I’m about to pick up a carbon fiber hood that has been painted and i’m wanting to take the paint off and bring back the cf look.

I asked around and some people said use 1500 grit then 2000 grit wet sanded then buff and polish it.

Others have told me to take 800 grit and reclear it. any ideas what would work better or any other ideas that are known to work?

Our Suggestion

The problem with your project is that by sanding the paint off will most likely do damage to the carbon fiber resins.

Another thing to consider is that the hood was probably painted because it was a second with visual problems so all of your work may lead to you finding abnormalities in the fiber mesh that are ugly.

However if you are really determined to try 800 grit would probably be your starting point for removing old paint.

Anything above that like a 1000 or 1500 is for finish sanding clear and will leave you scrubbing all day with not much to show for results.

But I would not go lower then 400 grit.. you are just going to have to tough this out with hours of sanding and you probably would be happier just buying a different hood or repainting this one.

You should wetsand the hood with a block to keep as much of the surface flat as you can.

If you do get into the carbon fiber resins clear won’t restore the structure and those hoods are pretty thin as it is so be careful and do it by hand.

In the end you will probably end up painting it like the previous owner and I do not suggest that you try a car wrap or some type of airbrush mask technique on the hood because it will look fake and will detract from the vehicle when you want to sell it.

In other words people will really question why there is a CF pattern on top of a CF Hood so just paint it to match the car or a flat black with flat clear.