New Tacoma Owner - Thinking About Carbon Fiber

I find myself playing around with the restoration of a first gen Tacoma. I design and build carbon fiber parts for other platforms and got to thinking about what I could do here.
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What are your thoughts on a carbon fiber upper front bumper insert? I see that many of these are toasted over the years. I sprayed mine black but could see a dry carbon piece being a cool option. Ideally you would PPF over it to protect from rock chips.
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With all the time I spent painting mine or trying to disassemble and replace with a new one, using a carbon overlay might be faster and more aesthetically pleasing. Let me know if anything thinks this is worthwhile and what you might pay for one if brought to market.

 

Wrap it in vinyl.

 

Vinyl is tricky. in most cases these are rusted and the vinyl won’t adhere. It will also show every imperfection underneath and if chipped by a rock will need to be replaced. By the time you properly prep the surface and have someone do the work you’ll already be in most of the cost to do it a better way.

 

OP, I'm a lover of Tacomas as well as motorcycles, bicycles, aircraft, and other go fast and pricey toys, so you had me at hello with talk of CF. That said, most of us Gen 1 Tacoma Folk realize that we have spectacularly reliable, underpowered pickup trucks that go, turn, and stop like pickup trucks. So, most of the appeal of CF (weight, power to weight, sex appeal) is mostly lost in this space. I am 100% sure that you'd have a few buyers, but I don't think there's a mass market here, and I say that as a dude who owns a couple of carbon bikes and numerous carbon bits on moto's and sports cars.
If you have design/fab expertise, there are openings for you to add value to our 20-30 year old trucks for sure. Not sure that the CF juice is worth the CF squeeze, though.
Welcome to TW!

 

Thanks for the welcome brother. I have some other high end rides and thought there might be some fun had here. I may jump into one project just to see how it does, but also want to test out the concept some to see if the material fits the platform.

Looking forward to seeing some of your other toys. Here is one of mine

 

Simple is better when it comes to a base model, almost 25 yr old truck. Just drive it. The cool factor is how original it is.

 

I do like some old school cool. Curious where this will go

 

P cars, tacomas, and a couple of moto's....

 

Beautiful 911’s guys

funny, if a buyer starts haggling a selling price for a nice 911…..once buyer ends his sentence….the car has appreciated over the seller’s asking price!!!!!!!!

 

I will play

my 1st (newly purchased) car
One Owner
1998 Impreza RSTi
Full Swap with 2005 STI

 

One issue (and one for me) is that's only good for 3 years of Tacoma, so not a broad market

I personally would be much more interested in side mirrors, a tonneau cover, or a hood. 1000% would be interested in an aero underbelly. If you can certify 1mpg+, your phone will be ringing off the hook

 

Definitely a hood (https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/carbon-fiber-scooped-hood-for-1st-gen.133823/). Anyway to lighten the front end to help in the desert without going full CF lol

 

I think a lot of us (myself included) really like the look of the first gen. From a aesthetic prospective, the further you go from stock the less "cool" the truck becomes. That said, some would be interested in weight reduced and dent resistant carbon fiber panels that were stock in dimensions.

 

I have the earlier (much better looking ) front end so not much of this would have any interest to me, but if I could replace my fiberglass front fenders with CF and maybe my hood and mirrors I'd do it.

 

I wouldn't mind a full composite bed like the 2nd gen has... or a composite fuel tank, now that I think of it. Always been a big fan of saving weight where it doesn't matter so I can spend it on useful things.