I have a carbon r1 can on my car. The carbon sleeve shows a few signs of wear and fading where the strap sits. Can this be refinished in any way? ie a rub down and 're lacquer or will I have to live with it? a couple of companies I've found that sell them but not big enough.


Description

I got my scratched carbon dash nice and shiny by spraying clear paint laquer over it. It didnt have deep scratches, loked like it had been sanded with 800 grit paper

Description
Kinda before and after


[Edited on 14/4/13 by blakep82]

Looks like it could be UV fading. There is a good chance that it was made using Epoxy resin which has no inbuilt UV protection.
You may get away with a flat with 1200's and a polish. (but it will happen again) Or flat it with 400's and apply a 2k Clear Coat. Just be careful when you are wet sanding, if the water begins to turn black STOP as you have sanded into the Carbon and there is no going back from there.

cheers for the replies, i would definitly say its UV fading looking at it. I will have a go at wet flatting it back and give it a quick splash of lacquer. I have a spare one in equal condition if it all goes pete tong.

You could also re wrap it in a single layer of carbon

How would i go about that?

Send it to me Ha Ha. You can get a "skinning" kit from easy composites. Gets you small amounts of resin, cloth etc to do the job but the process can get a bit messy.
A flat and good clear coat is probably your best / easiest option. 2K is the best product to use but due to H&S issues probably best to give it to your local body shop. And that way they can bake it for you as well.

Just be aware of the temperature requirements of any system you use - the zorst runs pretty darn hot, so any system you use needs to be capable of withstanding those temperatures.

The R1 cansdont seem to like running hot - mine did exactly the same. It seems to be heat issue rather than a UV issue, otherwise it would hav edone the sam eon the bike previously. My turned like yours and then eventually the resin broke down entrely and the wrap started to lift - I personally dont think this is just UV, and hence clear coating may not give you the finish you want for for very long.

Good point but it doesn't seem to have happened under where the mounting strap is? Do the cans run hotter on a car than they do on a bike? Is that if its a car engine with a bike can fitted? or even if its a bike engine? There are High Temp Epoxy resins on the market (I use it for engine bay parts) but it has to be cured at a temperature above that to which the part will be exposed and it's bloody expensive.

[Edited on 15/4/13 by Carbonman]

On my car it (bike engine) was definately running hotter than the bike would have done, as my mixture was leaner (in cruise) than the original bike map. I am also baffled as to why the strap would make a difference, but that argument works for both UV as a cause, and excess heat - if it were UV, why would it not have done so on the bike, where it is just as exposed to sunlight...?

Could the metallic parts be acting as heat sink, and helping to locally dissiapte the heat, therefore reduce the effect if it were heat causing the change?

Either way, rubbing down to key up the surface, and then lacquering with a PU based system ideally, should make it look better again - for a while at least! The thicker the clear coat you apply, the longer your parts will remain looking good, as the more UV you will block/reflect.