Considering refinishing my CF Hood

Deranged

New Member
Right now my VIS carbon fiber hood looks like crap, its faded and has cracks all through the gel coat. I would love to replace it with a regular painted hood but dont really want to spend any money on it, so I was considering refinishing my current hood. I sanded a test spot and I had to sand through pretty much all the clear to get rid of the cracks. The problem is that he gel coat/clear (whatever it is) is real thick on my hood and I'm not sure if sanding through all of it will sacrifice structural integrity of the hood. Not to mention it will probably take me a week to sand the whole hood. So what should I do...leave my hood looking like s**t, or try and refinish it?
 

Shiznit

Stickin it to the Man
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definitely either refinish it or color match the top part of it. i imagine the bottom of the hood still looks pretty good.
 


Deranged

New Member
Well I committed and started sanding...its probably going to take me ten hours of sanding to get through all of it. Post pics when its done
 


dufflbagitagain

New Member
gotchya

Sanding drilling and removing anything from a carbon fiber or any composite structure will interfere with integrity but how much??? Also that thick clear "gel" is resin it protects the fiber material and is what makes the material from cloth to a solid. Its built in plys and also carbon loves to wick up water and that will make the material fail, possibly suddenly too. I'm not sure on the outcome of clear coats but dont remove too much of the plastic coat so that you dont run to the fibers, leave as much on as you can also if it looks bad with just clear rebuff and sand enough to maybe just repaint. Atleast it will still be a light hood and it wont oxidize the resin system as quickly. good luck post pictures.
 
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