Ok. so i have a carbon hood that is oxidized pretty bad. ive asked Gravana Jim and someone else what i should do to refinish it so i can clear it. Jim told me sand with 1500 and clear it. i was told by someone else that i need to 400 then 600 it and then clear it. bothe grit papers will work just fine BUT nobody told me how far i should sand. shoudl i sand till its dull. or should i sand till i cant find any oxidization. im just looking for any and all help and info i can find. ill be spraying my hood with an HVLP also.
No coarser than 1200 , 1500 is good too. if you use 4 or 600 those scratches will show when the clear dries.
Sand it till its not shiney or in your case with the oxidation, remove the oxidation. Clear wont stick to a shiney surface unless you get a chemical bond which you wont be able to do. Your working on a mechanical bond here so you have so scratch it up a bit.
Dont get too carried away though. A quick check with some fresh water on it will simulate a coat of clear, that will tell you if your doing ok.
Deep gouges will shrink up after the clear dries and will have to be cleared, sanded again and cleared again to remove them.
Dont try to pound the clear to that gouge to fill it, it wont work like that. It will just make it deeper believe it or not.
To prevent clearing and sanding and clearing to remove gouges.......The best way in your case is to get some clear mixed up, take a razor blade and load a drop or 2 on it, deposit it on the gouge, take the blade and drag it over the gouge to force the clear into it. after you fill it, let it set up, over night if possible. Then sand that spot level and the rest of the hood for full clearing.
01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e
I re read your post, the gun makes no difference on the finished product on a hood. The preparation and product is what makes the final job.
If you have a hard time seeing your sanding progress with water, use wax and grease remover, it dries slower and will be closer to a coat of clear than water.
01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e
i've got some crack/deep scratch issues with mine..
listening..
joe malechowski wrote:No coarser than 1200 , 1500 is good too. if you use 4 or 600 those scratches will show when the clear dries.
Sand it till its not shiney or in your case with the oxidation, remove the oxidation. Clear wont stick to a shiney surface unless you get a chemical bond which you wont be able to do. Your working on a mechanical bond here so you have so scratch it up a bit.
Dont get too carried away though. A quick check with some fresh water on it will simulate a coat of clear, that will tell you if your doing ok.
Deep gouges will shrink up after the clear dries and will have to be cleared, sanded again and cleared again to remove them.
Dont try to pound the clear to that gouge to fill it, it wont work like that. It will just make it deeper believe it or not.
To prevent clearing and sanding and clearing to remove gouges.......The best way in your case is to get some clear mixed up, take a razor blade and load a drop or 2 on it, deposit it on the gouge, take the blade and drag it over the gouge to force the clear into it. after you fill it, let it set up, over night if possible. Then sand that spot level and the rest of the hood for full clearing.
talk about a helpful hand!!
I'm back from the dead.
Currently Driving: RSX Type-S.
My Cavalier Burnt up :-(
i realize that the gun makes no diff. lol. i just kinda threw that out there. and ive got no scratches or pitting. so im just gonna sand with 1500 till i get the oxidization out. then ill clear it.
wet sand.... the ox is in your clearcoat wet sanding will take it back to almost brand new... worked on my hood
im working with gelcoat tho. no clearcoat yet. monday or tuesday it will be for sure. so. weel see what happens.
Wojo wrote:im working with gelcoat tho. no clearcoat yet. monday or tuesday it will be for sure. so. weel see what happens.
Before reclearing, take the worst spot on the hood and wet sand with 2000. Then buff it out with a compound. If it works do the rest of the hood and you won't have to clear it. Unless you want to prevent it from happening again then you can clear it no matter what and you can skip my advice lol.
joe malechowski wrote:No coarser than 1200 , 1500 is good too. if you use 4 or 600 those scratches will show when the clear dries.
Sand it till its not shiney or in your case with the oxidation, remove the oxidation. Clear wont stick to a shiney surface unless you get a chemical bond which you wont be able to do. Your working on a mechanical bond here so you have so scratch it up a bit.
Dont get too carried away though. A quick check with some fresh water on it will simulate a coat of clear, that will tell you if your doing ok.
Deep gouges will shrink up after the clear dries and will have to be cleared, sanded again and cleared again to remove them.
Dont try to pound the clear to that gouge to fill it, it wont work like that. It will just make it deeper believe it or not.
To prevent clearing and sanding and clearing to remove gouges.......The best way in your case is to get some clear mixed up, take a razor blade and load a drop or 2 on it, deposit it on the gouge, take the blade and drag it over the gouge to force the clear into it. after you fill it, let it set up, over night if possible. Then sand that spot level and the rest of the hood for full clearing.
Good information. You can use 1,000 grit when prepping for a clear coat, but like said above anything coarser than 600 will leave visable scratches. My hood is in need of a good clear coat as well, just haven't had the time to do it lately.
If you can see the oxidation when testing it with water or wax and grease remover, you gotta sand it all off.
I dont know the quality of your hood originally , but if it was a cheaper price then sand cautiously so you dont sand down through to the fibers.
I dont know about sanding and buffing it, That may work temporarily. You have to remember that the more you sand the thinner the get coat gets, and when you buff it , if that works, will also removes gel.
If you have everything to clear it, go for it. Sounds like the hood is in pretty good shape, just needs refinished.
Go for the extra step, you wont regret it.
When your all done spraying it, (follow mfg product info for the clear) you can wet sand the dirt and flaws out with he same 1500 grit and buff to a mirror finish. Higher grits can be uset in ease of buffing like 2000 up to 5000 . Make sure you know your clear, know if you can sand and buff it and how long after that you can do it. Some clears will give you a big window to buff and others the next day and that it. So if your not sanding and buffing it afterwards, dont expect to do it later in the week or month, the end result will be a finish that will be severely scratched and too hard to buff out.
Buffing tips with a high speed buffer
When buffing dont buff into the edge of the panel, always while spinning the buffing pad,run the rotation from the center of the panel to the edge, this will prevent you from catching the edge and burning off the clear. Its hard to explain, catch the edge once and you will know what i mean.
Let me try to explain it this way, standing at the driver side of the hood, high speed buffer in hand, touch just the right side of the buffing pad on the hood,(never the left side of the pad in this example)
While buffing the edge or joining panels(hood meets the fender) Your going to take that same rt side of the buffing pad and run it with the edges, example: standing in front of the hood, use the right side of the pad on the joint to buff.
Also very effective is to just use the tip of the pad on each edge
I just used the rt side of the pad as an example so it is easier to explain. When you become more comfortable with the buffer you can use the left and top and bottom. Only use the entire pad surface where you know there is no edge. still at that , the 4 areas of the buffer are more used than the full pad. It cuts faster when using a smaller part of the pad.
Make note to cut back on the speed when buffing edges. Every one says not to mess with the edges, dont sand them and dont buff them, now how are you going to get a good job when you have a picture frame of flaws around each panel
01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e
heres my situation to go along with wojos issues..
those are kinda big
these are what i've got goin on, would i sand it all down first, then do like was said with the clear in the deeper cracks / scratches?
I'm looking to do this as soon as i get the hood off and have time to work on it, so its no rush
Yeah i am going through wyotech and will have plenty of help once i clear the hood. im not worried at all. and yeah. my hood is in excelent shape. i got it for 175 bucks cause the last owner dont want to deal with it anymore. i wetsanded and buffed a couple times now. looks good for about a week then fades back out again and looks like @!#$. i figur this is a good way to take care of it the right way. its gonna only cost me 26 bucks so i figured why the hell not. thanks for ALL the help with this. this is way more than i was expecting. thanks again.
Im assuming that those are just scratches. and yes you would fill them with clear first, If they are down to the fiber you will still be able to see the scratch when your done. Since they are pretty deep I would suggest to fill them twice, a little at a time. before you put a second coat on the next day, scuff up the scratch filled area with a fine scotch brite or some comet and a tooth brush. If you use comet, make sure that you dont leave any residue on it before re filling.
It doesnt matter, you can just fill them first then sand the whole hood when you sand the filled scratches. Make sure that you have no wax in the scratches, no anything but the hood surface. once you put clear in it its perminant.
Make sure when your all done filling that the scratch is the same height as the hood surface, dont think it will fill in the rest of the way when you clear it cause it wont.
01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e
the easiest way to maintain your luster on a carbon fiber product that is out in the weather and sun constantly is to simply wax it regularly. im not talking a quick detailer here, im saying an actual WAX that you have to buff by hand.
now im not saying this is a miracle fix, but it most definitely slows down the oxidation/fading process and in a lot of cases prevents it entirely.
it just goes with buying a carbon product and using it in these ways, you've got to keep up with the maintenance.
