Carbon Fiber Effect airbrush *Tutorial*

This is one of the best ways to get a pretty realistic Carbon Fiber Effect.

What you need:

• [li]Shelf liner. Wal Mart really cheap. Looks like rubber checker pattern[/li]
  [li]Primer, Silver, Transparent Black, Clearcoat[/li]

Start out with primer. Then sand with 900 grit.

Start out with a base color of Silver. Gunmetal silver works well. The shiner the better.

Then lay out the shelf liner and paint the black checker pattern. Use transparent black. Make sure the shelf liner stuff is flat. Any lifts and it looks wierd.

Critical step. Wait for the black to dry completely. 20 min or so.

Then lift to reveal a wicked checker pattern.

Now go over the whole pattern with Transparent Black. Go lightly. Keep a steady even light coat with the black.

Last step, go heavy on the clearcoat. This will give it a real deep realistic look.

Here is a pic of the final product with some other stuff added. Check out the carbon fiber part though. It looks wicked. I also used a little Duplicolor Effects Clear Sparkle along with the clearcoats.

Nice tutorial, thanks for posting!

As usual another fine piece of paint work by Commando

Quick question how long did the whole process take

oh and +rep

If I had done just the Carbon Fiber effect then clear coated it, it would have probably taken as follows:

• Prep the surface ~10min
• light primer coat #1 then wait 10min
• light primer coat #2 then wait 10min
• sand the primer ~10 min
• Paint the silver, light coat, wait 10min
• 2nd coat of silver, wait 10min
• Lay down the mesh stuff, one coat of black, wait 10 min
• Remove the mesh stuff, go over with Transparent Black, ~5min
• Then 3 coats of Clear, 10 min between each
• Then wait 2 days or so and wetsand then buff it out, ~45 min

In total, probably around 4 hours of actual work time. The waiting in between coats is more or less go in the house watch TV or whatever. I can get usually get a project to clearcoat in 1/2 day.

Here's the catch. I've been using DupliColor for the base coats and clearcoats. Duplicolor recommends for all coats 10min in between, but no longer than 1 hour total. I've found you can go a little longer than 1 hr total but after about 2 hrs if you try to spray another coat of Duplicolor paint it will wrinkle. I learned this the hard way a couple of times. This is the only drawback I've found with Duplicolor. Besides that, I love it, it looks great, and the clear buffs out real nice.

You can use better paint for the base colors and clearcoats like House of Kolor, but it is ridiculously expensive. I like Duplicolor because there is an Auto Zone right by my house that has tons of it and it's like 3~4 bucks a can. I still use Auto Air for the airbrush stuff. It's a little pricey but it doesn't react bad or anything with Duplicolor.

That's incredible work. +Rep dude. :)

-Dave

Ive heard that fishnet stockings also work just as well.

I used the idea from this thread. Didn't have the same kind of rubber mat, but it turned out great. Then I got a little creative. I flipped the rubber mat after painting, and placed it over the first paintjob. Gives kind of a carbon fiber camo look. I used flat black, silver, and navy blue.

Very nice work!
I don't exactly know what shelf liner is, some kind of mesh to prevent objects from slipping on a flat surface ore something like that?

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Originally Posted by _ferry_

Very nice work!
I don't exactly know what shelf liner is, some kind of mesh to prevent objects from slipping on a flat surface ore something like that?

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Exactly. Sometimes it has a light adhesive on one side so things on your shelves don't slip off.

This stuff?

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This stuff?

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Yeah, that's the stuff. As long as it has a good checkerboard pattern, your good.

This is actually the exact stuff I use. I get it at Wal Mart for a couple of bucks for a 5' roll.

Here it is at the Duck Products Web Page

Hi,

I have a carbon fiber frame bike that I would like to do the same way. Do you know if I need special paints for true carrbon fiber? or would have to handle it differently to make that work? (ie tubes instead of square flat surfaces, etc.) ? Would I need to sand down the frame in a different way oruse different grade paper?

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Originally Posted by Orlandomike

Hi,

I have a carbon fiber frame bike that I would like to do the same way. Do you know if I need special paints for true carrbon fiber? or would have to handle it differently to make that work? (ie tubes instead of square flat surfaces, etc.) ? Would I need to sand down the frame in a different way oruse different grade paper?

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My guess is that if the bike is already showing it's carbon fiber... why paint it with a CF pattern?

If else (ie it's painted a different color), you might be able to just rough the surface with some high-grit sandpaper and then follow the process normally. But that's just my guess. I haven't painted a damn thing in my life.