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Carbon fiber is finished
Posted by
Adax
,
08-11-2013
·
3,458 views
As mentioned in a previous entry, I'm covering the interior plastics with carbon fiber. I had a bad batch of epoxy, I suspect, and many hours of work were lost. I had to put it away mentally for a while but got back at it a few weeks ago. There are several flaws but I'm happy with it in the end. No, I would not do it again, far too much time and the results are too unpredictable, at least at my skill level.
The final hurdle was polishing the parts. CF epoxy has pin-holes which fill with white sanding dust. I could get this out with acetone, or wet it with Vinylex but the finish was pretty dull even sanded to 1500. Clear coating was a problem as the pin-holes would cause fish-eyes. Polishing packed the pin-holes with white residue making them way too obvious. Today it dawned on me that if I had black polish I could get the pin-holes filled and vanished with a glossy finish. Mixing india ink with polish worked perfectly. India ink is made up of very small black particles rather than an organic dye so the holes get filled and the rest gets polished away.
Here are some pics, not much commentary needed at this point.
The final hurdle was polishing the parts. CF epoxy has pin-holes which fill with white sanding dust. I could get this out with acetone, or wet it with Vinylex but the finish was pretty dull even sanded to 1500. Clear coating was a problem as the pin-holes would cause fish-eyes. Polishing packed the pin-holes with white residue making them way too obvious. Today it dawned on me that if I had black polish I could get the pin-holes filled and vanished with a glossy finish. Mixing india ink with polish worked perfectly. India ink is made up of very small black particles rather than an organic dye so the holes get filled and the rest gets polished away.
Here are some pics, not much commentary needed at this point.
