i've just finished preparing the carbon fibre edges on my Xray T2 and i'd like to share the technique, as the edges came up piano black! wow!

ITEMS NEEDED:
-400grit wet and dry sand paper
-1200 grit wet and dry
-a sink filled with water to stop the dust from going in your lungs and causing issues!
-black permanent marker
-pink CA zap glue or any quick set ca glue
-cotton ear bud/Q-tip
-a newspaper to drip the glue on
-thin tip tweezers

PROCEEDURE:

-sand the edges of the carbonfibre with 400 grit paper
-dry the edgrs of, then inspect to see if there are any rough areas. sometimes the glueing leaves unfilled small craters on the edge of the CF
-sand again with 400 grit if required
-sand final time with 1200grit. it should feel smooth when it is dry and you pass your finger over it

GLUEING PROCESS:

-get the tweezers and open them up slightly further than what they go naturally and put the tips through the shock holes or any holes in the CF, make sure that the tweezers are sort of jamed in slightly so that they don't move and you can then use this as a handle so you don't have to touch the CF. (if you touch it, the oil from the hand will create a white area when the CA glue dries.

-now with the marker, pass the black over the edge of the CF.
-let it dry and then make a puddle of CA glue on the newspaper, wet the q tip in the puddle. be careful as the glue will dry quickly. i'd recommend leting it dry. when it drys it starts releasing a smoke DON'T BREATH IT, OR LET IT GET IN YOUR EYES!, then just dip it again in the CA. (i found that once the q tip has a layer of dryed glue on it, the glue curing time takes longer, which is recommended because it gives you time to work with it.

-coat the edges, passing over only once, and trying to get a relatively thick layer, don't let the glue get to a point that it is dripping of the Q-tip, but enough so you don't have to do several passes

-let it dry

it should look really good. the white bits in the picture you see is actually the reflection of the CF pattern from the peice underneith mirroring itself on the edge! very shiney!

the trick in this process is the black marker. the black once coated with the CA becomes very shiney. if you don't use the marker, you will be able to see the sheets through the glue, and the edges won't be as dark, or as shiney looks awesome on a well built T2 IF YOU USE BLUE FASCOLOUR, OR ANY RUBBERY, FLEXIBLE TYPE PAINT, YOU CAN ALSO GET A COLOURED EDGE.

great write up! this should be a sticky. thanks for sharing

Great..! Now that my car is all put together.... NOW I have to take it all apart and do this trick!!

Excellent Job...! Looks great!

Great write up, especially after such quality threads as "4200mah cells blew up my motor!"

Question: if you use a colored ink, how visible is it? Only at a certain angle, or can you see it clearly? Thanks.

and it looks good.

There is already a write up on this at the Calandra racing site
http://www.teamcrc.com/crc/modules.p...article&sid=16

Great write-up, there should be a forum section with stickies for 'articles' like this.

yeah, i only thought of this after i did it. but it would work. just brush white fascolour first, then for example, fasmetalic blue, then coat it with CA. on a tamiya the blue edges would look fully sick

just leave the sections that make contact with baulkhead edges, or parts that are a tight tolerance with just glue, as the paint+glue would be rather thick and it might make for example, the top deck hard to put on it hits the lips of the baulks.

i think the calandra write up doesn't use a permanent marker i think. this is basically the only added step to the process, but it sure makes it look a million bucks.

ALSO! IF YOU DO NOT SAND UNDER WATER IT IS VERY DANGEROUS!

the pictures are pritty shyt, but trust me, it comes up "piano black"

Great write up...
YGPM

Ed

I think you are trying ot say, the dust that comes from Carbon Fibre is cumulative (once in your lungs, its IN your lungs forever) and can be linked to carsongens (can cause cancer in rare cases).

Good write up though, not to sure about them pics though, lol.

i thought it is called as carcinogen??donnoe.just learned that in science

I polish the edges of my CF after I CA them. I put 2 or 3 good coats of CA on and then let it cure overnight. Next, I start with 1000 grit paper and go to 12000 grit for the final polish. When finished the edges feel like a freshly waxed car (slicker than snot). It looks really good when you take the time to round the edges on the main chassis plate.

Awesome write up.

I sand raw CF, glue, sand again, glue and repeat as many as necessary insure a smooth finish. Then polish just the edges with compound. Check out the top of my shock tower.

wow! mine looks just like that very shiney. i think the benefit of the black marker is it eliminates the need to repeat the sand glue process and the polish process to get a shiney finish.

i'll get better pictures soon.

Not bad...

But most pros use blue locktight instead of CA!

Easyer, faster..less mess!!!