Polishing carbonfibre?

[MikeO996]

Anyone know what best to use to polish up carbonfibre?

My nose cone is still nice and shiny on the sides but has gone rather flat on the top - not sure why, too much sun I guess.

Should I just use a standard polish and wax, or does it need something different?

[edb49]

Well the carbon has just got lacquer on it, so a fairly standard polish should work. Not my fault if anything screws up though.

[fergus]

edb49 said:

Well the carbon has just got lacquer on it, so a fairly standard polish should work. Not my fault if anything screws up though.

? pre-preg carbon doesn't have 'lacquer' on it, unless sprayed on after it's come out of the mould.

[MikeO996]

That's my worry - if it's gone flat does that mean that the lacquer has worn off and needs replacing before I can polish it? What happens if I polish bare carbon fibre?

[The Wookie]

Not sure if this is applicable, but the rear spoiler on Evo's tends to go a milky white because of a lack of UV resistant lacquer. As far as I'm aware, the usual way to get rid of it was to sand it down and relacquer it.

[V7SLR]

Try using black "colour magic" polish - I think it's from Turtle Wax. This offers a reasonable protection and tends to bring out the richness of the weave better than other polishes. And use gloves

Stu.

[1st_petrolhead]

I use Autoglym bumper care, the grean stuff. Brilliant for CF

[mickrick]

Carbon fibre is usualy laid up with epoxy resin.
Epoxy resin has no UV resistance. It's the UV that's made it go white, or lose it's shine.
The best way to get the shune back, and to give it some UV protection is to take it to your local friendly body shop man, and ask him to blow it over with a nice bit of two pack clear.

[mickrick]

Hi Dazm.
Interesting to know caterham have changed supplier in the last 5 years.
Good job too! I bought a brand new car in 2005, with full carbon pack, and the quality of the carbon was shocking!
I swore I'd never buy CC carbon again. So much so, that for the car I'm building now, I've gone to great expense to have everything made in alloy, even the CSR wings.
You say what you get now, is what comes out of the mould? So no UV protection then?
I use a lot of epoxy (I work in the private yaching industry), and we always have to use a good quality varnish over a clearcoat epoxy, to stop it breaking down in the sun.

[mickrick]

Is the Caterham stuff vac infused now then?

Cheers,
Mick.

[MikeO996]

dazm said:

Sorry to the OP for going off topic!

No - all very interesting and helpful.

I'll try and get a photo of the inside and email you - as a quick fix it sounds like the black polish is the way to go.

[MikeO996]

dazm said:

If there's anything else I can help with in regard to Caterham's carbon stuff send me an email.

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