Factory carbon cars - how is your carbon fading?

[BlackwingSwanny23]

Hi guys,

22 5V BW, Carbon packs 1&2, allegedly was fully ppf’d before the car hit 100 miles as the previous owner owns a PPF & detail business. Car is super clean with 6k miles and always garaged….

I ordered some carbon caps for the mirrors and it was a night and day difference between the factory carbon and these caps. Owner of the carbon company is telling me that all GM carbon is junk and fades after a year or two.

How is the carbon holding up on your cars? Tossed these caps as they are a completely different color and not even close.

Curious on your thoughts….

 

[5VBW Nick]

Apparently GM carbon is a little more brown than other carbons and also, if it does have PPF, that could be what has yellowed some if that is the problem.

 

[seattlecubes]

The aftermarket carbon will not match. GM tint has a gold/bronze tint to it and GM doesn't make CF mirror caps that I am aware of - only black or body colored ones.

 

[Finally-a-V]

I think this had been discussed before, but yes, GM's carbon has a brown/bronze color. Funny how the PPF expert guy has to trash GM.

 

[BlackwingSwanny23]

I think this had been discussed before, but yes, GM's carbon has a brown/bronze color. Funny how the PPF expert guy has to trash GM.

Wild, what a waste of $.

 

[MookdocOE]

I think this had been discussed before, but yes, GM's carbon has a brown/bronze color. Funny how the PPF expert guy has to trash GM.

Funny how that is isn't it? Reality is that GM Carbon is quite opposite of junk and more like TOP TIER. The tint in GM's is exactly for UVA/UVB and of the highest concentration bar none! Another reason is Corvette and their demands for TOP TIER Carbon! After the pandemic everybody cried because no Carbon could be built on cars after the BK of their main supplier. GM has stated that due to their requirements of the Highest Quality CF components incorporating UVA/UVB materials to resist fading it took GM a very long time to get the CF components going again.

But hey you keep on buying that High Quality CF off the internet and keep letting GM build junk like they always do......

 

[MookdocOE]

Funny how that is isn't it? Reality is that GM Carbon is quite opposite of junk and more like TOP TIER. The tint in GM's is exactly for UVA/UVB and of the highest concentration bar none! Another reason is Corvette and their demands for TOP TIER Carbon! After the pandemic everybody cried because no Carbon could be built on cars after the BK of their main supplier. GM has stated that due to their requirements of the Highest Quality CF components incorporating UVA/UVB materials to resist fading it took GM a very long time to get the CF components going again.

But hey you keep on buying that High Quality CF off the internet and keep letting GM build junk like they always do......and without fail make sure to advocate and encourage others of their highly informed GM trash talk!

 

[Finally-a-V]

He's so right, he posted it twice.....and IIRC, that UVA coating is extremely expensive.

 

[TruckeeTaurus]

Hi guys,

22 5V BW, Carbon packs 1&2, allegedly was fully ppf’d before the car hit 100 miles as the previous owner owns a PPF & detail business. Car is super clean with 6k miles and always garaged….

I ordered some carbon caps for the mirrors and it was a night and day difference between the factory carbon and these caps. Owner of the carbon company is telling me that all GM carbon is junk and fades after a year or two.

How is the carbon holding up on your cars? Tossed these caps as they are a completely different color and not even close.

Curious on your thoughts….

A lot of PPFs will yellow due to UV rays. Do you know what brand he used?

Also what the dudes above said is true.

 

[division]

I sure would like to see the white paper on what makes GM's carbon fiber TOP TIER and of the Highest Quality out there. Keep in mind these are not structural parts, and that pretty weave that you're looking at is only for looks. That 3k weave is there solely for the "cool" carbon fiber look (if you think that exposed weave carbon fiber looks cool. I'm more of an UD guy, personally.)

 

[Dirkbg]

I've mentioned before and I point it out again here, we had a Cadillac club meet at a local dealer in 2023 and they had a brand new 2023 Road Atlanta edition and the carbon on it was gray tinted unlike every other factory car I've seen. They may have been changing vendors at the time, or using someone else to fix supply constraints, but it's interesting, nonetheless. There were other cars parked next to it, so it was easy to see the tint was gray/silver not brown for that car.

 

[Sully]

Hi guys,

22 5V BW, Carbon packs 1&2, allegedly was fully ppf’d before the car hit 100 miles as the previous owner owns a PPF & detail business. Car is super clean with 6k miles and always garaged….

I ordered some carbon caps for the mirrors and it was a night and day difference between the factory carbon and these caps. Owner of the carbon company is telling me that all GM carbon is junk and fades after a year or two.

How is the carbon holding up on your cars? Tossed these caps as they are a completely different color and not even close.

Curious on your thoughts….

Did you really toss the CF mirror caps? Are they the cover replacements or overlays? If replacements, let me know if you want to sell them.

 

[ngoni]

I've mentioned before and I point it out again here, we had a Cadillac club meet at a local dealer in 2023 and they had a brand new 2023 Road Atlanta edition and the carbon on it was gray tinted unlike every other factory car I've seen. They may have been changing vendors at the time, or using someone else to fix supply constraints, but it's interesting, nonetheless. There were other cars parked next to it, so it was easy to see the tint was gray/silver not brown for that car.

The special editions' carbon are tinted blue this year.

 

[668LT4]

Not the GM carbon that is junk, in this case.

 

[BlackwingSwanny23]

Not the GM carbon that is junk, in this case.

Yes agreed.

 

[MookdocOE]

He's so right, he posted it twice.....and IIRC, that UVA coating is extremely expensive.

That's a funny comment...lol

 

[1BadRS]

I'm glad I saw this post, because that was my question about all the aftermarket carbon parts for these cars on the market. Nothing I have seen available is even close to a match of the factory carbon. When I had my Corvette a company called TKO Performance offered an option to have their carbon parts done in the same twill and tinting as factory. It was awesome that you could add so many additional parts but where it looked factory.

Whoever is saying that GM carbon parts suck, I wonder why the GM parts cost like 100 times more than the aftermarket parts available. Strange that you can buy carbon fiber mirror caps for $100, but the GM carbon 1 and 2 package costs over $10K. I'm not saying that the GM pieces aren't overpriced, but they are probably the highest quality parts you can buy, period.

 

[ngoni]

I saw some other used aftermarket carbon parts on sale on Facebook and the seller had to disclose they were already fading at around a year of use and needed a new clear coat.

You can absolutely find cheaper parts than OEM, but are they really cheaper if they only last 1-2 years?