So, with getting my sidepipes on last year, I love the look and the sound of the STS baffles, but sure enough the first time out, my girlfriend touched it with her leg before i could finish saying, "don't forget about the pipes" for the third time. So now I needed to protect her from them, and decided that the heat shielding would be added. With the colors of the car, putting the chrome or aluminum shields didn't seem to fit, nor did i want to spend the money on getting them, only to paint them. I decided i was going to build my own to go with some of the other accents I've added to the interior.

I got myself a 4in ID PVC pipe, that when wrapped would give .25-.3 inches of wall width to allow the cover to sit offset around my 4in OD sidepipes, and be easy enough to wrap the carbon on. After wrapping the pipe in aluminum foil and ensuring the widths, i layered 3 pieces of 40 x 10 inch 2K twill weave carbon fiber fabric around the pipe and used a high heat, semi-flexible carbon specific resin from Resin Research, that has a slight blue tint and UV protection to make the carbon pop and protect it. after 2 more coats of resin cured up, I decided it needed just a little bit more, so I got a template of the Stingray logo, and used my cutter/plotter to print a silver vinyl script and affixed it to the pipe, and layered it in with 3 more coats of resin to ensure its permanent, and could be sanded over for final.

I've knocked it smooth with some 150-300 grit, and wet sanded up to 1500 grit, applied a few coats of McGuire's cutting polish and I am nearly done with the first test cover, I like how it turned out, and knew it wouldn't be absolutely perfect since it was hand laid, but hopefully will definitely be a custom piece. next step is cutting to length and finding the optimal rotation to display on my pipes, then backing it with the foil heat-shielding, before I drill and mount on the custom tabs I've designed. I'll update as I progress on this little side project.


Raw Fiber layers going onto the Pipe

Resined up and decal underlay completed

After the first rounds of sanding and polishing

 

Very nice

 

Looks great!

If you are interested in another way to go about that which will yield a smoother finish with less work, please contact me and I will see if I can help. I have done a fair amount of carbon fiber fabrication.