I've had my carbon fiber hood for about 4 years now, and it has faded and recently blemishes started coming up. Should I sand off the old coat, and spray on a new one. What level of sand paper should I use? When do you wet sand?
Mine did the same thing...I am having mine repainted to match the color of the car since the edges were a little yellow and I didn't think a new coat of clear would take care of it.
I'd think like anything start with a 400/600 grit and then move your way up (to 2000) to get it smooth again. I'd wet sand the entire time myself.
Eh...old man with a Corvette now...it was bound to happen sooner rather than later right?
I am currently sanding my hood for a coat of clear and I was told by several body guys that before a coat of clear to finish wetsand with 1000grit was good enough. Also I don't think any CF hoods come with clear coat on them. They are just a clear Gel-coat and if you sand all that off you will be down to the CF. And if the actual CF has faded and not just the gelcoat fogging up I dont think any amount of clear coat or sanding is going to bring it back. But I could be wrong. I say buy a new one and before you even put it on scuff it and shoot it with some clear. I wish some one would have told me that when i bought mine.
Nah man you should be able to get most of the fading out..sand it down and spray it with a nice thick coat of clear and itll be good as new....i dont know if id sand it too much tho..maybe just enough to get it scuffed..and yes 1000 is totally fine to use wet of course..phil
Thnx for the feed back, I guess i'll sand it (not to much) and give it a double coat of clear coat, then after drying wax/polish the hell out of it.
check my post in the photo forums ,.. i had the same problem with my hood.. i have pics on it also
i just polished mine out
Polishing it out works great to get rid of the cloudiness but it doesn't give it any more protection so it will fog up again. Clear coat seals the gel coat and protects it from uv rays. So it won't fog up or fade anymore and won't need to be polished anymore.
Mine is kinda messed up in a few places too-- I left some bird poop on there too long & it ate it right up.. Polishing it up helps it a little.
I was gonna wet sand my down a little bit, and get someone to spray a candy red over it-- I want a red carbon fiber hood..
