Restoring Sexy Carbon Fibre shine

[Shifty]

I've just bought myself one of these:

In genuine carbon fibre weave. The underside of it looks f*cking beautiful, but the top has clearly been exposed to sun or something and has gone pretty dull, photos attached.

Top of blade:

Bottom of blade:

Curious if anyone has any experience (Joe) re-lovelifying my CF?

 

[Jermal]

Has the lacquer been removed from the top half, because it does look really dull.

If not, it just needs a bloody good polish. Try using something fairly inexpensive such as Autoglym SRP to give it a test to see if you can bring the shine back up.

 

[HASNIC]

If you do manage to get the shine back in it, get some Kleers Carbon UV gel, it should help prevent the clearcoat clouding again.

 

[Shifty]

If the laquer's gone? Pro job?

 

[Jermal]

If the laquer's gone? Pro job?

Yeah, I'd say so. You could probably bodge it with some rattle cans from Halfrauds, but unless you're experienced in spraying from the outset, the finish is likely to be gash or questionable at the very least.

IIRC, someone a couple of months back got a quote for their Seibon rear wing to be re-laquered on their EP3 and it wasn't that bad. You're probably looking at about £50-£70 for a job like that and it'll look the dogs danglies when it's done. It's what I'd do and it's probably what Jesus would have done too.

 

[Shifty]

I must point out that the lacquer doesn't seem to have peeled on any edges etc, this probably means it's worth polishing first yes?

 

[EP3 Jonny]

If you do manage to get the shine back in it, get some Kleers Carbon UV gel, it should help prevent the clearcoat clouding again.

Polish it up mate but it will keep going back to that dull look without constant waxing and looking after etc.

Dont waste your money on that Kleers S**TE only for new carbon, so after youve got it lacquered by a pro then use the kleers Gel .

 

[HASNIC]

Polish it up mate but it will keep going back to that dull look without constant waxing and looking after etc.

Dont waste your money on that Kleers S**TE only for new carbon, so after youve got it lacquered by a pro then use the kleers Gel .

Hence i said if he gets the shine back in it, ie polished then give the gel ago, it's adds a UV protectant layer so stop the clearcoat clouding and fading again. If he can't get the shine back in it, then re-lacquering is an option IMO.

 

[EP3 Jonny]

Even if polished up Hasnic it will go back like it after first few weeks of sun. I asked Kleers at JAE 2010 and they said its for new carbon really . Just trying to help out and save the bloke £ 50 for a tiny bottle UV Coat.

Just keep it heavily waxed after youve got it back to shine and it will be fine !

 

[Shifty]

Polish, and wax to f*ck. Got it. Recommended wax for the purpose...?

 

[EP3 Jonny]

Something you can apply loads of lol my retailer recommended a wax called Viking something or other! Can't remember exactly but it worked the dogs mate my CF bonnet suffered this problem, had it polished by detailer and waxed the life off it but left in sun at a show and went back to dull and chalky ! So had it relacquered and kept on top of it, it never went again shifty .

 

[Shifty]

Well I spent 15 minutes polishing and waxing the two endcaps for the spoiler:

...One part-way through...

...And both finished, but not dusted off, they don't have all the little marks you see here (dust)

They've come out much better, but I'm not at all confident from what I've heard it'll last. Meguiar's polish of some sort, Nano-tech wax aka what I had in the house at midnight. The wax is spray-application, not entirely convinced it's a good wax, still it can hardly hurt... I still have the body of the blade to do, which I shall work on perhaps tomorrow. If it doesn't last I'll get it done properly... Unfortunate. At any rate, the two endcaps are now extremely smooth :lol:

Any more tips are ofc appreciated.

 

[SicklyPilot]

dust

Stoor.

 

[Shifty]

For the sake of testing, I'll leave the endcaps in sunlight for today and observe the damage.