Carbon roof replacement

[Sirocco20348]

Hi

Note: This is just a discussion topic, I am not really going ahead with this.

Anyway for 600 pounds you can order a carbon roof panel that saves you about 16 kg.

In the instructions it says '...using an angle grinder, cut out the original steel roof panel, leaving a few mm around the edges to bond the carbon fibre replacement to.'

What!!!? Haha. Can the car still maintain structural integrity once the carbon roof panel is installed correctly... Or are they relying on the owner to install a roll cage later on.

Volkswagen Golf Mk4 Roof Panel (Carbon Fibre or fibreglass)

[Sirocco20348]

Damn this was meant for the mk4 golf thread. Can a mod move it for me? Not sure what happened with Tapatalk... User error....?

[team_v]

1) Illegal to use non ADR complaint carbon fibre in australian cars.
2) No way would this have been crash tested to comply with ADR's.
3) New BMW M3 has a carbon roof but it is integrated as part of the build process so there wouldn't be any structural or water leaking issues.
4) 16kg is easy weight reduction, get some lighweight enkei wheels and you shave 2kg per corner of unsprung weight which is far superior to the 16kg of sprung weight.
- Run half a tank of fuel, replace window glass with lexan, remove the spare tyre and back seat and you shed another 30-40kg.


Long story short, not worth the effort at all, unless you are in the world time attack series chasinng milliseconds but then you wouldn't buy a carbon roof panel from the internet.

[HaydEn]

You can just take the skin off an leave the cross supports in place. The skin has no effect on structural integrity.

[JustCruisn]

unless you are in the world time attack series chasing milliseconds but then you wouldn't buy a carbon roof panel from the internet.

Nor would you be starting with a MK4 Golf.

[blackers10]

The roof skin would provide a great deal of overall structural integrity to the chassis. it is a flimsy piece of metal by itself but it ties it all together,

if you used the right glue it would be OK but illegal yes, you would need to paint it to go "under the radar"
carbon is super strong and would replace the roof skin perfectly

[Notso Swift]

I disagree, this is about weight ( quite a handy saving) not structural integrity
Carbonfibre works in tension not compression

Not sure if any one would actually know it wasn't a bit of 3M wrap, so you could leave it naked... If you had no headliner I would think it isn't a regular road car anyway

[blackers10]

I didn't mean the carbon would make it stiffer/weaker.
I was disagreeing that the roof as a whole doesn't contribute to chassis rigidity.

Yes its all about weight replacing a panel with carbon.