Haven't been on here for the longest of time ever due to school and other issues. Recently, I've picked up a Carbon Fiber Hood for my car that was not in the best condition ever but it was more for functionality than cosmetics really. So if I messed up the hood in anyway I would have gotten the entire hood painted to match the color of my car. Anyways here's a picture of the hood when I first received it. When I went to go pick up the Carbon Fiber Hood from the seller....He told me that the hood was installed on their Dealership Show Car Scion tC and for the most of its life the car was sitting out in the sun. He also told me that before the dealership posted the Carbon Fiber Hood for sale, they had their detailers use a Hi-Speed Buffer on it to try and repair the hood but nothing happen and the milky areas came back. The guy selling the hood literally gave me the hood for almost like nothing. So to start off I wanted to see how bad the hood really is from sitting out in the sun for two years. I first taped a small corner and tried using a polishing pad with my dewalt 849 Rotary Buffer spreading at 1000 RPM and then picking it up slowly to 1400 RPM. Here's a picture of me in action lol. These pictures below are after two passes with Ardex Hi Def. #2 After trying the polishing pad combo with Ardex Hi Def. #2 I believe it did an awesome job. Now onto a bigger section and so I started taping down the center so I can do a 50/50 shot of the hood when I complete it. Here's a before of the one side I'll be working on: After: 50/50 from up top of the vent: Well I didn't get to finish the entire hood as I ran out of free time. I will update this will I start working on the other half. Thank you for viewing and I hope you enjoy my first half of the restoration of my Carbon Fiber Hood. I would love to receive some feedback if I did something wrong or what I should be careful of if there's anything I need to know. Update 05/29/09 Alright here's an update to my hood. The right side was a no go. After several passes with the combination I did with the left half of the hood, the oxidation or milky areas didn't all go away. At this point I decided to take it up another notch and use a PWF and Ardex Hi-Def. #2. With this combination the milky areas went away slightly but not to my satisfaction. After sitting down for a bit and thinking this over I decided that I'm gonna test the corner with wetsanding using the Meguiar's 2000 Grit sandpaper. I let the sandpaper sit in a clean bucket of water for a little over 15 minutes before I used it. Here's a pic of the area I chose to wetsand to see if this will solve the problem. Now what I used to remove the wetsand area was with a PWF and 3M Finesse It and here are the results: After wetsanding the corner where there was a lot of milky areas still visible, I am now satisfied enough with the result from wetsanding the corner. I'm going to wetsand the rest of the hood and then have a body shop clear the hood for extra protection. Also, to answer to one of the guys question yes the epoxy has yellowed but I kind of liked the hood like that because it reminds me of carbon kevlar. The hard part is trying to resin this small nick where you see piece of painters tape. If it's off colored a little it will not bug me as I mention at the top that this is for functionality than cosmetic and plus people will not really pay that close of attention. This is also going to interesting to find a carbon fiber hatch to match the hood lol.
Huge improvement. I wonder though how soon that oxidation (looks like it) will return. I am assuming that the clear is rather thin? But what do I know.... here to learn :meditation:
When you have that polished back up fully, get it clearoated - I'm presuming it hasn't been, and that's just the resin coating the CF. You want to give it half a chance against the sun's UV rays, so a good dollop of clearcoat with your usual LSP should prevent the milkiness from returning, or at least slow its return down to a longer timeframe.
Don't you just love it when you polish it to the point where you have trouble focusing on the weave? Lol, great job man!
Yeah it sucks trying to focus on the weave. After I'm finish buffing I'm thinking about taking it to a body shop to have them clear coated. PJs: What do you mean by a good dollop of clearcoat with your usual LSP.
Great improvement. Only thing I would be wary about is the fact that Ardex hi def has a pretty decent amount of fillers in it so you might not have actually got as much actual correction as it appears. I'm not not saying it won't stay totally corrected like that, but just food for thought.
Nice work, the epoxy has already yellowed by the looks of the pics and can not be fixed. Clearing it will help stop the yellowing but will not do much. Then again I dont know how yellow it is as pics can make it looks worse than it really is. But nice job bringing it back to life none the less, cant beat it if you got it for cheap.
Great thread...I am in the same boat as you in the first post but haven't had any luck yet with restoration. I'm going to try what you used and see what happens.
Thought that'd have been obvious - get a couple of coats of clear on it, and that along with your usual LSP should be sufficient to slow the rate at which the milkiness returns, if at all. Is that clearer for you now? I didn't mean mixing clear with your LSP, if that's how you were reading it.
Hard to say - looks almost like CF and Kevlar mix, or the unnatural lighting, with/or the camera's own colour imbalance/incorrect setting. Needs to be outside in natural daylight with a well balanced camera to accurately depict the true state of affairs.
Not to jack your thread racersky but did you have damage on your hood like this...? I ran over with polish and PC and nothing lifted. It has no touch to it...it's in the clear coat. I was told the only way to fix it was a shop to wet sand and re-clear. For now I have given up because I don't have the money to pay for the service. But just like you I got a CF hood for cheap thinking I could repair it. Your thread is giving me new hope!
Thanks for the compliments guys. Never really did anything like this before. Billyblooshoes: Thanks for the tip on Ardex problems....I'll keep that in mind. How about Ardex Alpha Grit? I seem to have that at work. nf3d0149ab: I'm glad my thread is giving you hope with your Carbon Fiber Hood. I just updated my first post and I decided to wetsand a test spot to see if the milky area went away and so far knock on wood it did. **To make it easier I decided to put all the updated pictures to the first post so everyone can see** Updated on first page
Ahh...I see. So still with wet sanding not everything lifted. I think I have the same type of damage as you do. I'm too scared to wet sand and cause some damage.
Be careful when wet-sanding clear coat as the UV protection is in the final coat Clear coat 2-3Mils. Ultra violet protection (UV) migrates to the top of the clear coat to protect the paint system from the effects of (UV) radiation (photo synthesis (colour fading) oxidation) Removing more that 0.5 Mil (12.5ยต Microns) of clear coat will cause premature paint film failure
