Carbon Fiber Hoods?

MS22

MS22

New member
Does anyone have any experiance with aggressively polishing/wetsanding carbon fiber hoods? I promised to help a friend tomorrow to prep his car for the Carslile Import show at Penn State this weekend and after taking it out of storage I found that the hood is pitted beyond belief. Are there any precautions to take when working on carbon fiber? Since the clear looks to be laid on pretty nicely and thick I would normally just go at it but I dont want to screw up a thousand dollar hood the day before a show. Thanks in advance for any help.
 
It's not actually pitting per se. The carbon fiber has a rough pattern to it that causes air pockets to get trapped in the clear sometimes. The only way to cure this is to either look for each one and pop them with a needle or spray so many coats of clear that it alleviates the problem. Most manufacturers aren't going to go to this trouble. I have not wet sanded, but i've gotten somewhat agressive on my own cf hood. I'm not sure that wetsanding will do anything and if you go through the clear and into the gel coat your pretty much screwed. Maybe look at having a couple more coats of clear sprayed on. It shouldn't be too expensive.
 
Thanks for the info guys, I wanted to treat the CF like a normal paint job but was not absolutely sure. We're gonna give it a go with the wetsanding at 2000, 4000, and 8000 and hopefully the problem will be solved. Thanks again.
 
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