Well have not posted in a long, long time but decided to try and fix my carbon hood. have not worked on my MSP for a while. Here are some pics of my process. Ill post some once finished also





and currently ready to be cleared. should look like this (on passenger side)once cleared.

How'd it turn out?

Did you do any sanding before you polished? Will there be enough for the clear to adhere to?

Looks great. What will you be using for clear?

It came out pretty good for my first time attempting this. Not perfect by any means but better. Still deciding on if I want to wet sand compound and buff it to a shine or leave it.

Shadowden wrote:Did you do any sanding before you polished? Will there be enough for the clear to adhere to?

Looks great. What will you be using for clear?

Thanks! Yeah I sanded it after I slowly peeled away the clear that was on there from the first time I had it cleared. I wet sanded from 1000 to 1500 cleaned and degreased and cleaned some more then cleared with duplicolor clear lacquer from pep boys.

Is this something that all carbon fiber does eventually? Is there any kind of coating you can put on there to prevent it?

Yeah, it seams all CF, with the exception of dry CF, does it eventually. Not sure why.

Given the surface area of the hood and the application using a rattle can (I presume), I would probably not wet sand, but I would go after it with a fairly aggressive polishing compound and work to a nice fine finish. I would be afraid of burning through your clear coat when wet sanding, even though you are doing it by hand.

Your car looks great, by the way. Nice work on the hood.

Shadowden wrote:Yeah, it seams all CF, with the exception of dry CF, does it eventually. Not sure why.

Given the surface area of the hood and the application using a rattle can (I presume), I would probably not wet sand, but I would go after it with a fairly aggressive polishing compound and work to a nice fine finish. I would be afraid of burning through your clear coat when wet sanding, even though you are doing it by hand.

Your car looks great, by the way. Nice work on the hood.

Thanks! And I went out and purchased an air compressor, cheap air gun, and clear lacquer by duplicolor so I'm not worried about burning through I put like 4 light coats on and seems thick enough for wet sanding.

jdmsp wrote:Thanks! And I went out and purchased an air compressor, cheap air gun, and clear lacquer by duplicolor so I'm not worried about burning through I put like 4 light coats on and seems thick enough for wet sanding.

I saw duplicolor and mentally went to the rattle cans. If you did a good clear application, then do a light wet sand with a 1000 grit, then polish it. I bet it turns out fantastic.

Did the clear go on nice with minimal orange peel?

There was very minimal almost no orange peel to it but I still have not wet sanded buffed etc. but was evenly coated. I'll post pics once I decide to sand and wax .

That looks really good.

RX-7 Chris wrote:That looks really good.

Thanks! .

That turned out well man nice work.