I live in SoCal, and for the past few years the sun, the heat from which the turbo produces, as well as the ambient elements have finally made the CF parts have that shaded yellow appearance. I know it’s inevitable to make your CF parts keep their original “new” appearance, especially a CF hood that sits on top of a
combustible motor that produces heat, and getting hit with the Suns UV rays, but is the yellowing just the byproduct of the CF clear coat/resin getting heat soaked? I wrapped a few pieces in CF and used an epoxy/resin as a clear coat, and noticed these parts yellowing just from the heat from sitting in the engine bay, but I have a few CF parts that have been cured in an autoclave, and these parts have no yellowing color/shade whatsoever, and wanted to know is the yellowing on my hood is just the resin/clear coat? Because I am getting my whole hood sanded down, and recoated, regardless if that will fix the “yellowing” issue. I’ve added a few extra louvers onto my hood, and am having them be functional rather just for aesthetics, and will be having a Indy shop make the new openings on my hood for the louvers, and am wanting a clean look. If anyone can let me know if doing this will also rid the “yellow” appearance, and if anyone has an opinion on what material will work best to insulate the underside of the hood. I was just using the OEM piece from my factory hood on my CF Seibon hood, but cut out 2 sections of it to make holes for the 2 louvers/ducts that are on the Seibon CF GT hood for my car, but am curious on trying some adhesive backed fiberglass insulation with a reflective top on the hood after getting the work done for hoods new louvers. I now reside in a house with a garage where I’m able to park my Benz, and am making it my project car, and will be posting the progress of my build. Thanks in advance. 👍

 

Sorry for adding current photos late. Have issue with car which will make new thread for.

 

If I recall the yellowing is in fact the clear resin, and some solved it by sanding it with 400 grit sandpaper followed by 600, then polish/wax. Of course, getting it redone will work too, but you could try your hand with the sandpaper as you have nothing to lose.

 

I have no direct experience with CF body parts, but my understanding (from seeing lots of posts about it on various automotive forums for the past couple decades) is that the yellowing is due to UV exposure of the resin. The "fix" is to use a high quality automotive clear coat that blocks the UV. Some of the companies that make CF parts don't clear coat their products at all (leaving it to the buyer to clear or paint the part), others use poor clear coat that just doesn't provide protection as long as a higher quality clear coat will.

On a separate note, do you have a better pic of the hood louvers you've added? It looks to me like they're oriented backwards, that they'll want to pull air into the engine bay rather than exhausting air out of the engine bay.