Carbon fibre parts sell out for months because they are made in fixed batches, not produced continuously. When a batch is gone, there is no warehouse shelf to pull from. A new run has to be committed to, produced, quality checked and freighted before a single one can be posted, and that whole cycle rarely takes less than two months.
I get asked this constantly, usually some version of "why is it still sold out" or "can't you just order more". Fair questions. So rather than give the vague answer, here is exactly what happens on my end between a listing going sold out and stock landing in Perth.
Every batch is a fixed run, not a tap you turn on
This is the bit most people do not realise. A carbon part is not sitting in a bin somewhere waiting to be picked. Each design is produced in a committed run against a mould, and when that run is sold, the mould goes quiet until the next run is ordered and paid for.
That is different from most things you buy online. A phone case or a set of floor mats is produced continuously, so "out of stock" means a few days. A carbon part is closer to a limited production item. Out of stock genuinely means out, until the next batch is committed.
Why the minimum order is 20 units, not 2
The minimum order quantity on a custom carbon design is 20 units per design. I can split those 20 across finishes, say some gloss twill and some forged, but the total still has to be 20 for that design.
So there is no such thing as "just order one more for me". Restocking a single part means committing to and paying for twenty of them upfront, before a single one is sold. On a part with a few hundred dollars of landed cost, that is thousands of dollars committed on a bet that the batch sells. It is why small brands like mine restock in waves rather than continuously, and why an unpopular part can stay sold out indefinitely while a popular one comes back.
What actually happens between sold out and back in stock
Here is the real timeline on a repeat run of an existing design, using the FG shifter surround as the example because it is the one that keeps selling out on me.
- Commit and pay, 1 to 2 weeks. Specs confirmed, finishes split across the batch, deposit away. This part sounds fast but it is where most of the back and forth happens.
- Production, 4 to 8 weeks. The mould already exists, so this is the run itself. On my current shifter surround batch I was quoted a completion window of 15 to 25 August, and a window is exactly what it is. Production dates move.
- Quality control. Parts get checked before they ship, and again by me when they land. On the first FG shifter surround run I ordered 20 and launched with 19, because one forged piece was not up to standard and had to be remade. That single reject is a good illustration of why I do not promise exact quantities until the boxes are open.
- Freight and buffer, 2 to 4 weeks. Then it has to physically get to Perth, and Perth is not a hub. This is the step everyone underestimates, including me.
Add that up and a straightforward restock of a part that already has a mould is realistically 8 to 14 weeks. Not months of nothing happening, months of things happening slowly and in sequence.
The freight lesson I learned the hard way
One of my shifter surround shipments landed in Perth on a Saturday morning. I assumed I could go and collect it. I could not. Gateway holds have to be organised before close of business on the Friday, because there is no weekend crew for ad hoc pulls. The stock sat until Monday, which pushed the launch back and meant I did quality control on a Monday night instead of over the weekend.
Small thing, two days lost, but it is the kind of detail that turns an eight week estimate into nine. Now I plan every landing as though it will happen on the worst possible day of the week.
Why a brand new design takes even longer
Everything above assumes the mould already exists. If it does not, add the whole tooling phase in front of it: design work, my sign off on the final design with any changes applied, then the mould itself being produced. I insist on signing off the design before any tooling is cut, because a change caught on a drawing costs nothing and a change caught after the mould exists costs a mould.
That is why I am careful about announcing dates on anything new. If you want the longer version of that process, I wrote up how a new carbon part goes from first idea to finished piece separately.
Why I run preorders instead of just going quiet
When a batch is committed and in production, I would rather open it as a preorder with an honest dispatch window than leave the page sold out for three months and say nothing.
Two reasons. First, it tells me how many of each finish people actually want, which changes how I split the next run. Second, it is fairer to the people who missed out last time, because they get a place in the queue instead of racing a restock notification.
What I will not do is quote a date I cannot stand behind. A preorder window on my site is the production estimate plus a real freight buffer, not the best case. If the window says late August to late September, that is because I would rather be early than apologise.
What this means if you are waiting on a part
A few practical things. Get on the notify list rather than checking the page, because popular batches can go in days and the notification goes out before anything else. If a preorder is open, taking it is almost always faster than waiting for the batch to land and hoping there is one left. And use the wait to check fitment properly, because there is nothing worse than finally getting a part and finding it does not suit your variant. I covered working out whether a part actually fits your FG in detail, and if you are weighing up the engine bay side of things, whether a carbon coil cover is worth it on an FG is worth a read too.
If you are ready to look at what is actually available right now, the carbon fibre parts for the Ford Falcon FG and FG-X are all on one page, and you can browse carbon fibre parts by make and model if you are in something else.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a carbon fibre restock usually take?
For a design that already has a mould, realistically 8 to 14 weeks from committing to the run to stock landing. That breaks down as roughly 1 to 2 weeks to commit and pay, 4 to 8 weeks production, then 2 to 4 weeks freight and buffer. A brand new design takes longer because tooling has to be produced first.
Why can't you just order one part for me?
Because the minimum order is 20 units per design. A single part is not a smaller version of a batch, it is the same batch with 19 units left over. The 20 can be split across finishes, but the total does not move.
Is a preorder safer than waiting for the restock?
If the finish you want is in the preorder, yes, it is usually the faster option. The batch is already in production, and the preorder simply reserves your unit from it. Waiting means competing with everyone else the day it lands.
Why do dispatch windows have a range instead of a date?
Because production completion is quoted as a window, not a day, and freight adds its own variability on top. A single date would be a guess dressed up as a promise. The range is the production estimate plus a buffer I am confident in.
Does selling out mean the part is discontinued?
No. Sold out means the batch is gone. Whether it comes back depends on whether the demand justifies committing to another 20 units. Popular parts come back, and the notify list is the best signal I have for which ones those are.
Riley Baginski, founder, RB Innovations.