Carbon Fiber hood polishing?

[JDM onlyy]

Okay, well you know how you have a carbon fiber hood for awhile and it starts to get those stupid white spots where the clear looks like its coming off or scratching off? How do I get it to stop and make it look LIKE NEW again? Can I just buff it with something or polish it up? Or re-paint it over with some clear coat?

Thanks...reps will be given for advice.

[1NonlyAccord]

do u have ur hood cleared already?-cuz 1st if u havnt the hood will turn green due to the suns rays beating down on it all day.a member on here had that happen and he had to tint his clear to make it black again almost loosing the CF look.
I wax mine and i kno what ur talking bout a day later u get lil white circles. It should b from the wax coming up from the surface and staying in little spots like u said/ and whats mines doing.

I just bufed it with sum liquid diamond and it looks like the day i bought it. should do the trick if u do already have it cleared!

GL man-hope that helps.

[JDM onlyy]

do u have ur hood cleared already?-cuz 1st if u havnt the hood will turn green due to the suns rays beating down on it all day.a member on here had that happen and he had to tint his clear to make it black again almost loosing the CF look.
I wax mine and i kno what ur talking bout a day later u get lil white circles. It should b from the wax coming up from the surface and staying in little spots like u said/ and whats mines doing.

I just bufed it with sum liquid diamond and it looks like the day i bought it. should do the trick if u do already have it cleared!

GL man-hope that helps.

Well, its cleared but it looks like the clear is coming off...like its still carbon fiber looking and its goldish looking but like its making lil spots of clear coming off..i think its from sun beating down on it but I was wondering if you could just use a rubbing compound to buff it out? thanks to you though...repped

[1NonlyAccord]

im using liquid diamond..and everytime i did it (after i washed it) bout a day later it looks like water spots of clear? u rub ur hand over it or a towel and it comes right off but still leaving a clear circle.its just the wax/polish coming off from the sun cuz clear coat is meant to protect it.not unless it was a cheap clear coat? ect.
but use a da buffer so u wont cut down to far into it when buffering.just like normal on metal.
GL again

[allmotoronly]

I would wet sand it and get it re-cleared if I were you. if it is already turning yellow then it is probably getting a little sun damaged.

[cactusEG]

i wax mine once a week and still looking like new

[KPowerEP3]

I would wet sand it and get it re-cleared if I were you. if it is already turning yellow then it is probably getting a little sun damaged.

agreed, however you could try buffing it with light rubbing compound, nothing too coarse though, because if you rub through the clear and get into the CF, you could damage it worse.

[JDM onlyy]

reps added...thanks guys.

[RBS]

pnut butter FTW!!!!!!

[uproot]

reps added...thanks guys.

if YOU didnt get it cear coated when you bought it, it most likely just has the gel coat some come with, which is what i have. i made the mistake of not getting my hood cleared before it got really bad, so now i have to attempt to reclear it.

i did find this write up though, looks like it's worth a shot:

http://www.jdmuniverse.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=36431

[RBS]

dry "lookin" carbon ownz

[NevrNufTorq]

great advice in all the threads! if the spots are deep you will have to take it to a good paint shop so they can sand it down heavy and then give you a double clear coat and it'll look like new! just make sure theyve done it before and ask for some pics of their work. hope you dont have to go that far though

[JDM onlyy]

thanks everyone. i think we're gonna sand it down and reclear it and just keep waxin the hell out of it. lol thanks and reps added again

[uproot]

thanks everyone. i think we're gonna sand it down and reclear it and just keep waxin the hell out of it. lol thanks and reps added again

YO let me know how it goes... i'm going to be tackling this soon as well!

[iEvo]

high speed buffer with good rubbing compound, then wax afterwards

[RBS]

Okay, well you know how you have a carbon fiber hood for awhile and it starts to get those stupid white spots where the clear looks like its coming off or scratching off? How do I get it to stop and make it look LIKE NEW again? Can I just buff it with something or polish it up? Or re-paint it over with some clear coat?

Thanks...reps will be given for advice.

ummm......

[Nitro]

great advice in all the threads! if the spots are deep you will have to take it to a good paint shop so they can sand it down heavy and then give you a double clear coat and it'll look like new! just make sure theyve done it before and ask for some pics of their work. hope you dont have to go that far though

there's the perfect answer right here.......mines looks like ass...but that's about to change...she's getting the treatment....lol


rep when i can......

[xb1]

You need to actually determine what type of CF manufacturing process by which the hood was made. If its a Seibon, chances are there is enough gel coat on it so that you can sand/polish the crap out of it and not get down to the CF sheet. Since Seibon also uses fiberglass as the actual supportive material, the resin yellowing will be very little when compared to a VIS hood, and much much less than a dry carbon hood like a real J's or Spoon hood. If you have a Seibon or VIS, then you really need to re-GEL it, not sand away the gel and clear coat it. Clear coating after sanding off gelcoat will actually make the hood more likely to crack if something hits it, since some of the structural material has been taken off. Its still pretty hard to crack one, as the fiberglass underneath is fairly resilient, but the gelcoat on top would splinter.

If its dry carbon, then the yellowing and dulling is what happens to the resin from UV exposure. This will always happen and there is nothing you can do to fix it other than taking off all the resin and basically re-resining the whole thing. If you don't know how to make CF parts, then there is no way you can do this. My only suggestion, if this is the case, is to find someone who does make CF part (like me) and have them strip, resin and gelcoat your hood with UV-resistant gelcoating. Or you could just paint it, which is what most people end up doing with dry carbon pieces that were not covered with some type of UV protectant. Its still nice and light, but just painted.

[JDM onlyy]

ummm......

Umm, go fuck yourself.

[JDM onlyy]

You need to actually determine what type of CF manufacturing process by which the hood was made. If its a Seibon, chances are there is enough gel coat on it so that you can sand/polish the crap out of it and not get down to the CF sheet. Since Seibon also uses fiberglass as the actual supportive material, the resin yellowing will be very little when compared to a VIS hood, and much much less than a dry carbon hood like a real J's or Spoon hood. If you have a Seibon or VIS, then you really need to re-GEL it, not sand away the gel and clear coat it. Clear coating after sanding off gelcoat will actually make the hood more likely to crack if something hits it, since some of the structural material has been taken off. Its still pretty hard to crack one, as the fiberglass underneath is fairly resilient, but the gelcoat on top would splinter.

If its dry carbon, then the yellowing and dulling is what happens to the resin from UV exposure. This will always happen and there is nothing you can do to fix it other than taking off all the resin and basically re-resining the whole thing. If you don't know how to make CF parts, then there is no way you can do this. My only suggestion, if this is the case, is to find someone who does make CF part (like me) and have them strip, resin and gelcoat your hood with UV-resistant gelcoating. Or you could just paint it, which is what most people end up doing with dry carbon pieces that were not covered with some type of UV protectant. Its still nice and light, but just painted.

Yeah, but then we wouldn't have that cool carbon fiber look.

When I get with him I'll ask him and we'll see how we're going to tackle it.

[Jordanmd88]

dry "lookin" carbon ownz

Sure does

[xb1]

Yeah, but then we wouldn't have that cool carbon fiber look.

When I get with him I'll ask him and we'll see how we're going to tackle it.

Let me know if you are going to need some more signifigant repairs and I'll see if there is any way Nate and I can come down and look at it. We may have the gelcoat you need, we may not. Either way I'm sure that we can get what you need.