Goofy1477

iTrader: (11)

I have a Seibon hood that I just reciently purchased from a friend. It is faded over the engine part. I guess that is because of the engine heat, but I might be wrong. It also has a ton of water spots all over that won't come off, even with wax!

I wanted to know if anyone had any ideas on how to fix this hood and make it look like new again?

The only idea I have so far would be to WET-SAND the hood with 1500 gritt sand paper, then polish the hood with some sort of meguires polish. After that, to re-clear coat the hood.

robbinsj

iTrader: (29)

Take to a body shop and paint or reclear it. Only problem I see is the center and that could be under the clear koat if caused by heat from the bottom. If I where you I would Paint the hood and leave the vents in CF with a reclear.

mdracer76

iTrader: (1)

I don't think that siebons hoods are cleared .. its in the gel coat. I'll try to stop over and take a look at it..

Can you post higher resolution images?

pacheco310

iTrader: (22)

mdracer76 what do you mean gel coat? i was just having a similar dicussion with a coworker about seibon hoods.

DFW Z33

iTrader: (3)

Goofy1477

iTrader: (11)

The problem is I don't want to paint the hood.
I have a black Z, so the CF hood would look sweet with it. And eventually I might do the roof and trunk.

pacheco310

iTrader: (22)

theres going to be a point were your going to have to paint the hood. the hood looks pretty bad and imo i think its about that time, however i say sand it down and polish it and post results. or there is alway that other option, were you just sand it down to make it look like dry carbon. my buddy did it and it doesnt look bad at all.

Goofy1477

iTrader: (11)

Faq: Seibon Website

Q. How to judge the quality of carbon fiber products in general?
A. When comparing carbon fiber products, the 3 most important questions to ask are: 1)is the product made with one-piece carbon sheet, or multiple sheets put together; 2)is it gel-coat finish or clear coat finish, and 3) is the carbon sheet wrapped around the skeleton, or is it integrated into the mold? All of our products are made using one-piece carbon sheet, so you do not see broken lines and patterns. All of our products use clear coat finish. Clear coats are shiny and durable, and they give you the nice "wet" look as opposed to a duller look from gel coats. All of our carbon sheets are built into the mold, so they do not break and split like the ones where carbon is only wrapped around the skeleton.


http://www.seiboncarbon.com/faq.asp


Spoke to Seibon, they said its gel coated then clear coated.

tonester1011

iTrader: (67)

yea they finish it with a gelcoat, but i dont think any of their stuff is finished with a clear with any uv protector in it....that is y that hood looks like that...if it was cleared then that would not have happened....same thing happened on my last hood...my second one i had cleared when i bought it and 2 years later still perfect. and i havent even washed my car in months! if i were u i would try wetsanding with 600 and then work your way uo to 2000...then u could try to buff it...if the spots are still there than id say they are not coming out cuz they are too close to the surface of the actual cf cloth in the hood. good luck!! if the spots do come out then i would fix them and have the whole hood cleared by your body shop.

Risky_Business

iTrader: (4)

not looking good at all. You can attempt some of these repairs but you may just have to paint, save buying a new hood.

My Seibon TS is two years old and still looks pristine. Granted, I painted everything but the vents but never had an issue when first obtained or now.

It is a pretty decent product if taken care of properly.

Good luck.

RAGE

iTrader: (1)

getting it clear coated should do the trick

Jim@Showstoppers

iTrader: (157)

Upkeep is very important with carbon fiber and these are the chance you take purchashing a used piece. Get it sanded and recleared then make sure to was it twice a month.

Goofy1477

iTrader: (11)

Update:
So I was working outside this weekend on the hood.
I wetsanded it with 1500 grit sand paper, then did it with 2000 grit sand paper. Then I used a polishing compound and waxed it. I did an "OK" job. I need to re-sand it again with 2000 gritt sand paper and do the whole process again.

The problem was that I was doing this outside in 10 degree weather for 4 hours and it was cold!

It looks 10x better then it did before.

sektor 11

iTrader: (4)

this may or may not work BUT....
back in the day a friend of mine used NU-polish (orange bottle, i think thats the name of the stuff) on his faded SEIBON hood and it did great. not saying it'll work but worth shot.

Chebosto

iTrader: (43)

is it me, or does it look yellow? yellow is cuz whatever resin they used, they did not use a mix with UV protection/additive..

Nexx

iTrader: (41)

looks yellow to me too. time for paint or to sell to someone who wants to paint.

Jay'Z

iTrader: (118)

It still looks kinda horrible.. Id reclear it or get it repainted.....

pacheco310

iTrader: (22)

i did the same with my hood and it worked pretty damn good. i still have a few water spots though but ill be sanding it down just to see if i can restore the whole thing.

Goofy1477

iTrader: (11)

It does not have any yellow in it. Its the picture. Taken with a camera phone.


Like I said, I need to re-sand the hood with 2000 gritt sand paper again, then polish it.

You have to remember I was working in sub 20 degree weather. With the wind chill it felt like 0. I was frozen and so was the water on the hood. It kept freezing on me, even though I was using hot water. I am going to wait till it gets warmer and then re-sand and polish. See how it goes then. If I cant make it to my liking, I will end up selling the hood to somebody who will want to paint it.