Out of curiosity?

[520kustoms]

For those of you out there that want to drag your truck and get as much speed out of them as possible. What are your thoughts if someone made high quality carbon fiber parts for example front fenders, ram air hoods, tailgates, and doors? This might just be the tuner in me haha but it would also have a lot of functionality as far as dropping weight for better fuel effeciantcy and make the motor be able to move the truck a little faster. What are your thoughts?

 

[Birddog]

Would the parts be as durable as an OEM part? I think a painted replaceable part might sell for someone seriously wanting weight reduction. I know carbon fiber can be painted because thats how Chevrolet dumped weight on the Corvette ZR-1. A lot of the car is painted CF.

 

[520kustoms]

Durability wise I don't see why it wouldn't be except in a crash situation because cf can be punctured easily like fiberglass and composite plastics would be we're it's not as good as oem and painted would be the way to go to keep it looking stock

 

[RYAN66]

I wouldnt be to confident in the new rams, they are made much cheaper then they used to be.

and I feel like weight is something most of us dont care about, check out the competition diesel scene, I am sure they will be more interested.

 

[Stangshcky12]

A lot of manufactures are going to thinner, lighter panels as well as using aluminum panels
As far as CF for efficiency, if you spend $1200 and save 100lbs of weight you might start a 2% increase in fuel economy. You would have to drive over a quarter million miles to start to pay it off and actually see a savings in fuel cost
100 lbs is 0.1 seconds in a quarter mile. (im pretty sure it would cost a lot more then $1,200 to save 100 lbs, I just picked a number)

 

[WhiteExpress]

I think for the most part, the answer is your money is better spent on more HP, or using what you have more effectively than saving weight.

 

[520kustoms]

Yea but your talking about a decrease of up to 90% if you layer the cf right and I'm not talking about going to a major company to do it laying cf is exactly like laying fiberglass. I'm not sure how much the resin is for cf but cf material itself is only 8.50 a lbs

 

[Stangshcky12]

If your really looking that hard to save weight then look into aftermarket control arms, atleast you would get better handling

 

[Dutch]

For those of you out there that want to drag your truck and get as much speed out of them as possible. What are your thoughts if someone made high quality carbon fiber parts for example front fenders, ram air hoods, tailgates, and doors? This might just be the tuner in me haha but it would also have a lot of functionality as far as dropping weight for better fuel effeciantcy and make the motor be able to move the truck a little faster. What are your thoughts?

For Shaving weight, yea it makes sence, although I'm not too sure about the bumpers, ( how well will they hold up in a collision) I like the rest though, anything to boost up horse power, I'm there

 

[jlb]

I must agree with Stangschky12, you will see a very minimal reduction in weight (IMO the 100 lbs, and 2% are very very generous), let alone a noticeable gain in your lb/hp ratio, and your cost will be very high.

Also, even if the fit, and finish is equivalent to OEM, the strength as has been discussed, would not be. I would be nervous most about having one of these for my tailgate as I use my tailgate for keeping sharp, heavy, metal objects in my bed, and in the loading process often set them on it. These would quickly destroy CF resin.

The hood would be cool though, since I wouldn't want to paint it, and it would be a fun conversation starter, although a very expensive one lol.

 

[Trupiano]

I would love to have carbon fiber bed rails! If you could make some CB pieces and become a vendor on here, I bet they'red be some great business!

Parts for mostly looks, but also lighter weight! Especially some interior pieces!