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Quote, originally posted by Joe B »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Carbon fiber should not need clearcoat, which is paint. The epoxy is naturally shiny (if thick enough and polished). I thought clearcoat was just for the stock, thin stuff with the pin holes in the epoxy!
I have 4 Clay Carrier carbon fiber parts on my 1997 900 SP and they are all beautiful (and $$ !!; but you usually get what you pay for).
Joe</TD></TR></TABLE>
I'm just learning some of the ins and out of FRP construction so I could be wrong, but here goes....
You have to types of epoxy, the regular stuff used to layup the carbon and then the surface coat epoxy, which is thicker and as the name implies is used for the top coat of the part. Usually if you are using a surface coat epoxy it goes on first then the first layer of carbon, then it is wet out with regular epoxy. Many layers are added on top of the first layer. The problem with epoxy surface coat is that the only kind I have seen is white and not really transparent (as opposed to polyester gel/surface coat which can be clear or white). So it doesn't look good for non painted carbon parts. So for non painted carbon parts you either need to use polyester resin/clear surface coat or epoxy resin and no surface coat. But without a surface coat UV light and the elements can damage carbon parts, so then a clear coat (paint on type) can be applied to add protection from the sun and other elements. You could use a clear polyester gel coat and epoxy resin for the layup, but from what I have read, this is not recommended b/c the surface coat could delaminate from the rest of the part since the two resins are not really compatible.
Of course with that being said, I think benfen uses prepeg stuff. Which I don't know too much about, but I'm guessing the above also applies to prepegs. If it is an epoxy prepeg then your surface coat options are: white epoxy or a paint on clear coat.