graphite/carbon chassis restoration???

[PBR Allstar]

Wondering if anyone's had any luck or any experience with trying to make graphite chassis plates look good, I have an older chassis, that isn't gouged deeply but has a fair amount of surface scratches,, little too deep for polishing compound, but not deep enough for me to write off as a basher chassis. I was wondering if anyone has tried using fine sand paper or anything like to clean it up followed by polishing? I was thinking about laying some sand paper on a piece of granite plate that I have and giving it a try?

any ideas or feedback????

[scr8p]

what kind of chassis is it? something like a composite craft, or a woven associated chassis?

[PBR Allstar]

it's an older kranzel's chassis, it's a woven chassis, but it looks like really fine fiberglass.

[scr8p]

you can sand on a woven chassis pretty hard to get out scratches with out any issues, then just clear it.

the composite craft type, you need to be a little more careful. as you sand the layers off, you can see differences in color. you have to make sure to sand the entire piece evenly until the scratches are gone, then clear it.

[PBR Allstar]

thanks scr8p,
Any recomendations as far as what clear to use? I was planning on sanding on that piece of granite which is super flat to keep the thickness symeterical on the chassis and not wind up with any irregular areas.

[scr8p]

well, the stuff i use is dupont products from work, so that kind of stuff isn't accessible to everyone. i would try some type of satin/semi-gloss aerosol clear.

[PBR Allstar]

have you ever tried spraying or brushing on a thin layer of resin and sanding/polishing that?

[scr8p]

nope.................... but you can, then let me know how it works.

[Dr. Robotnik]

have you ever tried spraying or brushing on a thin layer of resin and sanding/polishing that?

I have thought that might be an idea before but never tried...

Hey how's it going scr8p?

[scr8p]

almost ed.

[highwayracer]

have you ever tried spraying or brushing on a thin layer of resin and sanding/polishing that?

I've tried that. It's a "hit or miss" process.

It looks really nice when done correctly, but it's very difficult to do without getting bubbles in the finish. When you first apply a layer, it may look good, but after a few minutes you may see tiny bubbles forming. You just have to let it dry completely and hope that the light sanding takes enough of the gloss off to hide the bubbles.

regards,
highwayracer

[Brandon G]

I used 400 grit followed by 800, then 1000. All wetsanding. Takes some time, but works well. If you have a chassis with more gouging in it you could probably hit it with 220 first, just make sure you remove all sanding marks with the 400.

Then used some 3m "perfect it" to bring out the shine. No need for clear. Polishing compound works too. It turned out way better than I thought it would, so I left it with no clear coat. Slick too. This was on an associated chassis. Worked on a losi chassis too, but the scratches were a little deeper in the Losi. Didn't want to sand too far down into it.

By the way, if you have 1:1 car plasitc taillights that are losing thier shine, the perfect it works on them too.

[PBR Allstar]

Okay, so I tried a couple things, none of which were really pic worthy. I think the chassis is going to be relegated to runner status. I'm pretty sure that since the chassis is a very small weave fiberglass that originally looks to have had black gelcoat on it rather than clear epoxy it's never going to look too good. I ended up just taking the gelcoat off (which I kinda thought was going to happen to get the scuffs out) and hitting it with some clear and polishing it. It doesn't look bad, just the combination of gel coat and fiberglass rather than clear epoxy and carbon doesn't make it as straight forward of a deal. I may go back and spray some black gelcoat on it and wet sand that in the future, but all I had in the cabinet was some white gelcoat.