Wondering if anyone's ever had any success with filling in scratches on a carbon fiber hood (or any carbon fiber item).

Here's what I got..



It's really only bad looking when the light hits it right..
I was thinking if I were to use a black marker over the cracks (let it seep) and then hit it with a rubbing compound to remove excess marker it would take away the 'glint' that makes it look so bad when the light hits it right.. But would probably still be noticeable if you whipped out a magnifying glass.

Any suggestions?
Ideas as to what causes this? Think it'll get worse.

 

Scratching by pointy objects causes that. Duh? wink1.gif

If you can find out what sort of plastic is used to make the part (epoxy, whatever) and apply a SMALL amount of it to the crack (like, with a rag), and sand it smooth, you might have a permanent repair and never be able to notice it. Or maybe wax could temporarily conceal it.

 

I don't know the origin of the scratch but from examining it (whisker shaped) it looks as if it orginated at a point and spider cracked outward.. I dunno what could've brushed up along side of it to create a scratch like that..

I'll try and see if I can find the original material the hood was made from (prob best bet)

 

looks more like a clearcoat/resin crack than a scratch.. if so, your pretty much screwed as far as i know lookswise..

the erebuni hood i had looked like CRAP after about 3-4 months. i had it re-cleared and it looked good as new until i sold it.

 

why the fvck do we all love Carbon, when its the biggest pain in the ass of all materials? And if we always run into the same damn problems with it, I would think by now somebody would formulate some stupid miracle "Make your CF look like new" product by now. I'm gonna walk every effin foot of SEMA looking for the panacea this year.

 

What did that involve? And how much.

If I purchase, I'm thinking of talking to a paint guy and getting the entire thing sprayed with a nice thick clearcoat to prevent the expected weathering that always seems to occur.. I think it will help keep that 'glossy' look longer if not indefinitely.

But before that, this crack would need to be somewhat hidden.

 

looks more like a flex crack to me. time for good hood pins and not use the hood latch.

 

Now that you mentioned it, yes it does. In the right spot too. Weird, for a brand new never installed hood.

 

Someone gave me an idea once for fixing the cracks in the resin, never tried it, but I'd love to see someone try it.

The DIY kits for epoxy/resin repair for windshields, with the suction cup/syringe injection, could work perfectly on them. I talked to Chris a LONG time ago about it, trying to get a small piece of finished CF that we could test it with.

BTW, my hood still looks pretty good, except for the small issues I caused, and the beginning of burn through from my GT headers.