| Author | Message | ||
     Beugs |
I have a full set of CF body panels for my x1. Someone had them painted. Is there a way, or someone, who can remove the paint without causing too much damage to the CF? I saw a company that does CF repairs on the web at one point but can't remember who it was. If anyone has info for me that would be great. Thanks | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Try using auto type thinners. Maybe the person used cheap paint. Paint stripper would also work but may be to agressive for the gel coat. The gelcoat will need to be polished out. Polishing will only work if the gelcoat is thick enough. You can try and always repaint if needed. | ||
| Al_lighton |
Are these the original 99 Buell CF parts? American Sport Bike parts? Other? If Buell, or American Sport Bike, or most other high quality CF, there is no gelcoat. It's prepreg, which means that the epoxy based resins are already impregnated in the cloth, already mixed with catalyst and held in a semi-cured B-stage at low temperatures until put into the mold. The whole mold is put into a vacuum bag, and then the whole bag put into an autoclave. Controlling the pressures and bleed ply techniques control the amount and thickness of the resin layer between the actual CF cloth and the smooth surface you'll see when the part comes out of the tool. Epoxy resins are amber in color. If you have too thick of a resin layer, the CF will be cloudy. If you have too thin a resin layer, the cloth "prints-out" into the visible surface and it isn't smooth and shiny. This can happen over time if the part is waxed often with abrasive cleaner waxes that strip away outer surface layers to restore gloss. Eventually, you just wear through the available gloss layer. But if you only use straight waxes, the gloss layer will stay intact for a long time. Epoxy resins aren't the most UV stable materials in the world. Proper protection using UV inhibiting wax coatings is a good idea. Some vendors clear coat the outer layers to achieve UV protection (and to reduce tooling costs, as a less "perfect" tooled surface can be used), but it can cause blistering problems, and adhesion over the long term, due to breakdown of the upper layers of the epoxy below, can be an issue. Unfortunately, when that happens, there isn't an easy way to fix it. If you sand it off, you WILL go into the fibers. If you strip it off, you need a chemical that will strip the paint but not attack the epoxy. Epoxy is tough stuff chemically, you can put gasoline and many other organic chemicals in it without it breaking down. But the chemicals required to attack and blister off the paint job are probably aggressive enough to do a number on the epoxy resins as well. It certainly depends on the paint type used. If lacquer based, it may work. But if it is a catalysted urethane or other two-part paint, I suspect anything that would strip it might do the CF much harm too. I'm hardly a chemist, and I don't even play one on TV. Bottom line: I don't have a good answer for you. If you find a chemical that strips the paint and leaves the CF epoxy resin surface untouched, I want to know about it. Al (Message edited by al_lighton on May 12, 2006) | ||
| Jimidan |
If you can get the paint off without doing to much damage to the epoxy resin surface, you will be able to clear coat it with Urethane to bring back the shine. I like using clear coat better than polishing the resin...plus it can help with the UVs. jimidan | ||
| Beugs |
Wow, sorry I've been gone so long. These parts all have buell part numbers on the back and the tank cover has the holes. I would guess they are the 99 parts but I can tell they're not the carbon/kevlar. I have not yet tried any strippers for fear of damaging the cf. I might have to just bite the bullet and risk the flyscreen. (I have a spare) |
