Industry Insider – Seibon Carbon

While at Seibon we noticed this half weathered hood.  We have all seen beat assed carbon parts like this on cars before. What's being demonstrated here is that even a thrashed Seibon hood could be wet sanded and buffed out to restore it's appearance.  Cheaper resins get cloudy, checked and or yellowed all the way through to the mat and cannot be re buffed out.  Although Seibon uses UV resistant resins, carbon fiber products require consistent maintenance to help avoid premature aging or oxidization (like this hood presented). Simply washing and waxing the product can help extend its life.  For even better results Seibon suggests adding an extra layer of clear coat and avoiding heavy or extreme exposure to the sun.

A closer look shows how the weathering does not go far into the resin thanks to the UV resistance.  The refinished side of the hood looks brand new.  Seibon would like to stress that a lot of heat, like that produced by unshielded aftermarket turbo kits can damage carbon, no matter how well it's made.  So you need to pay attention to things like heat shielding and perhaps even look at adding gold kapton tape to areas of a hood close to a turbo or exhaust.

We looked at some of Seibon's other wet layup parts.  This hood shows the attention to detail of the underside of the hood.  Even though this does not show, it is as well finished as the top.

Seibon uses special inserts for hood latches that have a lot of bond area, not cheap rod loops like most carbon companies.  The hood is reinforced in the area around the latch as well.  Cheaper hoods are often thin around the latches and repeated closing can cause stress cracks and fracturing of the gel coat around the latch.  Whether your hood will see the rigors of daily driving or the high speeds of Motorsports applications, Seibon always recommends the use of hood pins with their hoods.  Heck, hood pins are recommended for stock metal hoods used for racing!

This hood was made to showcase Seibon's capability.  The underside of the hood was also given a class A type surface finish and the hood was made entirely of wet layup carbon for a high gloss finish.  Hoods like this can be special ordered.  This hood was also made to showcase Seibon's workmanship.  Note how little the carbon weave is distorted even in this complex 3 dimensional surface.  Carbon is much stiffer than fiberglass and is harder to get to lie in a mold like this.  This lack of weave distortion is one of the techniques that Seibon has perfected and is reluctant to show how they do it.  Look at some cheaper carbon parts on the market and note that areas of complex geometry often have the weave hidden by black paint  feather fogged over the areas.  Not Seibon!