One of our customers has a personal airplane with an outdated instrument panel. He decided to upgrade the panel by cutting a new backing out .063 aluminum, which housed the new Synthetic Vision EFIS instruments. He then covered the panel with 3M’s carbon fiber DI-NOC vinyl from Carbon Fiber Film for a modern/carbon fiber look on the cheap. Here’s the outcome:
The out come looks great, and helped give an overhauled look to the interior that better matched the high-tech instruments. This is a great example of bringing up-to-date something like a airplane or boat dash with a simple and inexpensive installation.
One of our customers took his 1988 Ibanez 540R guitar which was in rough shape but still played great…and made it look new again. All it took was a little bit of DI-NOC vinyl and he was able to refinish his guitar bringing it up-to-date with a new carbon fiber look.
This is a great example of a non-automotive use for DI-NOC, there are just an infinite number of applications out there. Suffices to say, this customer is hooked. What kind of unique wraps have you done?
It’s not everyday you see a Ferrari F40 roaming the streets. You’ll almost definitely never see one wrapped in 3M’s carbon fiber vinyl though! One owner has done just that, love it or hate it, we think it looks pretty stealthy:
The blacked out headlights, taillights and wheels really help complete the look for this car.
Here’s the F40 playing with some friends, the contrast looks great!
We love being shown new applications that we don’t initially think of when using 3M’s DI-NOC carbon fiber vinyl. This time around, Jeff, took his computer modding to the next level by putting together what he calls the CF800. He used a Corsair 800d case which was modified for water cooling. He did a ton of stuff, including lighting, but used DI-NOC film to just put the build over the top. Here’s how the case looked beforehand:
Jeff then wrapped certain aspects of the case:
Here we can see everything put together, with the motherboard in place as well as the water cooling:
Finally we can see the case fully completed. The side has a plexi-glass window which looks fantastic because just parts of the carbon fiber DI-NOC show through. In my opinion, it looks much better than doing the entire case exterior.
Italian tuning house Romeo Ferraris has completed their latest project. They took a Z06 Corvette and supercharged it, giving the bad boy 667 horsepower and 607 lb-ft of torque. Among the other modifications, they gave the car a completely carbon fiber look by wrapping it in 3M carbon fiber DI-NOC vinyl:
Lets face it, the wrap makes the car look straight-up mean, especially with the gunmetal wheels:
Although they wrapped the entire exterior, it looks like they left the interior alone. Take a look at a few more pictures:
For those interested in wrapping an entire car, we found that it tends to be about 200-250 sq/ft of material depending on the vehicle. Of course, you’ll want to do you own measurements to be sure.
One of our customers recently sent in a few pictures of his install where he brought the dash of his 34-foot Avantage Catamaran boat back to life. Here’s what it looked like before:
Pretty nasty! Mainly the big rust stain on the left, but there’s an easy fix for that! 3M’s carbon fiber DI-NOC vinyl of course! Once all of the gauges and steering wheel were pulled off, the dash was wrapped:
Looks a million times better if you ask us…and it only gets better. Lets get those missing elements installed back on the dash:
This looks fantastic, especially with the real carbon fiber panel to match. Here’s the final install…it’s a bit hard to tell but white panel under the visor is actually a strip of the CA-419 white carbon fiber DI-NOC vinyl…it’s a very nice attention to detail/design addition if you ask us:
There you have it! An easy way to get your boat dash looking brand new (even better than new actually) without spending a ton of money. Here’s a few tips that our customer provided as feedback:
Always work from the center out.
When installing on a rounded surface, heat and pull and with both hands, and down.
Put down a guide line of masking tape to cut straight lines.
Break off the tip of an Xacto razor blade and it will cut straight lines much better.
I put down a thin black line of pinstripe tape to give it more of a finished edge.
Our good friends over at Street Concepts have just put the finishing touches for the American Racings Custom Wheels Camaro that will be in the Nitto booth at Sema 2010 in November. They used a mixture of a matte look along with the CA-420 graphite carbon fiber DI-NOC vinyl…the results are outstanding:
Our favorite automotive use with the vinyl is using it as an accent material, Street Concepts did just that with this car. They did small touches like just the cowl on the hood or just the vents…even doing a sponsor logo in the material:
The interior of the car uses real carbon fiber pieces, giving it an extra nice touch:
This Camaro isn’t all looks though. The LS3 V8 has been supercharged by Edelbrock, giving it 600hp. It sits on 22″ American Racing wheels, has an H&R coilover suspension, and stops with massive 16″ front/14″ rear Brembo brakes.
If you’re heading to SEMA this year, be sure to check out the car in the Nitto booth.
We love to see 3M’s DI-NOC carbon fiber vinyl being used outside of just the automotive world. Things like prototyping, architectural design, technology, refinishing products, and more. The applications for the vinyl are literally unlimited. In the below video we guide you through the steps to wrap a refridgerator in the vinyl, giving it a completely different look than before. While the fridge we used already looked new, imagine taking one that is starting to look outdated, but works just fine. Using the vinyl, you can give it life once again and save money while giving it an updated look.
If you have anything unique that you’ve used 3M’s DI-NOC for, let us know! We’re always looking for the latest and greatest uses.
This isn’t the first time we’ve posted about a customer of ours using carbon fiber DI-NOC to create their own business. In the past we’ve written about DI-NOC cufflinks, and today we’ve got CarbonBumper.com. While we supply them with raw material, they then go out and manufacture a custom cut bumper for the iPhone 4 made out of 3M carbon fiber DI-NOC material. The DIY kits are computer cut and accurate to the 1/1000th of an inch which will ensure that it installs perfectly.
Because DI-NOC material goes on dry, it’s extremely easy to install. Simply peel off the material while leaving the cutouts behind and stick onto the iPhone 4 surround. If you mess up…simply pull it off and re-seat the material…just like you would when installing on anything else.
Not only will it protect your iPhone in a sleek looking, low profile manner, but it helps give the phone a more blacked out look…which we personally love. As we all know, carbon fiber is the new black (it’s our slogan). These are priced at just $9.99 shipped, or $14.99 if you want 2-3 day Priority Mail. You can order from our buddy Jason at CarbonBumper.com. If you have any concern about the installation, simply watch the below video for an easy-to-follow overview:
If you want to tackle making your own bumper, figuring out your own carbon fiber DI-NOC business, or want more material…simply purchase the raw material from us! We have competitive pricing, a full selection of all the colors 3M makes the material in, we almost always have material in stock for immediate shipping, we ship extremely quickly and in a protective tube, and we offer the absolute hands-down best customer service you’ll find. We have thousands of customers ranging from entrepreneurs such as Jason to vehicle wrap/aftermarket shops, to large aerospace companies to automotive manufactures to the regular consumer.
This one picture truly shows how amazing a material 3M’s carbon fiber DI-NOC is:
While we didn’t install this, you can see how well the material can conform to complex curves. If you’re doing something along these lines, be sure to use 3M Primer94, which you can read more about in our FAQ.
3M™ DI-NOC™ is a high-end vinyl from 3M™ from their Architectural Finishes series. The vinyl can be installed on all sorts of surfaces, regardless of the curvature. This means there are an unlimited amount of applications, from the interior of your car to the back of your laptop.
The CA-421 (black) model that we sell gives a dry carbon look, though it's available in 7 different colors. Contrary to initial belief, carbon fiber DI-NOC™ is not just a printed carbon fiber pattern, but in fact has a three-dimensional texture to it. This allows it to reflect light the same way that real carbon fiber would, making it the best real-world alternative to carbon fiber when you just want the look without paying a ton of money. There are plenty of other benefits that make the 3M™ DI-NOC™ carbon fiber vinyl so great, read our FAQ for more info!
