Can anyone show me how to buff off the scratches on the carbon fiber pieces? Is it possible?
Carbon Fiber scratch
- Thread starter drtruong
- Start date
Along those same lines, I have a piece that is cracked (just the clear has a crack in it, but it is deep) I've been wondering recently if it is possible to fill that crack and not have it look worse than it does now.
The scratches appear to be the clearcoat- some are deeper than others, but not on the CF. You mention wetsand- is it wet sandpaper? what type?
Thanks.
Not that I have heard of. You can 'fix' a scratch but not a crack.:frown:
- Joined
- 16 January 2010
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Take a dremel or a tool that can cut along the crack in a very fine manner, don't go all the way through but hit the carbon fiber portion very lightly. Easiest thing to do after that would be to fill it back in with resin, however I like to use these little glass micro-bubbles in with the resin. If the crack is all the way through to the other side (which I'm 98% sure it probably is), let the one side fully cure, flip it over and do the other side as well. Sand down both sides as smooth as you want to go (obviously keeping the side that is seen the most as smooth and perfect as possible. Scratch down the whole piece and primer it with a fiberglass primer, use some cheap spray paint and very lightly go over the primer (after the primer has cured) so the spray paint is visible and not covering. Wet sand it all down and the spray paint will tell you if you're low/high in any areas. Repeat until you're finished, be careful about any corners, you don't want to go down too far.
Have your work verified by a body shop and then tell them to paint it, unless you know the process yourself (which this is not auto paint 101 so I'm not going through it).
Other then that, there is no way to make it look perfect again. If you want the carbon fiber look, you can always sell it and advertise it needs to be repaired. There are some people out there who really don't like the look of bare carbon fiber and will just use it for the weight savings.
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- 16 January 2010
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I'm curious, what exactly is the gelcoat? I do a lot of work with carbon fiber and fiberglass but the only thing I ever put on top of it is a clearcoat. Do some of these companies build up a large amount of resin on top of their carbon fiber, do they use another type of product before they clear, or are you just talking about the clear?
Epoxy resin I assume.
The part I have that is cracked is actually my CF wrapped armrest/console. I think I put too much weight on it once and it got a nice crack a few inches long near where the NSX logo plate is. It doesn't bother me much and if there's a chance I'd make it worse I'll probably just leave it alone.
99% of these carbon parts use polyester resin , the mold is first sprayed with clear gelcoat , then carbon is laid up , then fiberglass after that .
What you need is to have the backside laid up with a few (quite a few) layers of 'glass , then you can refinish the front by sanding out the cracks and re-clear / gelcoat the top , this is working backwards but short of buying a new one and reinforcing it , you really have no other options.
What you need is to have the backside laid up with a few (quite a few) layers of 'glass , then you can refinish the front by sanding out the cracks and re-clear / gelcoat the top , this is working backwards but short of buying a new one and reinforcing it , you really have no other options.
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See, I guess I have no clue when it comes to this mass produced stuff. I make a lot of different things from fiberglass and carbon fiber, but I don't use one or the other just for looks.
Actually that's a ton easier to fix, I thought we were talking about something bigger like a top, roof, trunk or something. If you ever wanted to save it you could probably take it in for somebody to repair and they can just fix the spot and put another single sheet of carbon fiber over the whole thing. Real easy to do, what I like most is you can then pick if you want it glossy, semi-glossy, or flat. Personally I think the semi-glossy looks great.
Actually that's a ton easier to fix, I thought we were talking about something bigger like a top, roof, trunk or something. If you ever wanted to save it you could probably take it in for somebody to repair and they can just fix the spot and put another single sheet of carbon fiber over the whole thing. Real easy to do, what I like most is you can then pick if you want it glossy, semi-glossy, or flat. Personally I think the semi-glossy looks great.
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