Chip repair on a Carbon Fiber Hood.

[hondastrtracr]

I own a 08 Civic Si. I have an OEM style VIS Carbon Fiber Hood. I recently had a rock hit it, luckily I had some protection (painters tape) on it while driving on some bad roads, so it could have been worse. Anyways it appears to be a shallow chip, I lightly wet sanded for about a couple of seconds with 2000 grit and it smoothed it out fairly well and has almost disappeared after and application of m105 by hand. My question is are VIS clear coated or just resin and how much more could I wet sand to completely remove the chip completely?

[corolla619]

Re: Chip repair on a Carbon Fiber Hood.

vis takes their clear and resin, then mixes, then sprays. really a bad deal being clear and resin is like oil and water, it seperates after time. what will happen, especially from that chip is cracking. the culprit is due to the 50/50 mixture of resin and clear. i wouldn't test your luck on too much wet sanding.

i too own a vis carbon fiber hood and vis carbon fiber trunk. my hood did what yours did. after about a year i had cracks that would grow due to different temperature changes. i actually just took off the vis hood and replaced it with a carbon creations carbon fiber hood.

in a nutshell, your on thin ice. what can be done?....take it and have it recleared. that should stop further damage. take this from someone who has already went through this.

or if your handy with a rattle can, get the chip the best you think is safe, then lightly spray the area with 2-3 coats, then wet sand and follow with a mild rubbing compound. it should turn out quite well and the process really can't be messed up.

[cosborne]

Re: Chip repair on a Carbon Fiber Hood.

Don't listen to this guy. He has no idea. I work for illstreet and we do carbon fiber fabrication as well as a lot of carbon fiber repair on vis hoods, carbon creations hoods, seibon hoods, etc. There's a good chance you bought your hood through one of our online stores.

vis takes their clear and resin, then mixes, then sprays. really a bad deal being clear and resin is like oil and water, it seperates after time. what will happen, especially from that chip is cracking. the culprit is due to the 50/50 mixture of resin and clear. i wouldn't test your luck on too much wet sanding.

ViS doesn't use clear coat much less mix clear and resin. That wouldn't even cure. NOBODY does that. ViS doesn't go around advertising the exact products used in the construction of the hood but I can tell you that it appears to be a gel coat sprayed into a mold, polyester resin applied on top, carbon on top of that and fiberglass as a core. There is NOT a clear coat.

i too own a vis carbon fiber hood and vis carbon fiber trunk. my hood did what yours did. after about a year i had cracks that would grow due to different temperature changes. i actually just took off the vis hood and replaced it with a carbon creations carbon fiber hood.

If you have a crack or chip in the gel coat, it can let moisture in and it will damage ANY carbon fiber or fiberglass part. Additionally, there is some expansion of composite parts with heat. Repair the damage as soon as you can and it will be as good as new.

Just to let you know, I know for a fact that Carbon Creations still uses at least one of the same manufacturers that ViS just dropped due to inferior parts coming out. The majority of the items betweem the two manufacturers are the same but I'd say ViS' quality is a bit higher due to better control of the manufacturers they use.

in a nutshell, your on thin ice. what can be done?....take it and have it recleared. that should stop further damage. take this from someone who has already went through this.
or if your handy with a rattle can, get the chip the best you think is safe, then lightly spray the area with 2-3 coats, then wet sand and follow with a mild rubbing compound. it should turn out quite well and the process really can't be messed up.

You're not on "thin ice". You can wet sand a good bit. Just be careful as you approach the actual carbon. If you sand into the carbon you'll have to have the hood gel coated (or cleared in a pinch). You can tell if you've hit carbon because the white sanding debris will turn gray. If you get down that far though, you'll notice a significant dent in the hood and you'd want to have some more gel coat sprayed on anyway.

Let me know if you have any other questions, I'll be glad to help.

[Andycampero]

Re: Chip repair on a Carbon Fiber Hood.

My vis carbon trunk turned white and I cleaned that but now half of it is yellow..what can I do??

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Chip repair on a Carbon Fiber Hood.

The white was most likely light oxidation of the gel coat, which you basically just buffed back to clear. The yellowing is a naturally occurring change to unprotected carbon fiber. The gel coat alone probably doesn't contain any UV blockers like a clear coat paint would so the UV is essentially oxidizing the carbon beneath the gel coat.

We shot these images of a Toyota NHRA Funny Car at the Long Beach GP recently and you can see the carbon fiber intake has yellowed:





You can bet this is not just a cheap piece of carbon fiber, either. The resin used to bind the carbon fiber material doesn't contain any UV blockers and a race team isn't going to bother with shooting a UV inhibiting clear coat over it, simply because they care more about weight (or the lack thereof) than they do appearance.

[cosborne]

Re: Chip repair on a Carbon Fiber Hood.

Like Michael said, the oxidation on the surface is usually caused by dirt, rain, etc. The Yellowing is UV damage. Most of the hoods on the market have very little for uv protection in the gel coat (if they even have a gel coat). You need to sand down through the resin until you get really close to the carbon, then build it back up with new resin and top it off with a gel coat that has some uv protection. Then make sure you always keep it waxed.