Hi. I am working on the final stage of my first carbon fiber skinning project. I used all XRC products and carbon from easy composites and the process went smoothly. I did do some of the early sanding with a random orbital sander at 240 grit. I then wet sanded by hand using circular motions from 400 up to 3000. At that stage, the product looked really good, but had a dull, matte finish. I don't recall having any noticeable swirl marks at that time, but it is possible they just weren't visible.

Anyways, today I did the polishing. I did all polishing using pads that I also bought on easy composite and attached to my random orbital sander. I started with the NW1 super cutting compound ( black ), then used the TopFinish 2 ( black ), and then finished it off with the EasyGloss.

Below is the final result. As you can see, there are a lot of swirl marks. I'm not really sure how to proceed now. Should I just try a second round of polishing? Should I go all the way back to the sanding stage? Should I give it another coat of resin? Or should I spray it with some automotive clear coat? I have the clear coat and wouldn't mind doing that, but would that fill in the swirl marks? I don't want to spray it and then regret it.

What do you guys with experience recommend?

Thanks!

The NW1 will work on resin from 1200 grit upwards, but generally 1500 grit or finer makes it much easier to work.  NW1 is a diminishing abrasive so the more you work it the finer it gets so you need to work it for long enough to break it down finer. Also don't put too much on the pad as otherwise you break down some of it, then later introduce the coarse bits which scratch it up again!  But following it properly you should get a good gloss.

As mentioned, you may have gone through the grits too quickly.



Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant