what do you guys do that have carbon fiber....wax the **** out of it all the time or clear coat it?

 

yea carbon is hard to take care of esp if u leave it outside alot. i use turtle wax's light polishing compound and the meguiars wax after. it doesn't make it 100% perfect, but it DOES make it shine alot better.

 

There is a lot to be said about carbon fiber pieces and how to maintain them. C/F isn't designed to be on your daily driver and absorbing all the stop and go action we put our cars. They are specifically designed to help you save weight, don't forget they are for RACING, albiet your car looks good after the installation as well. Hence, there are a couple different ways to maintain them, most importantly through preventative maintenance.

Most C/F pieces are gel coated. This is different from your traditional automotive clear coat. Its more durable, can easily flex without cracking, and gives quite a bit more depth to the panel than most things we normally see on a vehicle. With that said, the standard gel coat on a c/f piece doesn't have the UV protective qualities we are used to dealing with either. Thats why it starts to fade and get cloudy even after short periods of time. There are a couple ways to battle this.

First, you can have clear coated by a paint shop using UV additives when they do it. It is best to have it done before installation when the piece is new, or at least still in the best condition possible. This way it can be buffed and polished whenever you want. It can be waxed and glazed and left outside for weeks on end without worring about fading. Having it sanded down and re-sprayed as a reactive solution is an option but sanding too heavily on the gel will remove the what protective qualities the original gel coat was designed for.

Aside from that, your best option is to buff and wax on a regular basis. It might be a little weak, but a good wax has the UV protection your c/f pieces ultimately need. As a side note, wax and c/f dont bond like a normal clear coat. I reccomend treating your c/f pieces twice a month unless garage kept.

The best compound I've used on carbon fiber is 357 Magnum made by Hi-Temp. It is heavy enough for marine grade plastics and works wonders on faded c/f pieces. Please don't assume just because your carbon is faded that it will work though. It is a roll of the dice with every piece I've used it on but it DOES work, sometimes. Check it out in this thread: http://www.houston-imports.com/forum...d.php?t=494453

Sorry about the rant but carbon fiber IS maintainable but it takes a lot of work.

 

great info.

 

carbon fiber is amazing, it is the materials they use to make the parts is what sucks! Most carbon manufactures (vis, seibon, raconusa, and so on) use the cheapest resins which have 0 UV protection and are not rated for over 12 months of use. They also use very low quality clear coats. That is why those items turn yellow over a short time and oxidize. A good carbon piece will use at leave a VER resin and a very UV gel coat surface. With this they will not yellow or deteriate even with no upkeep. Your best bet is to sand it down and reclear with a high quality uv protected clear

 

If your car is a daily driver i would recommend OEM hood instead,save the CF hood for the race track for style/lightweight.

 

agreed!

 

yeah my car is a daily driver...well hmm never mind that it just sits there really. i have a work truck that i use ever day. so it just sits there in the sun. so your saying to wax it 2 times a month. Crazy...i wax it about 6 times a year with mothers and it still is getting dull spots. guess thats why huh? im going to pick up some of the magnum wax. Hope it works? I've thought of taking it off in the winter but i have a c/f grill as well i thought it would of looked weird but i guess it would of been better then a yellow fading c/f. Are you guys using hood pins as well. My hood is a little floppy at speeds. Also is there anyway to get out scratches from a plastic button lol crazy ex bitch!

 

CF was ment for weight savings. not looks. CF was already on race car bodies before people started using the CF as a style / fad. if anyone has any thought of buying CF, make sure you can even care for it before you think of putting it on a DD or a drive way queen.

btw, bet you didn't know my fenders are CF.

 

what cf part do you have on your car that is not clear coated? i thought all aftermarket cf body parts came with a clear. that is messed up.

 

Just the hood is messing up the grill doesn't take direct sunlight so if perfect still.

 

what brand is it? i seriously thought they all had a shot of clear on them

 

they arent clear coated its a gel coat thats like a clearcoat

 

vis racing

 

hhmm, thats weird, no matter if its a gel coat or clear coat, you can get a better than new finish if you get a da and some polish, just gotta know what your doing and when the polish is broken down

 

Well the thing is the Magnum 357 is not a wax. It is a compound made to be used with a high speed roatary buffer. If you're looking for a good over the counter wax, I recommend Meguiars NXT 2.0 liquid but that's just my two cents.

 

i got my cf hood probabaly 4-5 years ago. When it arrived, by mail, the hood had some light scratches and weird imperfections. Luckily I worked at a body shop at the time and had my painter clear coat it for me. If i were you, get it clearcoated, its probably not expensive and mine still looks like new after 5 years

 

That sounds like the best way to go...little bit a money saves a lot of time and arm pump haha

 

thanks for your two cents cause i dont have a high speed buffer...just have one that shakes and spins a little.

 

do you have any polish? youd be suprised what a small da and some polish will do.

 

this is halfway true. Vis, seibon, raceonusa, jdmshit, and 99% of all chinese hoods are clear coated not gel coated. That is why they fade and yellow after the first month of direct sunlight. There are very few hood manufactures that use gel coat cause when they make a hood all they are doing is making a fiberglass hood in the mold, popping it out and then overlaying it with carbon. They use clears because they spray flat. If you have ever sprayed gel coat it is far fro flat spraying. Way too much sanding would be involved, plus it would cost them a ton more money to gel coat. Example the clear they use with their volume is probally $50 to $75 for 5 gallons versus $200 in the gel coat. They do what is cheapest to keep the price cheap even going as far as selling hoods with black dyed fiberglass not carbon for a little while. I will not name the 2 companies I know that did that but they are pretty much the two biggest resalers. They just use the same manufacture.

 

no, no polish just mothers Carnauba Wax and some turtle wax rubbing compound. also my hood is just that fiberglass with a carbon shell.

 

you can use just about any carnauba wax. It will help with your UV protection as well

 

go grab some meguiars polish at a oreilys/kneckts or something. something with a small cut. if its faded (oxidized) you can bring it to life, then just protect it with sealant or carnuba...sealant will last a lot longer.

 

I say eff carbon fiber. Buckyboard is the way to go if you can find it.