Carbon fibre trimmy bit on rear screen.

[touching cloth]

I put up a post about a 10 months ago asking about what to do with my increasingly tatty rear windscreen carbon trim, well finally just managed to get around to doing something about it. Too the advice and have now successfully cleared off pretty much all of the remaining flaky lacquer but the next step was meant be to mask up and re-lacquer - However what actually happens to exposed CF if you don't re-lacquer it? I quite like the way it is now, kind of a satin matt finish to it which I prefer to the high gloss it was before. However will it just look crap after a while or should it survive ok?

[grahamn]

Hi TC

Did mine about a year ago & Re laquered it. Looks good although if you get to close you can see my in experience of spraying, even with spray cans. Didn't think about leaving it as is though, I wouldn't have thought it would do it any harm.

Graham

P.S. only 10 days to Xmas

[amazon]

Hi TC - I'm in a similar situation and like you, I rather like it matt, so have done no more about it. The rear screen trim has been matt since June when I bought the car. The strips down the side of the front screen are tatty and need the rest of the laquer taking off so that they match the back! Part of the deal when I bought the car was that it would be sorted out with new ones, but of course that didn't happen!

So, to cut through all the waffle, I don't know what happens if you leave CF exposed, but I would suspect that my rear screen edge has been like that for some considerable time before I got the car and it all looks fine!

[touching cloth]

Ecceelenti, will leave it exposed for the time being then. Better weather now anyway so not much can happen I guess. My door ones aren't too bad so will leave them for the moment, although it will probably bug me that they don't match now - to be honest with my lack of patience I suspect I would only make matters worse trying to do a decent job of spraying it, even my wife said she would do it rather than see me bugger it up - I'll tell her she is off the hook, till winter at least.

[jon h]

Typically, the sort of resins used to lay the carbon up are not very UV resistant (assuming they are the same as used in marine applications, my sphere of somewhat patchy expertise!) and will break down in time.

Personally, I would either use a matt laquer or use a gloss laquer and something like 800 grit wet & dry to finish, removing the gloss sheen.

Jon

[t8rus]

i took the lacquer off mine 4 years ago when i first got my cerb and it still looks good. and the cars left outside in all kinds of weather

[spartacus]

Actually the rear screen and door strips on my 96 cerb are just matt black, not sure if they are just GRP or is someone has sprayed them black. wouldn't mind set of carbon fibre ones but not sure if they can I can get hold of any?

Edited by spartacus on Monday 2nd April 18:36

[amazon]

spartacus said:

Actually the rear screen and door strips on my 96 cerb are just matt black, not sure if they are just GRP or is someone has sprayed them black. wouldn't mind set of carbon fibre ones but not sure if they can I can get hold of any?

Edited by spartacus on Monday 2nd April 18:36

Hmmm, I think this is one of the reasons why mine never got replaced as agreed by the garage, as they were not very easy to track down. Will keep my ears open though..

[alinton]

Some of the lacquer had peeled off mine, so I cut the whole thing off, peeled the rest off, rubbed it down with wet and dry then re-laquered it with aerosol clear laquer, gloss.

Looks great, and brings out the CF grain a treat. I havn't glued it back on yet, need to get a tube of Tigaseal, but its one of the little jobs on this week's list!

A.