Mooneggs wrote: Basically my carbon fiber hood looks like crap. I bought it in a group buy about 4 years ago, and last year it started fading or something. I'm no expert but I'm guessing it's UV damage of the clearcoat. When I wash it off it looks perfect when wet, but once it dries it goes back to that filmy look.
So I recently bought an RS from another mx3.com member. He bought the CF OEM style hood from cjthor. So, I'm the third owner of the hood. When I bought it, it looked more light grey than black, from all the oxidation. I decided to rescue the hood. Now the hood looks great -- deep, translucent and shiney-reflective. I really should have taken before and after pictures, but I didn't realize that there would be such a dramatic difference. If you do something like this, please take some before and after picturesto share.
This is going to sound like a Meguiar's commercial, but I'm just listing which products I used, I'm sure I could get as good results with Turtle Wax or Mother's products. Here's what I did :
1. First, I washed it with Meguiar's Deep Crystal Car Wash.
[If your hood is very bad, you may want to try wet sanding at this point. Use lots of water and 1500 and then 2000 grit paper wrapped around a flexible foam rubber backing board/sponge (I like the 3-M one the best). Use a gentle touch if you do this, you don't want to marr or dig too deep. I didn't need to do this.]
2. Not wanting to risk a buffer with a deep cleaner, I hand buffed for a long time using Meguiar's Mirror Glaze Heavy-cut Cleaner #4 (agressiveness rating 8 ). This did a good job of removing the oxidation. The the result was less than shiny, but it did a good job of cleaning.
3. I used a buffer with a coarse foam pad to buff with Meguiar's Mirror Glaze Fine-cut Cleaner #2 (agressiveness rating 5). I also used an electric toothbrush to clean around the washer nozzle (the car has just one) and hood pins. This is a bad idea. Don't do it -- it was a step backward.
4. I went back to hand buffing with heavy-cut in the areas I used the electric toothbrush (around the washer and pins). Then I hand buffed fine-cut cleaner in the same areas. Now the hood was deep, translucent and shiny, but I could see swirl marks.
6. Used a terry cloth bonnet on the buffer to apply Meguiar's Mirror Glaze Swirl Remover 2.0 #9 (aggressiveness 3). Then I hand buffed around the pins and nozzle again. Now the Carbon fiber was very shiny, deep and translucent. I was impressed. I thought I was done.
7. Just for curiosity sake, I used a soft cloth and hand buffed with Meguiar's Mirror Glaze Show Car Glaze #7. You won't believe this stuff. The darks of the carbon fiber got darker, and the lights got brighter, and the shine got shinier. It's almost as if I wiped on a coat or polarizer lense, for those of you who know how polarizers clear up a sunset for a photo. I was truely impressed and proud of my work. I didn't need to follow up with anything, else and didn't for a week or so.
8. About a week later I decided I would add a coat of Meguiar's QuikWax and QuikDetailer. I didn't notice much of a change in look, but it's been 3 more weeks now and I haven't noticed fading on the hood. I did notice some fading on the hatch visor, which I had previously done in the same manner, but had not waxed it.
Now, some of you will notice that I'm mixing levels of products -- Deep Crystal and Qwik are consumer level and Mirror Glaze is professional. I really don't know the performance differences of product lines, and I certainly didn't understand the differences when I was in the store trying to make sense of all the different products. I just decided to go with Meguiars. I'll probably use up my consumer level products then just buy professional products in the future because of how impressed I am with the Mirror Glaze line.
Also, I should talk about method. For hand buffing, I used clean cotton cloths, applying about as much pressure as I use to wash a window with glass cleaner and a paper towel. I kept rubbing the same area about 1/6th of the hood at a time until a haze developed. Then I would buff off the haze with a clean cotton cloth. I used 2 different cloths per level of cleaner/polish, one for applying/buffing and one for removing the haze. The Show Car Glaze does not leave a haze. In between each cleaning-of-the-haze and the next application of cleaner or polish, I buffed bare with a clean, soft, cotton cloth.
For machine buffing, I used a cheap Coleman 9" random orbit car buffer. I have since gone to a variable speed grinder-style buffer. I apply just enough pressure on the buffer to control it's movement and allow just the weight of the buffer to give pressure -- no pushing down. Again, working small areas at a time until a haze developes, then hand buffing the haze off.
Lastly, I try to detail carbon fiber or paint in the morning while it is still cool and slightly humid so that I can get a longer working time before the haze developes.
The end of the story is that I am now glad to show off my carbon fiber hood, and it looks great. It had been badly oxidized when i reveiced it. I suggest that you try something similar on your hood before you go spending more money on reappying a clear coat. Good luck!
Eric
