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Amine Blush

wirejock

Well Known Member
My beautiful carbon fiber plenum has some hazy areas I think are Amine Blush.
What's the best way to remove Amine Blush and polish the surface again without an additional application of epoxy?
 
I’ve used warm soapy water to remove the blush, although WS says soap is not required or desired. Warm water scrubbed with a scotchbrite pad should do what you need. Peel ply (Dacron cloth) will minimize the amount of blush, but not completely eliminate it, so some warm water scrubbing is a good idea if you plan on laying another layer, or applying some sort of finish coat. You can sand it off, but it loads up the sand paper pretty quickly, and you might not get it off completely.
 
Blush

I’ve used warm soapy water to remove the blush, although WS says soap is not required or desired. Warm water scrubbed with a scotchbrite pad should do what you need. Peel ply (Dacron cloth) will minimize the amount of blush, but not completely eliminate it, so some warm water scrubbing is a good idea if you plan on laying another layer, or applying some sort of finish coat. You can sand it off, but it loads up the sand paper pretty quickly, and you might not get it off completely.

Once the blush is removed, how do you get the nice shiny finish on the carbon fiber?
Can I use wet sand up through 2000 grit then cut & buff?
 
Once the blush is removed, how do you get the nice shiny finish on the carbon fiber?
Can I use wet sand up through 2000 grit then cut & buff?

Depends upon the cutting compound used and the hardness of the coating. I use the 3M stuff and it says that it takes out 1200 grit scratches, though experience tells me it really only takes out 1500 grit scratches to a mirror finish. I expect that epoxy is much harder than clear coat, so it may take several rounds of buffing to achieve the desired result, if possible. I can tell you that some of the clears out there get real hard. The tech sheets will give a buffing window and if you go outside of it, buffing to a mirror finish is no longer possible; it is just too hard, once fully cured, for the compounds to cut it. Epoxy may be similar, but have no experience. The boat guys probably have good opinions on that.

If it is too hard to buff, you can shoot a coat of clear over it and buff that. It won't help with clarity (have no real idea how clear the epoxy is), but will allow a perfect finish. Most clear has a pretty good grip and should have no issue sticking to epoxy, just sand it to 400 first.

Larry
 
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Or use a better, more modern epoxy resin that does not blush. I have been using System 3 Silvertip epoxy for many years and it does not blush.
 
Epoxy

Or use a better, more modern epoxy resin that does not blush. I have been using System 3 Silvertip epoxy for many years and it does not blush.

That ship has sailed. Plenum is done. Just trying to make it purdy
 
I saw some photos of your plenum earlier on and it looked very nice and I didn't notice any blush or blemishes, so has it developed since then?
 
Blush

I saw some photos of your plenum earlier on and it looked very nice and I didn't notice any blush or blemishes, so has it developed since then?

No. It was there after it cured. I've been putting it off because no one would see it, but it was driving me crazy. Today I started block sanding. Half is wet sanded 400 through 3000. Still not glossy but at least the blush and irregular surface is gone and it's optically flat. I'll go over the other half tomorrow then cut & buff.
 
Carbon fiber

It's fixed. Turns out carbon fiber can be sanded and polished.
The epoxy is West 105 and 207.
It was wet sanded 220 to remove all the Amine and flatten the surface. The finish was restored by wet sanding from 400 through 3000. Final finish was compound on the big electric Dewalt buffer followed by polishing compound. It's not perfect but it looks a lot better.
20221004_144218.jpg
 
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