I'm not particularly familiar with this kind of stuff. I keep my car very clean, and always waxed, its not driven in snow, rain, and parked inside a garage for most of its life.

When washing the other week, I noticed that my carbon fiber hood wasn't as gleaming as it usually is. There is this slight hazy cloudiness I noticed. Never saw it there before, but it was pretty annoying.

Is this what they call "Oxidation?" Disappointing but I assume every car at some point of its life will go through this.

I hope the remedy to this isn't too much, or too costly. Flat broke and in debt after replacing the brakes in my other car.

 

Some pics

You can see some of the "ghost" like cloudiness. I really hope this is a minor fix.

 

youve always kept it waxed and it still did this?... lots of companies cheap out on gel coats for their carbonfiber products...

if you have the funds, i'd get it re-clear coated

 

I've had the carbon Fiber hood for nearly 10 years now. Its this nasty Houston weather, all humid and yucky.

I bet it was that rain I drove it in two weeks ago. It was the first time I drove the car in rain in six years.

I had no choice, my CR-V was in the shop getting its brake lines replaced, I couldn't skip work so I was forced to drive my

Si in the god awful Texas disgusting humid hot sticky weather.

 

okay 10 years, then maybe the gel coat wasnt fully a cheaped out on... its just natural wear and tear at this point (not completely avoidable).

you can buff it out but thats only a temporary fix. since its oxidized its losing its UV protection. wax will only be a temporary solution untill you fix it permanently with a re-clearcoat

 

Can I use something like a anti oxidation polisher like Meguiar's "Ultimate compound" as a short fix? I know in the long run getting the hood completely re-clear coated is the only permanent long term solution. But if I can buff it with some oxidation polisher stuff for the time being, I'm fine with that for now.

 

yeah start with the least aggressive method possible... and if that works, then it works.

if not, take it a step down and try something more aggressive.

 

does this stuff work?
https://honda-tech.com/forums/detailing-130/if-your-cf-hood-fading-oxidizing-look-here-897677/

 

i only glanced at it because its a post from 2004, and lots of the pictures no longer worked...

but all he did was use a light compound and waxed it... just like you were planning to do. with meguiars. no difference i see here.

your goal is to remove the first layer of oxidation, and then protect and shine it with wax... you can use any products of your choice.

 

I doubt that you would be able to buff that out. If it were anything like mine, it was in the coat itself so to speak. I was able to get some of it out on mine by wetsanding it and than using some abrasive rubbing compound, but mine was much more extreme than yours.

I say give yourself a pat on the back if it took 10 years for that to happen!

Oh and my solution to it, I just wrapped my hood in cf vinyl. Might not be the most idle, but it was less work than color matching it to the car, buffing it out, or reclearing. Not to mention it was cheap. The 50'x60' sheet I got was like 65 bucks or something like that.

 

I'm hoping the boat gel oxidation stuff will work, there are a few boat shops around here I'm going to stop by and see if they have some stuff, spend $30 bux or so and see if it'll work before I shell out the $180 ish to get it recleared. I'm hoping it'll work, at least for a while before I can save up enough money. Since its a gel coat and not a clear coat according to BodyKits Northwest where I got it from a decade ago. Read since boats use a gel coat instead of clear coats, that it'll respond well. I'm hoping it does.

Yea, its been about ten years since I got the CF hood. In the past ten years, I'd say the car has seen rain maybe 6 times in the past 10 years, hood has never seen snow, parked in the garage, washed and waxed pretty often.

In contrast, my beater CRV has been rained on constantly, driven hard during winter storms, has rarely been parked in a garage, hardly washed, hardly waxed, though the interior is often cleaned and armorall'd frequently. The underbody is rusted to hell, and the brake lines recently rusted through and I had to replace the underbody brake lines.

I kind of feel bad I neglected it the way I did. I'm going to try some anti oxidation stuff on my CRV, spend a day buffing it, see if I can get some shine on it. Its like the unloved family child. Who grows up using drugs and becoming a alcoholic.

 

personally i think you will be able to buff out the oxidation and polish it back to a shine...

but keeping it protected from further oxidation will be the hard part. because after 10 years its probably lost most of its UV protection properties... being that it is black, it absorbs the most heat. so it was inevitable unless u never drove it in the day time lol. rain isnt the big issue. the sun is.

 

If u know someone who paints perfessionally u could always re clear the hood

 

damn sun! I think I will have to reclear at some point or another. I'm hoping i can use this method for the mean time, maybe re clear next summer.

 

I bought some of the boat compound stuff at a place called West Marine here in Kemah Texas.

Westmarine.com

Let me first say, what a beautiful store. I wish auto parts stores were as pretty as this place was laid out.

I've scoured a few forums, seems like everyone was either using the 3M stuff or the Meguiar's stuff. They had both, I ended up picking up the Meguairs stuff, it was slightly less expensive, the polish for the 3m stuff was $30 alone!!!! The Meguiars for the oxidation stuff and the polish was about $30 total.

The guy said it was slightly less aggressive than the 3M stuff and I might not need something that aggressive so I picked up the Meguiars. I figure if that doesn't work I'm mostly screwed either way.

I'll try it later today on the hood and hope for some good results, I'll post pics! :D

 

a good machine polish with a random orbital buffer at 1800 RPM should take that out. a good uv protection wax should take care of it coming back.

 

spent an hr or so trying to buff it out with Meguairs 49 and 45 polisher.

I've never used a buffer before, I read not to keep it at one place too long. Should I try apply more pressure? Or very light pressure? I'm still learning how to use it correctly. I spent more time on the passenger side than the driver side, just to see a compare and contrast.

It does seem like the side I spent more time on came out a little better, there's still a faint ghosting of it but its a lot better than before. After buffing I followed up with the polisher. That stuff really squeaks!! Then I finished up with wax.

Over all it seems okay, I think if I spend some more time with it, I think I can buff the rest of it out. I'll have to wait till next weekend on my next day off to give it a try. For now I'm mildly satisfied.

I'm really hoping I can buff the rest out.

Any buffing tips? Right now I just go left and right, then up and down per the diagram in the directions? Should I try applying moderate pressure or should I be very light with it and allow the buffer to spin as fast as it can?

 

Consider two things:

1) Wetsanding

2) Priming your buffer pad. Prevents it from squeaking, jumping and skipping. Check the second post of this thread: http://www.autopiaforums.com/forums/...g-pad-not.html

 

what type of buffer are you using?... i believe with rotary buffers... the RPM u should be at for cutting is about 1500-1800 rpm's...

and u just gota let the weight of the tool itself do the cutting... dont put much more pressure than that. let the cutting pad do its job

just be paitent... its better to take it slower so you dont eff up badly

 

Its just a cheap orbital buffer I got at walmart, a turtle wax brand one, 6" size.

 

These things aren't good for much more than applying and removing wax. I suggest getting a better rotary or DA buffer.

 

Wet sand and polish

 

does the same Meguairs 49 and 45 polisher that Snafu-Si is doing to her fiber hood work on paint?? or just fiber products?

 

49 and 45 are not intended for use with paint. I suggest m105 and m205.

 

You can try wet sanding it with 2000 grit and buffing it. if the cloudiness doesn't go away your going to have to re clear the hood. use a good quality automotive clear coat. I had a hood that was so sun faded it started to turn white so even a re clear wouldn't touch it. so i sanded it down with 400 grit. Sprayed it with a black candy, Then Cleared it with 3 coats wet sanded it and buffed it and it looked better than new.