi, I've had a few parts from Fibre-Lyte here in the UK in the past but whilst awesome quality their plain weave carbon fibre isn't a good match for the stock material Associated or Yokomo use, it seems to be to shiny? the stock parts have a matt/satin finish. I was wondering about finding some stock looking CF and sending it to Fibre-Lyte, has anyone had similar thoughts or can point me in the right direction?
Thanks.

It memory serves me correctly, DragonPlate sells carbon-fiber that looks close to the factory stuff. Try here: http://dragonplate.com/ecart/categories.asp?cID=65

Dragonplate is only glossy on one side, it is more utility based-


And...........................................glad to see you back Daddeo-

I totally forgot about that Charlie! That shows you how long I've been away from the hobby....

Thanks for the welcome back!

YZ-10.... i've been in touch with Fibrelyte too... the gloss finish occurs when the Carbon sheet is laid up onto an equally shiney/flat board or mould... the more matt look on Yokomo or Associated's carbon is due to it being laid on a slightly textured surface.

No, it's more of the resin system-

Fibre-Lyte received my parts on Monday to work from I'm just waiting to here back now when they've made the new parts up, as and when I have updates I'll post up and once received new parts of course I will post photos

Charlie don't surf wrote:No, it's more of the resin system-

I'm not an expert.. its just what Fibrelyte told me... so you are probably correct.

By the way Fibrelyte did also say that they don't tend to use their 'trade-mark' distinctive 4x4 (diagonal look) weave carbon so much (unless it is requested) They tend to use the normal (presumably 2x2) carbon that most of the manufacturers use, so that it all matches.

Incidentally - the shots below show a peice of Fibrelyte's Carbon (its a Losi XX battery brace brought a year or so ago) Laid over the top of my Yokomo WCS chassis, as you can see the actual weave pattern is a damn good match. The colour of the Yokomo carbon has 'yellowed' - giving a gold appearance, over the years but is more grey where parts have been fixed down to it. The Yokomo has a definate texture to it - where as the Fibrelyte stuff is glass-smooth.





I also have a chassis from an RCLab touring car... this is smooth like the Fibrelyte stuff but is satin rather than gloss in appearance... i'm guessing this is where a different resin/system is used??

Indeed, I'm really looking forward to how my parts turn out

I would bet that if you put the CF parts in peroxide for a few days, it would remove the yellowing like with white plastic parts. I would of course use a test piece first just to be sure. -Jeff