Carbon fiber lifetime?

[ft86me]

i have to second the fitment issue of cf components. as awesome as my seibon carbon rear delete was, there were some modifications with files in order to make the holes wider since they were ...off..pretty off..haha but you can't tell because the bottom portion covers that part up well. in terms of hoods, i'm pretty damn sure our hood is just as light and i also second the vented deal. ok i'm done haha.

[Hawk77FT]

Originally Posted by SubieNate

I'd be curious to know what the additive is. My guess would be some sort of nano-scale ceramic filler that either completely absorbs or completely reflects UV so that it never gets to the epoxy. Something like what they put in the 3M Crystalline tint films.

Nathan

The better the quality of the clear coat the less likely to yellow. Most nowadays cars have a good UV stable clearcoat and paint.
Any resin whether epoxy PE or VE will yellow at some point in time if it is exposed to the elements. Now, there are few good ones with very good UV additives added, so that coupled with a really good clearcoat should protect the CF very well.
The clearcoat used by top car manufacturers is really, really up there! None of the things you and I have mentioned, is used by the CF aftermarket manufacturers mainly because of the costs. The market is quite competitive so they need to keep the costs down to compete with lower quality products in the market, therefore they need to cut certain corners. There are some good quality stuff out there but it costs quite a lot and sometimes not even worth the effort.

[Carlitoz3]

Does anyone know if dry carbon also eventually turns yellow as well?

[SubieNate]

Originally Posted by Carlitoz3

Does anyone know if dry carbon also eventually turns yellow as well?

Dry carbon has resin in it just like "wet carbon", the only difference is which stage of the process that resin is added to the cloth and how well controlled the fiber:resin ratio is. Depending on how the wet layup is done, the "dry" part could have additional vacuum/autoclave curing steps but these days it's hugely common to use vacuum bagging even on wet layup parts.

So short answer, yes. If they use a resin system that can fail due to UV and a cheap clear, it will yellow.

Cheers
Nathan

[SMOKETREES]

Originally Posted by DeeezNuuuts83

It depends on what you're doing. But yes, there are advantages... slightly quicker acceleration, slightly better fuel economy, etc. But all of the advantages (and disadvantages) will be relatively small overall. So your experience likely won't be changed drastically with these kinds of changes. But if you lose weight in the right area (like when some people lighten up the load up front with a smaller battery), then that will help in multiple ways.


Do you know how much it costs to re-clear carbon fiber? I was thinking about doing that to my Evo's carbon fiber trunk at some point.

Hey sorry for the late response but the paint shop I went too quoted me about 200$. I'll probably pay a little more than that due to me saying to them to add another coat but most of the cost is prep work and what not.

Sent from my HTC One

[NYCsubaruBRZ]

Originally Posted by SMOKETREES

i have the Seibon hood and love it. I wax it pretty much 3-4 times a week just to keep it fresh but will be taking it back to get re-cleared in about 8-9 months. It comes cleared already but i would like def a thicker coat and most clear coats now in days have UV Protection in them blended already.....

looks nice. i have the same hood. any flaws with the weave or finish? mine had a few waves

[Xxdragn89xX]

Random question that I cant seem to find. Is that center piece functional or just for looks? I can see from other pics the side ones are obviously.