Carbon Fiber VS Fiberglass

[XLexusTech]

Hi

I have seen my fair share of wavy fiberglass from back in the day when technology was pretty rustic. Now a days the glass is much better. My goal is to lighten my car as much as reasonable without losing too much. All panels would be body color.

Question is why carbon fiber over glass? Is the quality of carbon that superior to modern Fiberglass? considering you can pick up some carbon blems cheap... I am struggling on which way to go,

[Bryce]

If carbon fiber is used correctly and the parts are designed right you can make a CF part half the thickness of fiberglass. The density of both is about the same; therefore the weight is about half.

[v7guy]

Like Bryce said
Carbon Fiber is extremely strong, and the fibers themselves are lighter than the fiberglass counterpart, assuming the carbon fiber part was laid up correctly and it was carbon or carbon with a core, it will be massively lighter than the fiberglass part... think 50% less, and more rigid. The cost will be significantly higher though. It may not be thinner, it could be thicker if a core was used. but it should be stronger.
The grey area is that a lot of builders are using carbon fiber laid over fiberglass for the look. It's still a carbon fiber part... they just leave out the part that they include fiberglass in the part. In that scenario you are paying for carbon fiber but getting the strength and weight of fiberglass... in the end you pay too much for a look with no real gain.

[Northeast Rod Run]

The grey area is that a lot of builders are using carbon fiber laid over fiberglass for the look. It's still a carbon fiber part... they just leave out the part that they include fiberglass in the part. In that scenario you are paying for carbon fiber but getting the strength and weight of fiberglass... in the end you pay too much for a look with no real gain.This seems to be what you see the most of out there.