Carbon Fibre Care

[keecho]

Hi, just wondering how people care for their carbon fibre parts. my bonnet and grille are both carbon fibre. they looked milky and chalky when i purchased the car, with a little cut polish, they came up an absolute treat.

About three days later (in the garage) they have started to become milky again. what sort of polish or sealers do you guys use?

[Noy]

You need to determine if the parts are finished in clear 2 pak, acrylic or gelcoat...

All 3 would need to be treated differently.

If you have purchased cheap china knock off parts they will be clear gelcoat, pretty much no way of stopping the milky finish. Due to the fact the clear gelcoats used have no uv protection, you can polish them and get them clear coated but uv will still penitrate and cause the gelcoat to go milky.

Only way of stopping this is keep your car out of uv light... or paint the carbon parts the same colour as your car.

Just get used to polishing the parts to keep them looking good.

sorry for the bad news.

[immacreflections]

You need to determine if the parts are finished in clear 2 pak, acrylic or gelcoat...

All 3 would need to be treated differently.

If you have purchased cheap china knock off parts they will be clear gelcoat, pretty much no way of stopping the milky finish. Due to the fact the clear gelcoats used have no uv protection, you can polish them and get them clear coated but uv will still penitrate and cause the gelcoat to go milky.

Only way of stopping this is keep your car out of uv light... or paint the carbon parts the same colour as your car.

Just get used to polishing the parts to keep them looking good.

sorry for the bad news.

Not True.

You can use a sealant such as cquartz or jetseal 109 which will help greatly!

Waxes and sealants are made TO PROTECT against UV damage and other damage and carbon fibre is no different in that sense. once you polish the CF use a couple of coats of a sealant or a coat of a ceramic sealant like cquartz and you will have no issues.

Its is the same with headlights people get these "kits" that have heavy sand paper and scratch the light to much, headlights from factory have a Uv protection layer on them, all the 800 grit sandpaper does is remove all of this straight away and leave it more vulnerable to future discolouration in future UNLESS you use a sealant reguarly or a ceramic sealant as mentioned above.

[Noy]

Key words there are greatly help..

There is a huge range of aerospace coatings that will help too. The problem is there is no permanent solution.

I could rattle on about why but hardly anyone would understand.

Best solution would be to paint the carbon parts with a suitable product that will be stable to the TG of the resin/gelcoat used.

To give you the simple understanding if your resin or gelcoat TG is 110 degrees C and you have left the carbon finish in direct sunlight, your nice pretty clear coated carbon part will easily reach 140 degrees C

So even if you think your nice UV wax or sealant has saved you it hasn't, your part can start to soften and start to break down.

Moral of the story, if your car is a dark colour your stuffed either way. If your car is white/silver or a much lighter colour, paint your carbon parts.

Or purchase some cquartz or jetseal 109 and get use to regular maintenance.