Carbon fiber hood. needs help!

[rallyturbo]

Ok so i got a carbon fiber hood for my car good right... WRONG its been painted. why would you paint a carbon fiber hood???? so i was wondering what you could use to take the paint off the hood if you would be able to??? and help would be helpful

 

[turbotalon31]

you could sand it down to get the paint off and reclear coat it as long as the carbon is not messed up its alot of work but it will pay off in the end

 

[TSi Kid]

Most people paint the carbon fiber because they want it for the light weight aspect not the cool ricey appeal.

 

[RadDsm]

why would you paint a carbon fiber hood????

Some people buy them for weight savings, not the looks. I personally think carbon fiber is ugly.

You can find info on how to remove the paint here.
http://tinyurl.com/25abzdc

 

[turbotalon31]

i dont think carbon likes ricey if it is dont tastefully.

 

[1997_GSX]

If I had one I would get it painted, CF on a black car looks dumb in my opinion. Looks like a big brownish gray spot from a distance.

 

[2GbTalonGuy]

The gel coat could aslo be spidering or the clear could have started peeling so they just painted it.

 

[Carter_95RS]

Or it could have been cracked. When I got mine it was cracked and when I fixed it I had to paint part of it

 

[rallyturbo]

ok so there are reason to paint the hoods but i thought it would complement the black roof and hatch of the talons. anyway if i where to sand it down what are the odds of me killing the hood?

 

[2GbTalonGuy]

You shouldnt kill it if you only sand the paint and are careful. But you may be wasting your money if you find it to be damaged. I agree it would look good with exposed CF and black roof though.

 

[dsmtalon1998]

Just be sure not to use a real aggressive sandpaper that will dig into the gel coat. I wouldn't go with sandpaper that is any more coarse than 320 grit. I think you'd be wise to try removing the paint with 600 or 400 grit paper. Good luck!

 

[rallyturbo]

yeah i was thinkin like a 800 grit wet sand should do the trick then 1000 grit finish sand. lets hope so ill post pics for the before and after.

 

[jimbob_843]

I'm doing something similar to my cf hood. The previous owner painted a clear coat and it looks like ####. So I'm sanding through the clear coat with like 240, i know kinda rough but all i got, then I'm gonna do a final sand with the 1000 wet. Then I'm gonna polish it out. I'll let you know how it turns out without putting a clear coat on it!

 

[SupremeDsm]

Just so you know 240 scratches will not come out with 1000 grit! It's to fine! You got to work your way up! 240-320-600-800-1000 if you want all the scratches out and done right!

 

[rallyturbo]

see his car is lookin sexy with the cf hood with the black talon roof.

 

[gixrman]

Just so you know its super easy to sand though the resin into the fiber and once you do that your hood is FUBAR and you'll wish it was painter again. Most hoods (depends on the manufacture) only use one layer of CF for the look. They may add another top coat and a clear. They may have used junk resin and it cracked or didn't have a UV resistant additive or clear coat and thats why it was painted. Most hoods are 1 layer of CF over a fiberglass structure.

240 grit is way to agressive, I would use a paint removal gel on a small test area first to see if it reacts to the resin becuase different resins have different chemical tolerance's. Then wetsand with 800, 1000.

 

[jimbob_843]

Yeah i am aware, i am only using the 240 to get through the halfa$$ spray paint clear coat and I'm gonna work my way up to the final 1000 wet sand. Also what would you guys suggest i use to polish it up? NuFinish?

 

[dsmTripp]

Just be overly careful. I can't stress enough on this. Once you sand down and hit the fibers you just trashed your hood. Doing something like this requires alot of patience and time and if you don't have either have someone that does do it for you. It can go from good to bad real quick and I don't think most of the general tuners group knows how to patch carbon especially keeping the twill weave pattern.

 

[gixrman]

Yeah i am aware, i am only using the 240 to get through the halfa$$ spray paint clear coat and I'm gonna work my way up to the final 1000 wet sand. Also what would you guys suggest i use to polish it up? NuFinish?

3M makes a nice 3 step compound polish, and a good buffing wheel. And really 240 is way too coarse. Unless the guy painted it with a brush and then a roller I would go with maybe 600 first with a DA sander

 

[Alex42590]

i remember using a spray remover to remove paing from bikes it was like acid it would bubble up after eating the paing then you just wipe it clean but yea dont think that would work because it would eat up the clear