Streamline Carbon - Lacquer or not?

[Tigger]

Apparently due to wear & tear the lacquer has started to peel & bubble on my CF mirror covers

To be fair they are on the car a right while now, rang Streamline anyway and spoke to Chris about how to freshen them up.
As helpful as he could be without seeing the mirrors, advised me to sand them back and re-lacquer or take it to a sprayer.

Asked a friend at local bodyshop today about doing them and told me that real carbon shouldn't need lacquer :S and sanding them back is going to ruin the carbon

Where the hell do you go from there?

 

[Simon@SprayShack]

You can re-lacquer them, sanding them back might be interesting as ALL the old lacquer will have to be sanded off, without killing the CF or damaging the weave, normally its quite thin aswell if its been applied over a standard part. Either way, if the old lacquer isnt completely removed......then its highly likely it will fail again in the near future.

How old are these things? are we talking several years? are they stone chipped?, it seems alot of the time this happens with CF, it might be poor prep, poor adhesion or a cheap lacquer. I believe they use 2k Lacquers, or ive heard the term gelcoat which i believe is some kind of clear epoxy. 2K lacquers for instance will definately not adher well, and you would definately want some kind of adhesion promotor........"gel coats" would be better i think, but i assume wont be absolutely clear if it is indeed epoxy.

As your friend says, CF doesnt have to be lacquered, its just for show to give it a shine..........

My thoughts more than a solution lol.........

Cheers,
Si @ SS

 

[Tigger]

Thanks for the words of wisdom Si;

Been on the car at least 18months (guessing)

Just for the record I'm not by any means slating Streamline's products - they're awesome!
In fact I'm trying to find a way of returning them to their former glory

By the looks of things it could be less hassle to fit the standard covers again and evaluate my carbon-fibre fetish

 

[James28]

Sand them down with a fine grade sandpaper and polish them back up rather than re-lacquering?