Refinishing carbon fibre

I'v been looking at carbon forks and while theres plenty available cheaply on ebay they are quite often minging colours or have decals lacquered on.
Anyone out there know how feasible it is to remove the paint/lacquer/decals etc and take a fork back to bare carbon then lacquer it again?

i had been looking into this myself

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=painting+carbon+fiber+forks

the effort to even mask the url

!

Very fine wet and dry. Be very careful with your choice of lacquer, some will react badly to the resin holding the forks together.

You spelled fibre incorrectly DJ.. :P

but that is how yanks spell it, so it pulls up a lot of hits

Full of yank information. Huck too! A pox on them and their spelling.

what about some carbon vinyl stickers to cover up the logos? prob a lot less hassle and only noticeable up close

I have my eyes on a carbon frame on Ebay it is part painted what is the best solution to strpping it, would nitromors dull the carbon any help would be great.

probably best to sand/wet and dry it, then re-laquer
nitromors could soak past the paint into the weave/resin

Shot blasting is the only way

ha, with gravel

I wouldn't put solvents or cleaning soultions anywhere near carbon.

Sand blasting or fine sand paper and shit loads of elbow grease.

Might take a while to get past paint especially if it's been undercoated!

Very fine wet and dry. Be very careful with your choice of lacquer, some will react badly to the resin holding the forks together.

getting it off should be clear to any half way same diy person (not me, mind) but i feeel veeery nervous about the 'right' kind of paint for the finish.

not like metal, when one fucks up, sand it, redo it - nope! you fuck up the chemistry on carbon parts and you're in the market for a replacement.

what goes and what is to be avoided in terms of chemistry, the primers, acryl, enamels ...
anyone has a hands on working solution?

Reen

my link probably addresses your concerns

I've only repaired carbon kayaks and used Gel coat. Have a look at some and see what it contains. Anything that won't react to Epoxy would be fine.

From my experience painting on plastics you need to use an acrylic based paint. (The type you used on your airfix kits back in the day) These won't 'eat' the delicate polymer surface.

Scott

The answer is yes.

^one of them

Sandblasting? Nitromors? Have the inmates taken over the Asylum?

Exactly, both of those are too weak.
I already said shot blasting, nobody has listened.

At the very least, glass bead media blasting.

You've got to give the surface a key for goodness sakes.

If your not to fussy about the finish a light sand to key the existing paint and then just rattle can on your colour and then apply a laquer over the top. If your dead para waterbased versions of both are available (although they are generally shit). Otherwise I would take it to a bodyshop / helmet painter thats used to doing this kind of work.