raidernixon
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- Nov 15, 2013
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- Location
- Houston, TX
- Vehicle(s)
- 11 & 16 GT; 20 GT500 CFTP; 21 Mach 1
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Hi all, this post is to share some carbon fiber additions my wife and I did on our Magnetic 2020 CFTP GT500. In the fall of last year, we ordered the Anderson Composite carbon fiber hood, along with their fenders, which arrived at our doorstep around the end of January. Over the past several months, we have been slowly working these items onto the car and finished the project over the past weekend. Here is what all was involved:
After lightly sanding the underside of the hood and wiping down with surface prep, we carefully cut and added a thermal barrier to the shallow parts of the hood. After moving hardware over to the carbon fiber hood, we took the OEM hood off and carefully lined up and installed the new hood.
Now for the fenders. The first step was to remove the OEM fenders from each side.
As most are aware, the transmission control module lives inside of the passenger fender. The TCM had to be removed to access the rear bolts of the passenger fender, which also presented a good opportunity to find a way to protect the TCM from potential water exposure, as these fenders will allow water to dump into this region and the connectors are fairly exposed. (As a note: our GT500 sees 95% track miles and 5% street miles, so rarely any rain exposure. If anyone is considering these fenders on a street car that will see rain, these fenders might not be the best choice unless the TCM is somehow protected at your own risk). I decided to try sealing the TCM with race tape, which I usually use to keep wheel weights from falling off on the track cars. The amount of racers tape I used was probably overkill but at least I don't have to worry about aliens hacking into the TCM. I left a small opening below the connector to allow things to breath/drain if ever needed, and also left as much of the module casing exposed as I could to prevent heat buildup.
With the fenders off and TCM done, we then took a used set of GT500 fenders and opened them up with a Dremel. As some may be aware, early iterations of the GT500 had fender vents and it seems the beveled portion of upper wheel well liner may be evidence of where those vents would have tied into had they become reality.
After opening up the liners, we cut 304 stainless steel wire mesh to fit over the opening (this was primarily done to add a second barrier of protection from pebbles/debris flying out of the fender vents onto the body work). After much test fitting, holes were drilled into the liner and the mesh was secured with OEM style push fasteners. I was skeptical that this would work but they actually hold very strongly.
With the liner work done, the fenders went onto the car with ease, but did require a little bit of aligning. Here, you can see how the Anderson vents nicely line up with the liner opening.
We then began replacing the stripe work. Fist thing to do was measure out and re-establish the center line on the hood. What a pain in the @$$:
For our replacement stripes, we used 3M 2080 automotive wrap film. After we designed the stripes in cutting software, we cut them with a vinyl cutter. We were inspired by the GT500HE stripes and decided to shamelessly incorporate our version of them onto the car.
Prior to installing the fenders, we used this same wrapping material to black out the vents on the Anderson fenders to help tie into the other black accents on the car. This job was quite difficult and required the use of knifeless tape and very careful application to avoid creases and folding on the intricate contours. We could have had this area painted black but wanted to avoid a permanent situation incase we didn't like how it turned out. Fortunately we do like it and hopefully I don't have to do it again for a long time
.
After getting the stripes set on the car, we did a light 2-stage polish/buff over the new panels, applied CMX surface prep, and CQuartz ceramic coated everything. Last weekend I dusted off my SLR camera and took some photos of the finished product. Those photos are to follow after I make this initial post...
After lightly sanding the underside of the hood and wiping down with surface prep, we carefully cut and added a thermal barrier to the shallow parts of the hood. After moving hardware over to the carbon fiber hood, we took the OEM hood off and carefully lined up and installed the new hood.
Now for the fenders. The first step was to remove the OEM fenders from each side.
As most are aware, the transmission control module lives inside of the passenger fender. The TCM had to be removed to access the rear bolts of the passenger fender, which also presented a good opportunity to find a way to protect the TCM from potential water exposure, as these fenders will allow water to dump into this region and the connectors are fairly exposed. (As a note: our GT500 sees 95% track miles and 5% street miles, so rarely any rain exposure. If anyone is considering these fenders on a street car that will see rain, these fenders might not be the best choice unless the TCM is somehow protected at your own risk). I decided to try sealing the TCM with race tape, which I usually use to keep wheel weights from falling off on the track cars. The amount of racers tape I used was probably overkill but at least I don't have to worry about aliens hacking into the TCM. I left a small opening below the connector to allow things to breath/drain if ever needed, and also left as much of the module casing exposed as I could to prevent heat buildup.
With the fenders off and TCM done, we then took a used set of GT500 fenders and opened them up with a Dremel. As some may be aware, early iterations of the GT500 had fender vents and it seems the beveled portion of upper wheel well liner may be evidence of where those vents would have tied into had they become reality.
After opening up the liners, we cut 304 stainless steel wire mesh to fit over the opening (this was primarily done to add a second barrier of protection from pebbles/debris flying out of the fender vents onto the body work). After much test fitting, holes were drilled into the liner and the mesh was secured with OEM style push fasteners. I was skeptical that this would work but they actually hold very strongly.
With the liner work done, the fenders went onto the car with ease, but did require a little bit of aligning. Here, you can see how the Anderson vents nicely line up with the liner opening.
We then began replacing the stripe work. Fist thing to do was measure out and re-establish the center line on the hood. What a pain in the @$$:
For our replacement stripes, we used 3M 2080 automotive wrap film. After we designed the stripes in cutting software, we cut them with a vinyl cutter. We were inspired by the GT500HE stripes and decided to shamelessly incorporate our version of them onto the car.
Prior to installing the fenders, we used this same wrapping material to black out the vents on the Anderson fenders to help tie into the other black accents on the car. This job was quite difficult and required the use of knifeless tape and very careful application to avoid creases and folding on the intricate contours. We could have had this area painted black but wanted to avoid a permanent situation incase we didn't like how it turned out. Fortunately we do like it and hopefully I don't have to do it again for a long time
.
After getting the stripes set on the car, we did a light 2-stage polish/buff over the new panels, applied CMX surface prep, and CQuartz ceramic coated everything. Last weekend I dusted off my SLR camera and took some photos of the finished product. Those photos are to follow after I make this initial post...
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