carbon fiber mirrors DIY

[Cbozz]

Let's start with the price... I'm not sure how much the OEM carbon fiber mirrors are but I guess around 500/600... Buying from other vendors if you want full replacement you have to cash out about half of that... I ended up buying some used Autotechnic carbon fiber replacement mirrors in poor shape.. the CF was detaching from resin and resin was bubbling up. I tried restoring it by sanding down the resin to raw CF and reapplying new resin but the air pockets were too deep in the material that I had to take another route and here are some pictures!
used:
3M super 77 adhesive spray
Surfboard resin with hardener
bunch of $0.50 brushes
bunch of patience
old kitchen knife
80, 100, 400 and 600 grid sand paper
clear coat
nail clipper with straight blade

quick rundown-- if you wanna wrap your mirrors just sand them down with coarse sand paper I had to remove old CF
-- if you spray the fabric with Super 77 adhesive if will not get screwed up when you're trying to apply it to the mirror and you can evenly apply it to your liking and take it off if you mess up -- spray gets tacky quick but takes a while to dry
I wrapped the CF around the edges of the mirrors and any fibers that were sticking out I trimmed with nail clippers
then when you apply resin make sure it soaks the CF good, don't worry about smoothness you will get that later on when apply more coats
leave it for a day to dry good and repeat the process
then sand it down to smooth out bumps
spray clear coat couple of layers with wet sanding 400 and 600 and polish and buff out and ready!

bottom of the mirror when I first got it

sanded down to CF trying to get rid of bumps and white discoloring

after sanding down and one layer of resin.. I thought this would do it


first polish with 400

after clear coating and wet sanding and clear coating again


I didn't like how it came out
you can still see some discoloration


ok, now I decided to re-wrap it with carbon fiber -- I had left overs from some old project

kitchen knife came in handy to separate CF from plastic of the mirror






then cut out a nice piece of CF material and sprayed lightly with 77 till its tacky
then wrapped the mirror -- easy

spray helps so much with CF not falling apart and getting all screwed up!

trimmed the edges

and folded over




you can see some fibers are sticking out so I get those trimmed closely to the mirror with nail clips



trimming the fibers

nicely trimmed




after first layer of resin applied







looks pretty sweet so far, better in person and I just got it all done today so there is more to come.....

ok today I applied a second coat of resin, I slightly polished the first coat for grip and to get rid of major bumps, here is how it came out!






ok another coat applied and sanded down and clear coated and here is the end result!!! looks perfect






thanks for checking it out!

[M3SWEETNESS]

Damn dude, I was thinking you where just going to show us how to put on the clip in piece haha. Way to go on just say F it and starting from scratch to get it done right!

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by 335SWEETNESS

Damn dude, I was thinking you where just going to show us how to put on the clip in piece haha. Way to go on just say F it and starting from scratch to get it done right!

lol, nah, I'm a DIY whore lol I've tried with CF a lot before but I learned that 3M 77 is the shit when it comes to holding it down nicely!

[debom3]

Nail clippers is a great idea! I'm gonna steal that one haha. Good work.

[downtowncb]

Very nice doing it yourself! I can definitely appreciate that talent and patience it takes to make something like this a quality piece you're willing to put on an M3.

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by downtowncb

Very nice doing it yourself! I can definitely appreciate that talent and patience it takes to make something like this a quality piece you're willing to put on an M3.

they are not done yet and not on my car yet lol... they will only go on it if they are perfect! so far it seems like they will be..

[avantegardestyle]

admire your persistence but the time spend doing thus could be used to make the money to just buy a set.........

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by avantegardestyle

admire your persistence but the time spend doing thus could be used to make the money to just buy a set.........

it could but i like doing this, besides this is a different wave of CF, the Autotechnic was 1x1 and mine is 2x2 i believe, it looks better IMO

[Conzyo]

Looks amazing
Well done.

[AlpineE92M3]

Wow that looks great!

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by AlpineE92M3

Wow that looks great!

applied a second coat today! more pics is up!

[burtonsbs5114]

looks great so far!!

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by burtonsbs5114

looks great so far!!

all finished!!!

[burtonsbs5114]

looks amazing! Great job!!

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by burtonsbs5114

looks amazing! Great job!!

thanks! now I'm making my hood vents! lol

[r1762]

Excellent job. Looks great.

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by r1762

Excellent job. Looks great.

thanks!

[MPowerZ32]

Nice! I wish I had the skills to do the sedan roof in carbon.

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by MPowerZ32

Nice! I wish I had the skills to do the sedan roof in carbon.

you can buy a replacement CF roof for a $1000 give or take I've seen it done and you can have it done at some indy shop I bet... just gonna have to replace your ceiling and remove the sunroof option from your VO and you're set!! if you research the e90post you'll find people done it!

[SocalM3]

Looks great...awesome work!

[P0NYB0Y]

hella tempted to do this to my roof. LOL

[Zarilia]

Wanna do my CF mirrors now? 😝