Carbon Fiber care
 

Ive been searching threads about waxing and clay baring, How to and what to use...What should i do differently on my hood, is it safe to use turtle ice wax on it?

Dunno. I never bothered cleaning the CF driveshaft...

Is there a reason turtle wax ice would not work? Id rather use a pastey type wax though , easier to see where u left off and stuff.

ice wax is crap dont waste your time.. just use a good wax..and occaisionally clay bar it thats all you need.

meguiars nxt

nxt 2.0 is the shizzle

use nxt followed by meguiars carnuba..i forgot the # though.. hah

either # 26 high tech yellow wax or
gold class works fantastic

typically i use to wash it and then use a quick detailer about 1-2 a week.. and wax atleast 1 a month worked well... untill my car sat at the shop for 5 months and all the cf went to hell..

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/inf-perfect.html

good guide

^Bing bing bing! If your hood is clear coated, treat it like you would with the entire car. But, if your cars stays in the sun all the time and no cover, then treat it even more so.

I just moved to new house and now my 8 with CF will get sunlight from sun rise till around 11am.


Any car wax has UV protection?

The best solution for anything carbon fiber is having 3m clearbra layered on top of it. It prevents the clear coat from fading from the sun and should the hood crack it will contain the cracks.

Prolonged exposure to sunlight will cause the gel coat to fade and yellow. At some point it will have to be sanded and either reapplied or painted.

The 3m material can be costy to have applied but it beats having to repaint the hood.

I had my CF hood clear coated with a high solids clear coat.
The gel coat does not hold up well as you know

I also recommend clear coating CF hoods, trunks, etc. The factory coating on CF parts doesnt stand up well to the elements. Even the name brand parts will take a beating after a while. Getting your CF clear coated is a good investment, as it will keep your CF looking alot better, no fade, and you can treat it like a normal body panel. Especially helps with rock chips.

I used to work at a custom/restoration shop and cleared the CF parts on any car we built. Its like preventative maintenance.

Quick question.


Will PlasticX work with minor swirl marks on CF clear coat?

or just wax CF like you wax your car.

If you are looking to try and do a quicky removal, then it's Sctrach-X you want. It's not perfect, but has some swirl removal capabilites. What you really want is to do a full PC job on it with proper products. Man I can't wait to break out my PC once winter is over.

I bought this car back in December. And the guy who had it before did not take very good care of it. So. My question is that if my CF hood is fading is it just screwed? Or can it be saved? It looks brand new when wet. But when it drys it looks like crap.

the clear coat is in bad shape, you can use either a rubbing compound and see where that gets you, worst case scenario, you can just wetsand the hood with 1000 grit sandpaper and take it to get re'cleared and it should look just like new

Well its a black car. And the CF looks good. But kinda hard to tell its a CF with the car being black. Would I be better off getting a diffrent style hood and painting it black. Or try and save this one?

id try to save it first, and if it doesnt work, then just paint the hood you have.

Ill try that. What rubbing compund should I use?

3M makes a really good quality one, you should be able to get it at a paint supply store or even your local home depot

If you have exposed carbon (only laminated with ester resins since expoxy will insta brown) you can use.

https://www.makariosrv.com/product_i...lor__04878.jpg

Or just use it in general. Nice stuff found at any hardware store.

how long do cf hoods usually last?

^ depends on how you take care of them where you park how much sunlight it sees etc etc

Just went out and purchased the meguiar clay bar kit and the nxt 2.0 and i gotta say....my car looks fucking sexy!

^
Just did the same thing last week.
Great products.

i just got mothers with 2 clay bars.....fuckin amazing shit!! super smooth as well!!

thx for info guys. and i know im bringing the dead back

I'm glad mine has no glossy coat that will turn yellow :)

Attachment 274328

uhhh... how does that work? Glossy or matte finish it makes no difference be it poly, vinyl, or epoxy that is used to make the part (unless it has some form of built in UV protection (and even then I wouldn't trust it)), will yellow over time.

Clearcoat is your friend... even if it's just the spray can stuff.

Nice hood btw :)

thats so nice : ) and
whats the best uv protectant for cf hoods?????

white paint :p

but... seeing as how you most likely want to see the CF it all depends. So far I've just been messing around with interior parts so.. can't really help ya there at moment, but most clearcoats will be good for alil while... but.. chances are your best bet is to contact a supplier and ask specifically about UV blocking clearcoats.

haha, man i wish meguiars had some cf uv protectant stuff haha,
but thanks rev illusions

Yeah the one that smells like bananas haha :D

I have a orbital polisher and comparing the High tech yellow wax and the NXT 2.0


The High tech yellow wax hands down, Bring out more shine and a hell alot smoother.

But both good waxes..... :mdrmed:

How much does the 3m Clearbra cost and where could you get it done? At a tinting place i'd assume?