im in the process of restoring a cf hood that was faded and spray painted over. its coming along nicely, but a friend suggested that i sand the clear completely off to give it a scaly look. running it by a few more buddies, they all say that cf hoods look pretty awesome like this. ive never seen one though

any one have a picture of one?? and some info on how it holds up and exactly how to get it right?

 

Scaly?? Just sand the paint off and reclear. :confused:

 

ive already stripped the spray paint off, and sanded most of the imperfections on the clear. ive buffed polished and waxed a few spots and it turned out just like new.

but, ive heard of people going all the way through the clear, exposing the actual cf material i guess. supposedly it looks really unique. id like to see a pic of someone who has it.

 

dont understand what "scaly" implies

 

It may look really cool in someone else's opinion, but I guarantee that it won't last long without a clear coat.

 

scaly is really the only way i can describe it...

pics would be nice so we could decide if we like it in our opinions haha!
and i would like to hear about the reliability of it from someone who has one, yes.

 

If your friends say it is so awesome, then how come they can't provide pictures?

 

because they have seen it on cars that belong to people they dont know and didnt think or didnt have time to get a picture in time.

I'm just trying to see what this looks like. Maybe i'll like it, maybe I won't. Even if I do it doesn't mean i'm going to do it either.

 

that's what i was thinkin

 

Oh yaaah no pics yahhh.

 

scaly...i think he means scaley..like fish scales? I can't spell either lol

but you need some type of clear on it. You want to redue mine? mines all cracked

 

Are you referring to the look of dry carbon fiber? Because, it's not quite the same as sanded down wet carbon fiber.

 

You risk sanding into the actual fibers and lose the strength of the hood with no clear/resin on it. This is a composite, without the additional material, there's no rigidity. It doesn't add up to seem worth it. That, and it would just look goofy.

 

I'm in the process of restoring mine, i'm not looking for help regarding carbon fiber restoration.

the point of this thread is to try to get pics.

No, not dry carbon fiber, but thanks for an actual productive post.

And yes, I mean scal(e)y like a fish. Sorry, i dont think ill ever put this many hours into a hood again haha.

I Understand. But since it has been done i would like to hear from some one who has done and see some pictures.

 

 

^ Actually looks kind of cool.

 

 

just reclear it lol

 

wow, its definitely pretty neat.
i dont think ill be doing it, but still, now we know!

as for the people saying just reclear it... well, ive had it to a shop and they said the clear wont stick to it. but ive done further research on it and sanding the imperfections and a buff and a wax cleans it up like new.

 

http://www.faqs.org/photo-dict/photo...ish_scales.jpg

 

youre the man.

 

wut

 

My understanding is at least some carbon fiber has a gel coat instead of a clearcoat. I don't know much about that though, besides that boats get gel coats too.

Anyway, the closest I could find was this:

http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7169

It's just talking about the pattern of the carbon fiber though.

 

I refinished an old CF hood that I had. Too lazy to post up the pics but it doesnt look good with the get coat sanded off. I sanded mine down and had it cleared with automotive clear. Looked great.

 

well thanks, but i didnt intend this thread to be for cf restoration, i was just looking to see that scaly hood lol.

but anyway, heres a crappy cell pic of my hood. im still working on sanding all the imperfections from sun fading out, but i buffed and polished the front piece. the pic isnt very good, but it looks just like new cf in real life. ill get better pics when finished.