im re clear coating my cf hood. it has some pretty gnarly scratches on it. i have wetsanded the hood several times, some have come out, some have not. will a clear coat cover up some of the scratches or should i get them all out first?

 

I am not paint expert, but you maybe you can clear it...wetsand it some, and put another coat or two on it and it might fill them in.

 

ludecid dream. there are some scratches that just wont come out, you can attempt to re-clear. with a carbon fiber hood, thats all you can do really. i believe the clearcoat will "fill in" some of those stubborn scratches. but if it needs a re-clearing anyways, might as well!

 

lol after you do ti let us know if it worked and post pics if you can : )

 

Yo, I'm from spartanburg. Moved to Charleston to manufacture carbon fiber parts. Anyway, yes you can clear the hood and it will cover the scratches. Here's the problem. It's a basic clearcoat issue. If you try to spray without a totally flat surface your paint will tend to "bunch up" near the edges of the scratch.

You have three options...

1) If the scratches are pretty gnarly, get some silmar 249 surfboard resin. Readily available on carbon-fiber.us. Mix it and apply it to the scratches. Let it kick and sand it down and then buff it or clear the hood.

2) If the scratches are less than .02" from the surface of the original gel coat, keep sanding and buff back up.

3) If the scratches are close to .02" or you think you're about to get into the carbon, go buy some nason clear coat at finishmasters with fast reducer and dab it on with a toothpick over the scratches and sand down flush.

 

[QUOTE=COsborne;44499809]
1) If the scratches are pretty gnarly, get some silmar 249 surfboard resin. Readily available on carbon-fiber.us. Mix it and apply it to the scratches. Let it kick and sand it down and then buff it or clear the hood.QUOTE]

Could you tell us more about this stuff I have some scratches I would like to fix as well...

 

i went through months of trying to restore my cf hood. (it was painted black by the previous owner)

ill skip the paint removal, but once it was gone i wetsanded the heck out of it til it was perfect, though i didnt have any deep scratches. after i sent it out to the shop to be clear coated. problem is, they told me clear coat wont stick to carbon fiber (correct me if they were wrong). i did also try a rattle can clear coat, which, as they said, didnt stick well at all, fisheyed like crazy.

i was able to get it looking new again though. i buffed it out like crazy with heavy duty rubbing compound, then used some good fiberglass polish, then wax. looks great now.

 

i did this a while back on some old carbon fiber i had that was chipping, sanded off all the clear coat and a little bit into the carbon fiber then also buffed it out like crazy with heavy rubbing compound then recleared it and it came out fine but it was a junk part so i didnt care if i messed it up or not

 

hell yeah. the burg for the win er uh…lose

i have no idea how deep the scratches actually are, for all i know they could be cracks which some of them are. i did test spray clear in one spot and it did look like poop when it went over the cracks, leaving these indentions.





can u say FUBAR?

 

^^ a few hours of wetsanding then buffing and polishing the **** out of that will ckean it up. trust me, mine was that bad.

heres mine after tons of wet sanding (and i mean hours) with just the front part rubbed (didnt have a buffer yet) with heavy rubbing compound.


after that i got a buffer and did the whole thing, then once again with fiberglass polish, then waxed. look great now... wish i had pictures of each step and id make a how to.

 

dude, im sanding with 220 and its comin out but little by little. does the clear cover up the scratches im guessing and then buffing/polishing just fine tunes it so to speak.. i suppose im impatient and want results fast..i gotta get over that.

 

ludecid, from the look of your pictures it not much worse, if any, than mine was.
i used 300/400 when wet sanding too. dont go by the look of the scratch, go by the feel, if its smooth, its ready.
so after you wetsand a good bit then try out some heavy duty rubbing compound on some bad spots.
should come out just fine, youd be surprised at the power of that stuff.
if not wetsand some moreeee. repeat until satisfied.

 

Good things take time man. You can normally tell when a person rushes stuff together anyways.

 

dont worry about me rushing this as i have put in plenty of time on this and i dont plan on ruining it just to finish it up.

i will have one problem and thats the clear coat. ill try everything else first though..
thanks for the help guys, ill keep this little post updated and hopefully finish soon.

 

tomorrow ill get a pic of mine sanded, buffed, polished, and wax. no new clear coat.

 

ok so i was kind of busy but today i got out the rubbing compound, polishing compound, and wax.. this is what i got


its a small area that i did so this doesnt speak for the whole hood. i just dont think i can make it look any better.

 

Looks like cracks.... not scratches

 

is there a way to tell if its cracks? i have some spots that i know are cracks and i can see how deep they are. other places look to be cracks but im not sure.

 

It's a crack pattern. Scratches like that are just not normal

 

yeah i was wondering how in the hell i got so many scratches on it anyways..any ideas on what causes the cracks?
ima keep working at it tho

 

that cf looks just like mine lol i recommend you get a new one, just saying

 

Shitty resin will crack like that especially if you don't get good fusion with the fiber. I've seen it crack from there not being enough fiber material too and it becomes too flexible.

 

As long as u wet sand it good and put two or three heavy coats on they wont be seen. I had an eclipse the hood flew up busted my window and put huge spider cracks in the hood after wet sanding and clearing they were no longer visible

 

I have brought back the worst of the worst carbon fiber hoods and although they might not be perfect they looked great . To start off with when you sand one down and reclear it you will see what looks like alot of fish eyes which was stated above . Its not fish eyes its actually pin holes were air gets stuck in the gel coat or resighn that there cleared with to start off with (trust me its 100 times worse painting a boat) . If you sand it back down (normaly take three times to get it like i like it) and clear it again they will come out or actually feel in . As for the realy deep scratches that seem to not go away (normaly cracks not scatches) what i have found to hide them the most is this. sand it down were you get out as much as you can then get a can of black spray paint . make sure you spray alot of black on the cracks let it feel the cracks up realy good then sand back over it . It will feel the white cracks in with black and when you sand again before clearing the black stays in the crack and you sand the rest off then clear it . Since the cracks are now black instead of white you can barely see them if see them at all. I also spray the edges of carbon wings black before i clear them because as soon as you touch them with a sander they turn white and look like crap unless you spray them black before reclearing. remmember dont be scared to spray alot of black on the cracks because the only black the will be left after you sand it again is down in the crack or scratch the rest is sanded off the hood before clearing . I hope this helps with a little patience you can make any messed up carbon fiber hood look great . I mean you have to get 6 inches from the scratch or crack to see that it was ever there. Think of it like this you cant use primer or bondo to fix carbon fiber because you cant see threw it . Everything you have to fix and feel in has to be done with something clear . I paint stuff all the time so its nothing for me to reclear a hood several times with left over clear to fix something or feel in something .Hell i have actualy taped up the sides od a hood mixed up clear and actually poured it on to feel in all the pin holes. That is a way to only have to do it one time but its a mess and i dont recomend it .Also remember there pin holes not fish eyes so keep putting on the clear till they go away .

 

those are cracks in the polyester clear gel coat.it was a common problem on the cheap hoods.the polyester cracks from the movement of the hood.the sun also damages it.when i clear carbon parts.i use a small artists paint brush to fill in pits with automotive clear.then i wet sand these out.then i spray the part.wet sand it out.fill any pits i missed.wet sand again.then a second spray will come out without many flaws.then wet sand and polish.