carbon roof

[MarkVw2017]

Carbon fibre roofs everyone?

 

[Loz]

Carbon fibre roofs everyone?

Not too difficult. I already have a mate who can do this but they are not cheap as some time has to go into the plug to make them on.
He makes carbon yacht tenders and previously carbon racing yachts and they made everything out of carbon like even toilet seats!

I keep thinking about this from time to time but I’m not sure the Cali will be worth keeping by the time the existing roof is that bad...

 

[soulstyledevon]

Could be a market.
Surely once the first is done it’s easy to reproduce from there...?
Then again, it all comes down to cost, right

 

[MarkVw2017]

Could be a market.
Surely once the first is done it’s easy to reproduce from there...?
Then again, it all comes down to cost, right

Was actually thinking VW should fit them for the price of a cali at new, but after market would be a good business idea? That steel in the rubber seal would also have to be replaced, that defo starts alarm bells in my head. Steel exposed to sea air, rain, heat, water, frost. Hmm, its already rusting in my head after an hour!!!!

 

[soulstyledevon]

Agree
It’s maddening that VW know about it, but aren’t prepared to sort it.

 

[MarkVw2017]

Agree
It’s maddening that VW know about it, but aren’t prepared to sort it.

Maybe, just maybe and im being cynical here, but Vw dont want them to actually last. Maybe there not botherrd if they rust over after 3-4 years and look awful with the intention of want people to buy new Calis with new warranties and new shiny roofs. No car manufacturers really want anyone owning their cars after 3 years, thats an unworkable business model in any car makers eyes (hence they make tou wait 3 years fir afix). But like i said, im being cynical, im sure VW will all their Billions, world greatest engineers and scientists peopls, latest paints, technology and materials cant fix a car roof from rusting in 2018 hmm, or maybe they can!

 

[sidepod]

We’ve got carbon waste bins at work so why not, the current version is monumentally over engineered.

 

[owen_h]

An issue that I could see VW would have would be to produce the roofs quickly enough in a production environment.
Once you have the tooling and a press for the aluminium roof cap it is a case of them being knocked out in seconds. A carbon roof however would take much longer to manufacture. Prepreg Carbon would likely have to be hand laid up into the mould, then vacuum bagged and put in an autoclave (giant oven) for a number of hours. Would then need a further cooling time before the mould could be used again.

 

[MarkVw2017]

An issue that I could see VW would have would be to produce the roofs quickly enough in a production environment.
Once you have the tooling and a press for the aluminium roof cap it is a case of them being knocked out in seconds. A carbon roof however would take much longer to manufacture. Prepreg Carbon would likely have to be hand laid up into the mould, then vacuum bagged and put in an autoclave (giant oven) for a number of hours. Would then need a further cooling time before the mould could be used again.

Yes, true for a proper car where it throws out mass numbers,, but these are £50k, built to order, and the amount of messing about they are going through fixing roofs and there reputation would surely make it financially viable. We all care because we have one, but imgaine the amount of people have read the forums on the roof and just been put off a Cali completely which could be a large amount of money lost, and you cannot monitor how much that could be? " If your going to do a job, do it properly!"

 

[greenfintry]

Someone on here a few years ago was developing this idea, but sadly became terminally ill...

There was quite a lot of interest with the biggest challenge seemingly the integration of the roof rails.....