Hey all I been thinking about making some carbon fiber fenders for my mini, however without many interests in sets it will be quite pricey to do full fiberglass and carbon fiber. I may be able to make the fiberglass fender molds for about a grand so id need to sell a couple sets. I can lay carbonfiber on the metal and have a real carbon fiber look but then it would defeat the purpose of weight reduction. So I'd really like to make full fenders. Is there even anyone interested in paying 600$ or so a pair of carbon fiber/fiberglass fenders?
A CF hood would be very nice. Increase the size of the cowl and mold in a new cowl for the air intake while your at it. An adjustable CF wing and spoiler would look pretty nice as well. FG is okay too for a lower priced option. As for fenders, if they were flared they would be nice. "If you build it they will come."
Take a look around the web and you will find these parts have already been made and they are all very expensive. Good luck with your DIY project.
I think making wider flares is key as there are not many good option out there in this department. There is one in the works, but its not here yet...option are never a bad thing.
Saving weight on the fenders only helps if you have already saved weight on the hood. Wider fender flares would sale to both segments. The racers for Aero and the street guys for looks. That is the next big big seller in my opinion if not over priced, regardless of what they are made out of. If you only need to sell a couple of sets of fenders I'm sure you could do it. If you were willing to lower the price and not make you money back as fast you'd probably able to sell more and make more in the long run.
I think part of the sticking point with these is that to me, the front and rear bumpers need to be created as well. Many of us have the areo kit where the flare section is molded into the bumper, unlike the standard bumpers where the flares are separate parts. Standard Front Bumper: Aero Kit:
Why not just mold in tabs to use to attach it to the bumper and trim off the old flared part on the Aero bumpers. Sure you have ruined it at that point but assuming the new flares are a quality piece your not going back to stock anyway. Be waaaaay cheaper then designing a whole new bumper cover just to get the flared section. You'd be turning $300-$500 worth of wider flares in to an additional $800-$1000 on top of that for new bumper covers front and rear. I might could justify the $300-500 for wider flares and still have to paint them, but no way I'm paying $1100-$1500 plus paint to get that same look. I'd go back to stock bumpers long before that, plus then I could do a rear diffuser.