With the current evolution of car manufacturers moving towards an increased use of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (or CFRP) for increased structural rigidity, weight reduction and even aesthetics enhancement, this month’s detailing feature will delve briefly into the basics of caring for your carbon-fibre components.
A week ago, we were tasked with detailing two new supercars that have composite carbon fibre, aluminium and magnesium alloy body panels.
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| Carbon-fibre interior panels of the rare Lexus LFA. |
The first was the brand new Aston Martin Vanquish and the second, the ultra-rare Lexus LFA, one of 500 units worldwide I might add.
Both these exotics use cutting-edge manufacturing techniques to create bodywork panels that have intricate aerodynamic designs, typical of hyper-performance cars.
The interior panels represent an assortment of carbon fibre themed aesthetics alluding to the pinnacle of motorsports research and development, the Formula 1 race car.
Right tool
Because CFRP components react differently to mechanical polishing compared to aluminium and steel panels in terms of localised frictional heat distribution, it’s important to understand how dense is the epoxy top-coating on the carbon-fibre panel using CFRP diagnostics instrumentation.
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| Ultrasonic CFRP instrumentation. |
These specialist ultrasonic tools can be quite an investment.
We use our CF-thickness gauges prior to any corrective work at our detailing studio as they allow us to accurately understand the micron-thickness of the carbon-fibre topcoat that we would be working on.
CFRP panels do not have good thermal conductivity and a miscalculation in terms of pad pressure, rotary speed and abrasiveness of the polishing compound can result in topcoat failures and in some cases de-lamination.
In most cases, corrective or restoration of CFRP components should be left to the professionals.
Restoration
At AutoDetailer Studio, detailing is a subset of a much larger service offering within our speciality which is in automotive aesthetics restoration.
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| The engine bay of the Ferrari 430 Scuderia. A closer view of the damaged CFRP (below). |
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Working with supercars, especially Ferraris, over the years have brought about specific requirements, such as the restoration of non-structurally damaged CFRP panels.
Certain batches of the Ferrari 430 Scuderia had thermal-induced issues with the resin-binder of the CFRP panel within the engine bay which had discoloured to a milky-white opaque finish.
CFRP panels are essentially made out of densely woven carbon-fibre strands which have be carefully preserved so we blueprinted the thickness of the damaged CFRP topcoat.
That provided us the ability to abrade the topcoat safely without affecting the integrity of the carbon fibre weave.
Do note that the topcoat of carbon fibre panels tend to vary with different manufacturers.
Once that was completed over the period of a week, the panels were then recoated with the appropriate resin to restore the protective layer.
A detailing regiment was assigned to the CFRP panels which included a combination of compounding and polishing to achieve a high-level of gloss. This was in turn completed by preserving the CFRP topcoat with one of our hydrophobic heat resistant coatings.
The end product
Back to the original factory-finish. Hope you enjoyed the article!
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| The restored CFRP panels of the 430 Scuderia. The car is now as good as new (below). |
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