Fixing air bubbles in CF hood

[Metallic36]

I'm needing to find out how this can be fixed. I bought a hood from Xcelerated Concepts a few months ago. When it arrived it looked okay, despite a few air bubbles under the clear coat. I was not aware this would happen, so I emailed the company and they basically said to deal with it myself, that this happens with the way that they clear coat the hoods and they weren't going to do anything to help me out with the issue. So now, there are several bubbles that have reached the surface. One of which has cracked all the way through, so that piece of clear coat is currently missing, and there's a hole in my hood from that. This sucks, I'm definitely not pleased with this at all. Of course would I have known this would happen with their hoods, I never would have bought one for that much $$. There are a few more that are coming to the surface as well, so I'm really wanting to know if anyone knows how to fix this. Would I have to get the entire hood redone?

 

[justanothermp5]

um there really isnt any way to just fix it, u would have to have the bubbles sanded out and then re-clear the whole hood

my hood did this too but only on the right and left sides so i sanded them out and painted the sides body color

are the edges of ur hood rolled or cut? mine were cut which was making me think that air could get into the weave that way when its hot or cold and expand, so i made sure i cleared the edges really well to seal in/out the air

 

[Metallic36]

I'm not too sure about the edges, they look to be sealed okay. If redoing the entire hood is the only option to fix this, that pisses me off that I paid that much for a hood yet now have to put more money into fixing the problem caused by the company that I was unaware of prior to purchasing. If air bubbles are a major reason all other companies shy away from clear coating as stated below, why do they do it? I never expected to have to fix issues, and get a little more pissed every time I see a new bubble rise to the surface. Definitely not a quality hood as I thought it would be.

"Hi,

That's unfortantely one of the downsides of providing clear coating and a MAJOR reason all other companies shy away from offering it. You are exactly right, it's an air bubble that has come thru. It's due to the carbon material trapping the air.

It's a pretty simple fix. Is the bubble completely out? Meaning can you feel the edges on it? If it is, you can just use a bit of clear on it to fill it. If it's not out, the area can be wet sanded and then touched up.

If you need any more advise on fixing it, I can get my shop guys to look at the pics and give some input. I think it just needs some clear touch up personally, and you might even be able to do it yourself it you feel comfortable doing it.

Joe"


The issue now is that there are a LOT of air bubbles still under the surface. After watching the others for several months, and watching them rise to the surface, I can only imagine that the others will do the same. I attempted to fill in the large bubble that first appeared, but it was uneven when I attempted it, and was not level along the top as it should have been, so apparently that fix is out. Blahhh.. how much does it usually cost to redo a hood?

 

[Outlawstar98]

Xc hoods and trunks are rolled,

but there's not much you can do, my trunk I got from them doesn't really have the issue, the bubbles are from when they vac bagged and didn't do it long enough to suck it all out.

 

[CTt3P5]

hmmmm....this is the first time I have heard of this issue with XC products.

One thing I do find interesting is his response. He states "That's unfortantely one of the downsides of providing clear coating and a MAJOR reason all other companies shy away from offering it." While on other occassions I have seen him post that the clear coating he provides is a huge + which will deter fading/yellowing from UV rays.....but I had never (before this) heard of the downside.

 

[Outlawstar98]

hmmmm....this is the first time I have heard of this issue with XC products.

One thing I do find interesting is his response. He states "That's unfortantely one of the downsides of providing clear coating and a MAJOR reason all other companies shy away from offering it." While on other occassions I have seen him post that the clear coating he provides is a huge + which will deter fading/yellowing from UV rays.....but I had never (before this) heard of the downside.

Not really first time for me, yes their fitment is great, but besides that theres some issues that could be fixed easly, like my trunk has a weave pattern messup on it.

 

[dmention7]

Wow, that really sucks, and I'm quite surprised XC is making no efforts to address the problem for you.

Their reply seems like a copout IMO... "That's unfortantely one of the downsides of providing clear coating and a MAJOR reason all other companies shy away from offering it."

Unless they are referring to a special/unique clearcoating process, I can think of few companies (if any) that don't offer clearcoating on their CF products. My Seibon hood is just turning one year old, and the clearcoat/weave still look immaculate (save for a few chips acquired while following too close during some backroad bombing... heh)

 

[thaikim]

Ahh, yet another satisfied XC customer...

 

[Metallic36]

I agree, I always thought other companies offered clear coating on their hoods anyway, along with UV protection in it as well. I didn't think XC would be any different as far as maybe a bit better in quality. I guess I learned, should have just went with VIS. I sent XC another message regarding the issue, so we will see. It just gripes me that I spent a lot of money on this hood and never expected to have to spend more money on fixing a problem caused by the company that was supposed to be so wonderful and so great of quality. I had plans to show my car eventually, and that's definitely not going to happen with air bubbles all over the hood.

 

[zoom 79gc]

Metallic, if you only lived closer to me, have a few friends that would take care of that for you easy !!!!!!!!

 

[Metallic36]

I wish I did live closer to you then! The shops I've talked to around here are afraid of carbon fiber.. I was thinking of getting it painted, but that still wouldn't help my bubble problem unless it was sanded all the way down. I don't feel like having bubbles come through freaking paint though and I really don't want to paint a CF hood.. because well, CF is meant to be seen.

Metallic, if you only lived closer to me, have a few friends that would take care of that for you easy !!!!!!!!

 

[Metallic36]

Talked to several local body shops, nobody wants to touch it because the bubbles go all the way into where the CF starts. One shop suggested filling in all the holes with epoxy as a "patch job", but they said that it still wouldn't look how it is supposed to look. As of right now there are NO options to sand down and clear coat the hood again, so my other option is for it to be painted the color of my car but I'm not too sure of that because of how the gel coat/clear coat is thicker on the top of the vents than anywhere else so I don't want to lose that angle. Are there any shops that COULD do this? Do I just need to keep looking for one?

 

[Cruzanspeed]

I had the same problem with my gemini hood yesturday. My buddy wet sanded it & I picked it up today. It looks great! But mines was only 1 area of the hood! And he never messed with cf before.

 

[justanothermp5]

wow those bubbles look alot worse then my hood, and mine was 125 bucks brand new from erebuni lol

the last pic u posted is how mine looked on the sides, i thought they were rock chips but i guess not
that does stink that there really is no way to fix it, there isnt a warranty on the hood?

 

[Metallic36]

I guess the warranty (if there was one) is gone because it's been about 5-6 months since I've had the hood, despite that I told XC about the problem as soon as the hood got here, so it wasn't something that magically appeared after 5-6 months.. it has been ongoing and they were well aware of it. They acted like it was something that happens all the time with their hoods and never offered anything to take care of the problem, just said to fill the holes. I didn't pay $630.80 for a hood so that I could fill in the holes!!!

I really don't have much of a choice with XC because of the cost to ship it back to Canada.. they weren't willing to cover the cost for repairing the hood because the cost would be too much for them to consider that an option, then they said they would offer a refund but that I would have to pay for shipping the hood back to them and I'd get a refund of the purchase price only, or I could pay to ship the hood back, have them replace it (and risk getting another hood with the same issues), then pay for shipping the new hood here. My concern with those options is that shipping this hood back to Canada isn't cheap, so I don't think it's worth it on my end to do so. I offered the idea of them paying to repair it, since that would be cheaper than giving me a refund, but they wouldn't do it. I like the style of the hood, just not all the damn air bubbles. I would rather have it repaired somehow, today I sent a message to XC to see if they would at least help with the cost of repairing it and I'll cover the rest, so we will see.

 

[zoom 79gc]

Hope it all turns out good for you .
I would be upset after spending that much on the hood.
Then turn around and have to try and repair it .....
I am going to talk with a few friends and see what they think .

 

[dmention7]

Maybe this is just me... but I don't even see why cost should be brought into the discussion. Unless they are willing to post on their website that bubbles forming in the clearcoat is a characteristic of the manufacturing process, then this should be considered a manufacturing defect and the costs should be entirely born by the manufacturer. They have basically told you flat-out it's a downside of their clearcoat process, so replacement of bubbling hoods should simply be considered a cost of business.

Well... anyways, good luck with recouping some of your costs!

 

[ThrillRide]

Wow that's horrible. I would never purchase from a company that makes sorry excuses like that and is not willing to make things right. There are very high quality CF producers that Clear-coat without issue. If they weren't willing to take care of you right away I would have stopped payment. For them to tell you, it's a side effect of clear and still charge you nearly $700 is just laughable. I would report them to the BBB and get your money back. I'd raise all sorts of hell until they made things right.