You don't need to sand everything off.

thanks Jim.

Stop at an auto paint shop. Get a red scuff pad. It’s like a scotch Brite pad. Scuff the entire crank, otherwise the clear will peel.

Get a rattle can of clear from a car part shop that sells clear coat for auto body. Don’t get clear from Home Depot!

Technically, after scuffing. You should use clean prep to wipe them down and then a tack rag to get the dust. Then paint. Wear latex gloves when handling the piece. You would be surprised how oil from your hands will mess up the clear finish when trying to spray it.

This is basically the procedure an auto body paint shop would do on car parts when painting. Same process applies. Of course, they mix paint and don’t use a rattle can though.

This is awesome. Thanks a lot. One question: I’ve seen some members post about curing the clearcoat on a cf part in the oven after drying. Is this necessary? Would it add any durability?

I’m not expecting a perfect outcome for this, it if there’s a basic and easy additional step, I might as well take it while the part is off the bike.

You can scuff the crank with sand paper.

No need to put it in the oven.

If you use sandpaper, use 800 grit sandpaper. 400 or 600 grit and you need paint to fill the sand scratches before the clear. In other words, if you use coarser sandpaper, then clear- you will see scratches in he clear coat.

You can bake (high heat) auto paints in a paint booth, or let them air dry. No advantage other then taking longer to dry. If you want, you could s8 only hest the pieces to about 70 degrees with a hair dryer before painting. If you don’t have a temp gun to check the temperature of the piece, probably not worth doing. If the part is too cold, the clear coat runs. If the part is too hot, the clear coat will set up to fast and not flow as smooth. 70-80 degrees is perfect with low humidity.

I use a 200 grit sand paper and about six coats of clearcoat. You would never know it was repainted.

echo the above... pretty much sand relatively even, clear, sand, clear until it's to your liking. The better your prep work, the less you have to work on "fixing" stuff later.

Also, not to be that guy, but sanding anything carbon, resin, etc is not good for you, and most people do not have proper safety equipment... at the bare minimum, wet sand (preferably with running water) outside. Ideally you want a full or half vent mask. (not a shitty 3m paper mask) but ymmv. You only get one pair of lungs

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One way to test the prep after sanding and before painting is to wet the surface. What it looks like wet will be how it looks like after the clearcoat.

I'm a car guy, so I have some experience with carbon parts. Sand it down everything evenly to the bare carbon and last sanding should be done with 2000 grits. Spray a few coats of clear coat as you planned and wet sand it with 2000 grits after it dries. Now, you need some elbow grease. Apply this, use microfiber clothe and buff it as long as you can until you don't see hairline scratches anymore under the light. Be patient and that should do the job.

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