CF hood-Sun Deterioration

Hey guys, I've read many times that the sun can damage carbon fiber hoods if they are left unpainted. I was wondering how bad does it really effect it? I live in NY so its not like I would be in Cali or FL where its sunny all the time. Could someone fill me(and the rest of us cf wanters) about this? Possibly part as the FAQ?

Silverbolt :D Wanted to make sure he sees this hehehe

That's one of the reason they suggest you wax it with heavy duty boat wax like once a month.

Good thing you typed my name :D

Actually, the CF doesnt get dammaged, but its the clear coat/gell coat. What happends is the sun makes the clear coat fade and begin to change color. It usually fades to a greenish yellow tint. Some have special UV protectant coatings to prevent fading colors, but I dont know how effective it is. I'm sure its better than none at all. Mine doesnt have any and its not that bad. When you look at it, you probably wouldnt notice, but if you put it side by side with a new hood, you can see the discoloration. And some cheaply made hoods have a problem with fogging up. The heat seeps through the CF and fogs up the clear coat. I've heard of this, but havent actually seen this happen to any hoods. I think that was a problem when CF hoods were still a new thing on the streets. Hope this helps :)

Hey thanks a lot Silverbolt! I knew I could count on ya. I guess if it gets bad I can just paint the hood. So now that the gf is gone, whats new for the civ?

I can't seem to keep my hood that shiny black. I'll polish and wax it and it'll get all nice looking, then after it rains or something, it'll get that dull looking discoloration thats really noticeable. What do some of you suggest that I do? I dont wanna continue to polish and wax my hood after every raindrop.

Its dull because of the surface. You cover and smoothen out the surface with wax, but the wax isnt permant, you're only covering the flaws. What you have to do is to smoothen out the surface itself. I remember using something to really make mine shine like hell, but I cant seem to remember what it was. I know it wasnt any kind of wax. Also, I havent tried this cuz my hood never got that bad, but using a clay bar should work to. It will remove alot of the imperfections that are caused by daily abuse, such as insects, tree sap mist, exhaust, industrial fall out, rubber particals from other cars, hard water deposits, pollution, blah blah blah.. and will restore the surface back to its shiney surface. Once thats done, use a good deep polishing to condition and nourish the surface to make it look brand new. After that, seal it all up and protect it with a high grade wax... a UV protectant wax wouldnt be a bad idea.

any suggetions on a good uv protectant wax? meguires gold class?

i woudlnt know if this woudl work the way i think it would but..


when i used to detail i had special formulations of different wax's and polish's that i would mix to get what i thought was the best shine i had ever seen.

maybe if you got some high spf sunblock with all natural ingrediants and added it to your typical wax like mequirs gold class or zymoil. i mean hey its sunblock, be it for humans or hoods!! just make sure the stuff in it wont react to the hood. maybe try a small amount in a hidden place first.

another thing ive seen is a new polymer coating thats available and gets sprayed over the clear coat. it supposed to be stone and chip resistant. who knows, sounds like it would turn colors to me but who knows.

Silverbolt what if you were to put a dynamat hood shield on the cf hood from within the engine, question is will that help any with the fogging of the hood? I was looking into getting one but will prob. go the poly. way if I can avoid it.

Well CF hoods have evovled ALOT since they first hit the streets. If you have an old one from a few years ago, then its probably to late to do anything about it. If yours is fairly new, most likely, you wont have a problem. I havent seen any newer made hoods fog up. What you can do to help air out your engine bay is to remove the weather stripping that runs along the underside of the hood, right under the windshield. This way, the air will flow in from your front bumper, run along the top of the engine bay, and flow straight out the back of the hood. I've had cheap hoods and expensive hoods, it seems that fogging problems are a problem of the past. I wouldnt really worry too much.

Would 395 for a hood be too cheap?? Meaning, would the quality of the hood suck, due to the price?? It's a hood from Import Trenz. Any inputs?

Cant always assume a quality of a product by its price. All I can say is keep on doing your research on them untill you're confident of either buying it or finding another manufacturer. Some companies I prefer is Fiber Images (obviously) and VIS's hoods.

Originally posted by Silverbolt
Some companies I prefer is Fiber Images (obviously) Yeah, sorry but when you can roll your hood over with your car and not have any problems... THATS quality! The only problem is Fiber Images is a pain in the ass to get ahold of to become a dealer and ive heard of consumers having a problem getting ahold of them as well... but, the quality product the put out is simply amazing to say the least!

That's so true...i e-mailed them asking them if they would make me a custom hood for my CR-V...and they never repied....:mad: ...let alone calling them....do you think they'll do a custom hood though??

I dunno, I didnt have a problem talking to them. But then again, I think I got their personal numbers... dont ask me how, I dont even remember :) I Talked to the owners son, who runs most of the business, hes really cool. As far as custom hoods, they probably wont..... hmmm, actually, maybe. I'd contact them and offer to be their prototype if they ever decide to do that hood so that way you can get a hood done for free! But just to let you know, they're not that big, but have ALOT of demands. More than they can handle and thats why they're so busy. I tried to work out a sponsership with them, but they said they have their hands full.