Carbon fiber roof install

[joltfreak]

I picked up a carbon fiber roof for my mini!!!
I'll be posting a bunch of pics of the install very soon as it goes in.
Watch this space!

[94touring]

That sounds really cool and also really hard to install!  Can't wait to see the pics.

[joltfreak]

here is a pic of it curing in the sun when it was being made:

[94touring]

Was it hard to make? 

[joltfreak]

I didn't make it, Bobb (on MM) made for me. it took two attempts mainly since i'm leaving the weave exposed. On the first one the weave shifted a bit and didn't look right, so it was painted but this one was perfect!

[94touring]

Hmm interesting.  So how do you plan on cutting the old roof off and attaching this one?  Will there be gutters still?

[joltfreak]

At the end of the month, the front roll cage is going in so i'll cut the roof off then and then, perp it and bond the the new on on. i'll still have the gutters. i was told that doing carbon fiber was a lot like doing fiber glass....but all i did was fg work in the past

[joltfreak]

well all the perp work that i could do at home was done. stripped out the interior, drained out gas tank, cleaned and stipped out the gutters and marked out where the roof is to be cut. i brought my mini to my buddy Paul's place (he owns breadbox racing) and he is bending and welding all the tubing for the front cage.....more to come soon (including pics)

[joltfreak]

Ok,
the roof was marked and cut off and then the rest of the rollcage was welded in:

[joltfreak]

as you could tell, i took it down to the gutters. then i preped the bonding surface by taking it all down to metal and painting it with e-primer. next was gluning the new roof on. the glue i used was a two part epoxy that is used to bond CF panels on race and high end cars (each tube of glue was $70!!).  that the roof was held down using about 18-20 "pincher" style vice grips. a couple hours later it was back on my trailer on its way home to be put back together again:



it really take as much time to do it as i thought it would, it really takes longer to prep it and put all the stuff back into the mini than to bond the roof on.

[batman1usa]

That REALLY looks COOL ! !  ;D

[481]

Now THAT is sssseeexxxaaay! :o

[joltfreak]

Thanks!!

[94touring]

Now that is stinking cool!  I'm putting that somewhere on the front page.   

[joltfreak]

after i got it all back together and i took it for a quick spin...I found out the easy way where i needed some padding on the rollcage lol!
here are some more pics!

[joltfreak]

here is a couple pics of the padded cage:

[481]

That is seriously flipin sweet. Guess I'll have to go ahead and add that to my list of future mods as well...  :) How much weight was shaved off with the install??

[joltfreak]

to be honest the weight of the cage was offset by the roof so there most likely wasn't much saved in total...but where the centre of gravity is has shifted lower which means that i could chuck it in the corners much faster and the extra rigidness of the cage will just make sure that it goes to the tires and not the body. ;D

[94touring]

I did add you in the news to the front page a bit ago. 

[joltfreak]

Sweet!!!! ;D

[joltfreak]

here is another pic that was at a recent show (placed 3rd)

[481]

Get those skanks out of the way so I can see that sexy beast!  :D LOL

Seriously though, grats on third place!

[joltfreak]

LOL! here are some better pics

[481]

Looks good, as usual.

I can't believe I never noticed those headlight covers...it makes it look even more mean that I thought!

That would be a pretty intimidating thing to see in your mirrors at a trackday. LOL!

[joltfreak]

Thanks man!