epicbike101

Hi,

I will be painting a carbon fiber frame soon, and I am wondering is there any good spray on primer (for spray gun) for carbon fiber, here is a colnago paint process and at 0:47 they say they use "clear bonding type" primer... is there any way to get my hands on that stuff, could not find by research.... the frame that I will paint will have 3k weave

Thanks a lot!

Canaboo

What sort of surface does the carbon have at the moment?

epicbike101

Hi,

It is raw finish, without anything, straight from the factory and the weave is 3k

seankanary

I just painted a CF fork last week (first time) and used Nason Epoxy primer. Worked just fine. The fork I had was already cleared, so I prepped with 800 wet. Finish looked nice and had no problems.

epicbike101

Hi,

thanks for the tip, but unfortunately i dont seem to find any webstore that sells that stuff, since i need it shipped to finland, if anybody can recommend any other product would be great!

Canaboo

Surely people paint stuff or use epoxy in Finland? There are a number of Epoxy type primers used for automotive painting etc. Failing that you can coat a carbon frame with boatbuilding epoxy and then lightly scuff sand and paint on top of the epoxy.

epicbike101

Hi,

I have found this 1k epoxy primer, will this be good for carbon, sorry for my newbieness, but here is some info on this stuff

https://www.motipdupli.de/?L=2&id=1454

Canaboo

It seems to mention mostly using it with metals but the cleaning recommendation mentions fiberglass so it's likely versatile enough.
It takes pretty potent solvents to break down the epoxy binder in a carbon frame. I would think that's the primary consideration when coating carbon.

MassiveD

You aren't painting carbon, you are painting epoxy, or maybe vinyl ester, etc... Of course if you sand through to the fiber itself, which is to be avoided, then there is some carbon there. Carbon fiber seems pretty bondable, in my experience. Graphite is kinda slippery and the carbon tow sorta looks like nothing would stick, but it is easy to work with. Anyway, in all likelihood you are just overcoating the resin.

Another thought is to consult the company whose topcoat you are using. The only downside there is that they often have a dozen products they want to sell you for various stages of the finishing process. But if you are using awlgrip , sikkens, or whatever, there is probably a whole series of products you can undercoat with in the same line. So when we used to awlgrip boats, WEST said that if the finish was good enough, one could paint right over the epoxy bonding resing. Which is what we did, or used an epoxy primer to refine the surface. But the theoretical prep was hundreds of dollars of product..