So my carbon fiber hood has some pretty decent dirt buildup and oxidation on it. Waxing one spot for about ten minutes showed promising results but will take quite a bit of time to do the whole hood. I've used a clay bar on a car's paint and was very happy with all of the contaminants that it took out.

My question: is a clay bar safe to use on carbon fiber? I want to get it looking new again. Any suggestions and information is greatly appreciated.

 

I've used claybars on CF Hoods before. They have a protective clear coating on top like a car's paint has. If you go to buff the hood make sure you don't burn through the protective layers.

 

You aren't really using the clay bar on carbon fiber, you're using it on the top clear coat, which should be fine -- that is unless you just have the factory gel coat and skipped the part where you were supposed to get the hood clear coated!

If you just have a gel coat on it, use Meguiar's #49 gel coat oxidation remover and be very careful with it. Comes in a blue bottle, might have to look around a bit for it, check boat places.

Most "carbon fiber" hoods have only a thin layer of the cf stuff on top of a fiberglass hood. Fiberglass is translucent, cf is opaque.

 

Thanks guys. The hood is clear coated and I'm not using a buffer so I doubt I will generate enough heat to hurt anything.

 

IF the hood is clear coated you can take care of it the same way as the rest of your painted panels.