Years ago I painted a carbon clutch cover and now want to remove said paint. Any ideas on how to do this and not mess up the carbon. And should I clear it after?
I would be concerned about any chemical stripper melting the CF resin. Try wet sanding with 600 grit and careful with the edges. Definitely clear coat afterwards. Do you remember if it's enamel or lacquer?
BTW, Ducpainter is the master and his suggestions supercede mine if he chimes in. [thumbsup]
600 grit wet should work just fine. But if the resin has pinholes or other defects in it, this may be a tedious task to get the paint out of them. Then, a quick coat of adhesion promoter and a 2k clearcoat will make it shine like new again.
I would start with something a bit rougher like 400 grit if wet sanding and 220 grit if dry sanding.
Don't use any chemicals to strip the paint as they will likely get absorbed by the CF and come back to haunt you later.
if there are any dot where the paint went into a pinhols in the original CF finish just carefully dab them with some black paint.
As stated already it will be tedious.
plan on more than one clearcoat session.
I would do the following:
Get it prepared for clear (make sure to use a two component clearcoat), and apply a few medium coats (not wet and flowing) allow to cure for a week or so. Sand it smooth with 600 grit wet and apply another three coats this time a little wetter than the first three. Allow this to cure for a few days, sand it down with 600 wet again and re-apply the clear two coats should do it this time but go for a finished appearance.
Depends what you painted it with. If it was rattle canned then I would think it could be stripped pretty easy. Most carbon fiber parts use clear epoxy and the resin and epoxy is very chemical resistant to most solvents.