Painting Carbon Panels

[RF_Racer]

How many coats of primer/paint and clear coat have people used when panels have been taken back to bare carbon? We did a test on one of the panels using 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of pain and 2 coats of lacquer but the weave is showing through.. Any ideas?

[JohnMiller]

Surely the point of going back to carbon is to keep weight down. Difficult to see the point of then adding six coats!

[RF_Racer]

Originally Posted by JohnMiller

Surely the point of going back to carbon is to keep weight down. Difficult to see the point of then adding six coats!

True, but I had about 8 layers of paint and filler etc that people kept on adding each time and several colours. How many coats do you use on your cars?

[JohnMiller]

None. Only vinyl.

[andrewc]

Are you flatting between coats, especially primers?

[tristancliffe]

One primer coat. One (maybe two) top coats. No lacquer.
Or vinyl.

You want to see the carbon weave showing through. Unless you are planning on entering Concours d'Elegance

[Serge]

If you don't want the weave to show through, you should use something like duratec surface primer or any other spray filler (duratec is lighter). It will add weight, but this is how you prevent the weave from showing through on fibreglass cars, so I suspect it will also work on carbon panels.

[Alfie72]

I am no painter, but - the preparation and rubbing back is key (Excuse the pun).

I once had a nose cone from a Mazda painted by one shop and they added nearly 6kg in weight.

I was then introduced to someone near Wheatley, Oxford, who was introduced as the person who painted Williams' body panels. Sorry his name has got lost in the fog of time.

He did a superb job, the result was times better and it only added 1.5kg

You pays your money........