Clear Coat on Carbon Fiber Spoiler

[nieves.e82]

The clear coat on my spoiler is starting to fade and peel, does anyone have any experience re clear coating carbon fiber! Thanks in advance!

[Thunderguts]

It's a fairly simple DIY job if your spoiler will come off the car easily (not Betalinked). You can get some reasonably good UV-resistant clearcoat in a rattle can (about $25). I have a decent amount of experience using rattle cans to paint models so I can get pretty good looking results. First you need to smooth/sand out the existing chips and then apply several clear coats. Once you're done, wet sand it with 2000 grit sandpaper and then use a cutting compound followed by polish. It sounds like a lot, but you could probably do something as small as a spoiler in about 2 hours.

The alternative is pay a shop $300 to prep and spray it for you. Seems like a waste to me.

[nieves.e82]

Originally Posted by Thunderguts

It's a fairly simple DIY job if your spoiler will come off the car easily (not Betalinked). You can get some reasonably good UV-resistant clearcoat in a rattle can (about $25). I have a decent amount of experience using rattle cans to paint models so I can get pretty good looking results. First you need to smooth/sand out the existing chips and then apply several clear coats. Once you're done, wet sand it with 2000 grit sandpaper and then use a cutting compound followed by polish. It sounds like a lot, but you could probably do something as small as a spoiler in about 2 hours.

The alternative is pay a shop $300 to prep and spray it for you. Seems like a waste to me.

The whole sanding process would be a wet sand? And what grits would you recommend for the beginning stages?

[Rmtt]

Originally Posted by nieves.e82

The whole sanding process would be a wet sand? And what grits would you recommend for the beginning stages?

Not Thunderguts, but I have started with 400 and 600 grits in the past to smooth out chips and such.

But this was when I was also painting so I wanted a surface for it to adhere to. Once the paint was on, then apply the clearcoat. You want light several layers, then you start the wet-sanding, cutting, and polish like he said.

I have done this numerous times on entire front bumpers with "road rash", and you couldn't even tell it had been redone....even with "Metallics".

Automotive Touch-up has a great line of products.

https://www.automotivetouchup.com/sp...clearcoat.aspx

If you want to be really picky, after you sand out the imperfections and cleaned everything off, use a "tack cloth" to wipe the spoiler down before you start laying your clearcoat.

[nieves.e82]

Originally Posted by Rmtt

Not Thunderguts, but I have started with 400 and 600 grits in the past to smooth out chips and such.

But this was when I was also painting so I wanted a surface for it to adhere to. Once the paint was on, then apply the clearcoat. You want light several layers, then you start the wet-sanding, cutting, and polish like he said.

I have done this numerous times on entire front bumpers with "road rash", and you couldn't even tell it had been redone....even with "Metallics".

Automotive Touch-up has a great line of products.

https://www.automotivetouchup.com/sp...clearcoat.aspx

If you want to be really picky, after you sand out the imperfections and cleaned everything off, use a "tack cloth" to wipe the spoiler down before you start laying your clearcoat.

Appreciate the feed back! I've used this same company before, how many cans would you recommend? And did you see different results using their clear coat vs a cheaper one?

[Rmtt]

Originally Posted by nieves.e82

Appreciate the feed back! I've used this same company before, how many cans would you recommend? And did you see different results using their clear coat vs a cheaper one?

I would think two cans would be plenty. I remember one entire front bumper respray that had 3-4 coats and it took less than 3 cans total.

I think they have the best clearcoat and other products out of the other touch-up companies. It works as good as the more expensive 2K clearcoat aerosol you may have seen on the market.