slipnotovk

some ******** at a waterpark decided the hood of my car was a good place to have a picnic. no joke, there were rings from cans and sticky **** and fingerprints all over the hood. AND some niiiiiiice scratch marks. now im hoping the scratch marks can be taken out with some good ol' buffing. they just seem to look like long white hairs (car is black btw). an example of how minor the scratches are would be, if you took a full cardboard box of stuff, put it on the hood, and dragged it across about a foot.

is it possible to take these scratches out? and if so, how. this is my first new car and my others were POS's so i didnt care enough to wax them or anything so im new to all of this.

now, my original question was this. if i were to buy a carbon fiber hood, instead of having the car looking all riced out with the black carbon fiber, can the hood be painted? again, im new to all of this so bear with me.

thank


POST EDITED FOR SWEARING

AnotherMustangMan

Yeah, CF can be painted.

AnotherMustangMan

Btw, how did you get ***** past the language filters? I commend you...


EDITED..

AnotherMustangMan

Whoa, I did too! I may have to test the new profanity bounds...****it.

Scott

Yes a carbon fiber hood can be painted, just prep it like you would any other material before painting. I have worked with advanced composites for several years now, and have personally painted many carbon fiber parts ( look at the Airforce's newest aircraft the F22, the skin is mostly graphite epoxy, ie carbon fiber).
As for the scratches, depending on how bad they are is how you can remove them. As long as they didn't scratch through the clear coat, it can be fixed without re-painting. You can try a clay bar to see it that removes the scratches and then a good wax job, most likely will remove most of the scatch. If it is deeper, then I would suggest buffing it out with the various stages of buffing compound and a rotary buffer. If you have never used one, either practice on something that doesn't matter, or find someone that knows what they are doing. It is very easy to burn through the clear coat and paint with one of these. Also, in untrained hands, you could make the problem worse with swirl marks, etc.

gyttiup

Scott,

It sounds like you have some experience working with carbon fiber. I am thinking about getting a carbon fiber hood from Seibold for my '05 GT and painting it to match the car. Do you know anything about Seibold's products? Can you tell me the difference between dry CF and wet CF? Seibold says their products are all wet CF.

I would be greatful for any information you can provide, as I know nothing about CF.

Thanks.

Alan

Scott

I just looked at thier webpage, and it looks like they make a quality product.
Wet layup vs. Dry layup...
Wet layup starts with dry cloth and the person laying up the part adds the resin in the mold. It uses more resin, hence more weight, and is also prone to more visual defects, ie the weave of the cloth might skew off to the side or small air bubbles. Structurally, wet is not as strong as dry, but for car parts it is still more than structurally sound enough. For complex shapes, wet is somewhat easier to use than dry, as it will lay down better in one piece. This method will also cure at room temperature depending on the resin used, can also be heated in an oven to cure faster.
Dry layup uses cloth that is preimpegnated with resin that is still somewhat sticky, but mostly dry. You have to heat the fabric to higher temeratures to cure (typical that I have worked with is about 250 deg. F). It is stiffer to work with than wet and doesn't stretch as much, so you end up cuting, splicing and darting the ply to get the shape you want. Dry uses less resin, but done properly, not much less resin than wet.
If I were to make car parts, I would use wet layup. Most people like the look of carbon fiber and don't want to paint it. With wet layup, you can get a better bare appearance by using a single, soild ply on the outside, also wet is a lot chaeper.
Hope that helps, I tried not to get to technical.
I say, if Seibold has a design that you like, buy it.

gyttiup

I'm sorry Scott, I just noticed I misspelled the name of the company. It's Seibon, not Seibold. Thank you very much for your response. Your information was very helpful and informative.

Alan

slipnotovk

thanks for the help guys. i just waxed her up and got most of the scratches out. when i get back from vegas (next month) ill probably bring it to a professional to take care of the rest but for now it doesnt look bad at all. only when you look from certain angles in perfect light does anything show up. but still, i want it perfect again. even if noone else can notice it, i can, and that makes all the difference in the world.

thanks again for all the help