After seeing a melted carbon bottom board over on the Zone I'm going to go the "brushed carbon" route on my new build. 14' Boards all laminated full carbon top & bottom. By design I fully realize "brushed Carbon look" is esthetically random in nature. But is there any tricks you have discovered to make the finish somewhat consistant so there are not large splotches of carbon or opaque color that make the finish scream "backyard hack" lol. What have you found to best recreate the brushed look of a Nash/JP/Starboard/Fanatic
Was thinking about a thin clear hot coat over the carbon...sand it out then go over that with an opeque color coat....sand that out to get the brushed carbon effect ( and be able to better control where I take off the color rather than have it concentrate in any low areas and loose control over the randomness of the patern)...then clear coat it.
My goal is to have it look like it is that way by design, not afterthought.
It must be a bit tricky procedure as even some of the well established custom builders seem to not quite pull it off. I see some that come across as looking like a bad sanding job rather than a calculated and well executed esthetic choice. Something I want to avoid if at all possible.
There was a picture of a board posted on line a year or two-three ago that was cobalt blue over carbon that had to be one of the sweetest brushed carbon jobs I have seen but I'v searched everywhere I could think of and never did find It again. Anyone run across it? I would sure like to look at it again before I jump into this.
Any lessons learned that you could share would be greatly appreciated....
I have not painted a whole board this way, only did repairs, but the easiest is just to lightly paint the board & sand it very gingerly.
I like the "stripes" effect personnally: try to make color/carbon stripes on purpose:
Or the 2nd from the left:
Select to expand quoterghdc said..
After seeing a melted carbon bottom board over on the Zone I'm going to go the "brushed carbon" route on my new build. 14' Boards all laminated full carbon top & bottom. By design I fully realize "brushed Carbon look" is esthetically random in nature. But is there any tricks you have discovered to make the finish somewhat consistant so there are not large splotches of carbon or opaque color that make the finish scream "backyard hack" lol. What have you found to best recreate the brushed look of a Nash/JP/Starboard/Fanatic
Was thinking about a thin clear hot coat over the carbon...sand it out then go over that with an opeque color coat....sand that out to get the brushed carbon effect ( and be able to better control where I take off the color rather than have it concentrate in any low areas and loose control over the randomness of the patern)...then clear coat it.
My goal is to have it look like it is that way by design, not afterthought.
It must be a bit tricky procedure as even some of the well established custom builders seem to not quite pull it off. I see some that come across as looking like a bad sanding job rather than a calculated and well executed esthetic choice. Something I want to avoid if at all possible.
There was a picture of a board posted on line a year or two-three ago that was cobalt blue over carbon that had to be one of the sweetest brushed carbon jobs I have seen but I'v searched everywhere I could think of and never did find It again. Anyone run across it? I would sure like to look at it again before I jump into this.
Any lessons learned that you could share would be greatly appreciated....
You're on the good way...
As a amateur board builder I project to build a carbon board but do not made it already . My thought about a brush effect is not esthetic but only the outlooking of carbon laminating finish. To make work( mechanically speaking) carbon fiber laminate properly is to finish it above it by some harder composite material than the laminated carbon fiber itself.
So I might do this way: after carbon lamination, do a filler coat with a mix of epoxy resin with micro balloon. *Apply in two passes of a light mix of those 2 then sand it, this is easy 
to sand . Then gloss your beauty with a clear coat .
You really need to harden the resin with micro balloon for one among few other reasons , because carbon layer acts like an anvil when you get a chock as paddle does for example.
*Put some white pigment to strength the micro balloon natural color and/or an other pigment color as red or yellow.
PS; I'm thinking to laminate this board that way I said
If I'm understanding you correctly you are proposing using micro balloons to increase hardness the resin...micro balloons do the opposite...they soften up the surface, that's why it sands easier than straight resin...if you wanted to make the surface harder you would add cabosil. Cabosil, however is much harder to sand, adds considerably more weight per volume, and adds the nightmare of adjoining surfaces being different degrees of hardness. It is much harder to feather a cabosil/resin coat into a raw glass/resin surface, the sander will just sit there on the cabosil batch cresting a lot of heat without cutting much while adjoining laminated surfaces get sanded down at a much faster rate. If you have a properly mixed epoxy and add cabosil to it is somewhere between the effort of sanding raw glass laminate and sanding cured concrete...not fun...the resin/laminate by itself with resin filler coat is as hard as you need....as they say "don't ask me how I know"
Colas...those red/black striping effects is what I was envisioning by putting a rather dry thin clear coat with heavy brush marks pulled in it just before it kicks to add like a grain texture...then go over the cured texture without sanding with a color coat...when the surface sanded flat the high grain ridges in the clear would show the underlying carbon and the lower areas would retain more of the color coat.
Starboards has a DIY vid on youtube with a slightly different approach, but I like yours!
Select to expand quoterghdc said..
Colas...those red/black striping effects is what I was envisioning by putting a rather dry thin clear coat with heavy brush marks pulled in it just before it kicks to add like a grain texture...then go over the cured texture without sanding with a color coat...when the surface sanded flat the high grain ridges in the clear would show the underlying carbon and the lower areas would retain more of the color coat.
I'd advise you to just experiment: take some black material (painted wood? Black plastic sheet?), and put your ideas to the test.
Some of the ideas I had did not work well in practice, but removing fresh paint with a Solvent F soaked cloth seemed to work too. But sanding was the most easy and the most reliable method.
Not that the more you see the carbon, the less your board will like to be in the sun...
rghdc, I disagree with your choice of word: miscrosphere gives one of the hardest composite mix, which makes it so easy to sand by the combination hardness + easily abrased. What you describe of carbosil is strength or resistance, which I agree is harder to sand.
pure epoxy resin does not sand well as it stays a bit flexible (which makes less prone to cracks than polyester resin) and becomes a paste with the heat of the sander.
rghdc, I disagree with your choice of word: miscrosphere gives one of the hardest composite mix, which makes it so easy to sand by the combination hardness + easily abrased. What you describe of carbosil is strength or resistance, which I agree is harder to sand. pure epoxy resin does not sand well as it stays a bit flexible (which makes less prone to cracks than polyester resin) and becomes a paste with the heat of the sander.
good point , colas
I already did that way to add epoxy/microsphere filler on laminated glass; it has been the strongest and lighter glass job i ever made
I planned to do this way on carbon fiber. Just not making it yet because glass micro balloon resin filled is strong and light ( 4oz+6oz and foot patches) enough to do custom board I use to build. Plus, to my opinion, it's resulting a nice compact color as you want without this kamo-technologic-style which is up to you to like
Colas & Kami I appreciate your input.
My reasoning is based on an advanced composite seminar put on by a engineering PHD from FIT... his arguments still seem solid today.
Our varing perspectives may revolve around the expected useful life expectancy of an object and the consequence of failure. No one wants a fragil board that is prone to damage or failure, but there is quite a huge difference from an aircraft that experiences the same level of damage in flight.
I may have to consider the unthinkable and add micro balloons to laminating resin. In the past all parties setting composit standards I have worked with have been adamantly opposed to such, as their testing showed greater chance of inter laminar sheer and chance of delamination between layers. In a board it may be worth the trade off as the core has negligible bonding strength anyway.
use resin microcell mixed only as a filler-coat to fill holes of the wave tissus and to build up in a second pass a sanding coat. But in any case not to laminate the fiber.
There is 2 kind of resistance needed in board construction:
First one is resistance to snap so laminated fiber and board thickness do it. (4"+ thick does very strong beam whatever kind of fibers used)
Second one is impact resistance like dings or pressure as foot position, here is the thick skin and hard coat you need to avoid those kind of dings .
Micro cell/resin is very easy to sand, I use to do edge of channels bottom very easily that way.
Finish your job with a gloss of pure epoxy resin
Epoxy resin get several grades of resistance up to providers. Have a look on these physical characteristics and use it properly.
Colas I have not had any problem sanding Resin Research brand epoxy...been using it since the at least 1990 if not earlier. Some of the earlier versions of epoxy I used in custom boat building fit your description, mainly Epon and Ebond brands...very thick oily with a terrible sliminess blush...that stuff was so nasty and a bear to sand. West system & system 3 are somewhere in the middle with blush and sand-ability...RR is a dream compared to the others iv used....so if any of those brands are your benchmark I could see where you would think sanding epoxy has to be a nightmare.
I use "Resoltech", which is a very nice resin. I wasnt sayin that sanding pure epoxy was a nightmare, just that "pure epoxy resin does not sand well", you have to move the sander around to avoid heating the same spot. And that microspheres are so great to sand.
I'd say the RR resin I use is very much like sanding a quality surfboard grade polyester...except you don't have to deal with the repercussions of the wax/styrene additive. Didn't mean to put words in your mouth, so to speak, by using the term "nightmare" but the Epon and Ebond epoxies I were referring to are a nightmare to sand.
As far as heat build up when sanding, some of that is based on the sander, sander disk rpm, grit and type of paper, and type of back up disk your using. I use a 6" Port-a-cable duel action sander with a medium flexible disk. It runs extreamly flat without bounce or any other bad habits.
Looking at the Starboard repair video... Wouldn't let him close to a board with a hard backing disk like that...and those sandpaper grits must be in metric units, because you would not even think about sanding down that repair with 20 grit..,in the US that almost like having small stones glue to the paper. You should never put three layers on of the same size as you create a hard point in either side of the repair...and filler should be applied to minimize sanding. The cloth should have been staggered and he could have covered and taped a light weight piece of plastic tightly over it and hardly needed any filler and minimal sanding. A backyard repair would end up horribly following that video ...when you use those tools 8-10 hrs a day for years you can get away with all kinds of crap...an amateur would end up with a far bigger problem than a small crack following that method.
Sorry if that sounds harsh, and yes he gets it done, but thats not the proper way to go about it. I have been responsible for complete shop oversight of building multimillion dollar yachts in the past and that is poor execution. Makes one wonder about the quality under those "slick" paint jobs from the production builders. With custom guy you see what you get...for the most part...not so much with the painted boards.
Personally, having asthma, I must avoid sanding epoxy which is very breath allergen .
So I found safe the method to sand as less as possible like just for finishing at end on gloss coat. Most of time, getting no flies on gloss, I leave the board at this last brush pass.
I dont bag so I laminate glass/epoxy by contact as traditional way . I do it with no break, following step by step with no break , I just trim with blade between lap and filler coat. I just sand with vacuum system intaking straight to the sander on microcell/resin coat mix which is very easy to sand.
About fixing ding, do as the video shows but please just mold the ding with plastic film as the one from used to cover dishes in the fridge this form work avoid a lot of sanding and almost can be left as a finishing.
About Resoltech, I'm back on 1070S system from Dynamix because 1074 make an harder skin when done.
I agee with RGDHC, I would never ever use these tools on a repair like this and the same with the glassing. 
