Painting Carbon Fibre

[Charlieboy]

Morning all,

I was just wondering if it would be possible to paint (genuine)carbon fibre, like a bonnet??

Thanks in advance.

Mark

 

[cat171]

I've seen it done before (this was a bonnet too) no idea on what paint you'd need though.

 

[Charlieboy]

I was going to take it to a bodyshop that I know close to where I live.

 

[jamesp24]

Yep its possible.

 

[Charlieboy]

How good is it? Can you se the carbon fibre pattern through the paint?

 

[Fred@BTM]

primer and paint, nowt special

 

[Charlieboy]

fred - so you wont be able to see any of the carbon fibre pattern through the paint when painted?

Have you seen one done??

 

[Fred@BTM]

the ONLY way you'll see the weave is if its proper pre preg auto-claved carbon

if its an aftermarket part from a boy racer company you have 0 chance, it may even look worse than OE as some of the stuff i've seen is made by stevie wonder

 

[Charlieboy]

Well I'm actually getting a k tec carbon fibre vented bonnet, have you seen the quality of them in the flesh as I haven't?

 

[Fred@BTM]

yep i have, without being harsh, they're not prepreg they're wet lay (ie made on a budget to look good)

they're a "look good item", if it was a proper motorsport spec prepreg laminated part it'd be over £2k for a bonnet alone ( and thats being conservative on the price)

 

[Charlieboy]

So you don't think much to the quality of the bonnet then Fred??

 

[Fred@BTM]

they're ok as a "look good item", but i've been envolved in motorsport composite manufacture for around 2 years now so have become uber anal about composite quality, its by no way a motorsport spec part, but then it isn't sold as that, its simply sold as a "carbon fibre bonnet" which it is

 

[Charlieboy]

They say they are around 8Kgs lighter, can you see this to be true? Also what you think about the fitment?

 

[Fred@BTM]

i think thats a bit of a fib, IIRC standard bonnet is 11kg, CF is around 7kg (it was many years ago me and dave kirk of k-tec weighed them, i do know it was exactly 4kg difference)

 

[Charlieboy]

Ok Cheers mate

 

[Fred@BTM]

fit is good (mine was a procomp one, very very high quality, procomp went bust years back unfortunately, now made in far east i believe) bit of cocking about, but it is a french car