F.I. - Carbon Fiber Scratched??
 

Hey guys,

was just curious for those of you who have the CF exhaust, if you have gotten it scratched up. I took a look at mine the other day because i felt something "rough" on it, thinking it was debris from the road or something stuck to it. Came to find that my exhaust can is completely scratched to all hell. I have no clue how it happened, the only thing i can think of is that I did it washing them somehow (grit stuck to the sponge?). On mine, its the right can and on the upper right side, so i dont even know how it could have happened. Just curious what you guys think. Not happy about it but what am i gonna do at this point...

Could it be possible that this was caused by road debris? Not sure how the roads are around your area

Jealous x-girlfriend?

it is possible and one day i happen to hit a very large chunk of asphalt and heard it like explode under the car. but its weird, because the way the scratches are looks more like someone took a brillo pad to it and went back and forth. ill try to post pics later when i get home...

hahahah nope!

in for pics

Probably happened when you were cleaning them

sounds like loose gravel could be a cause. how high up on the exhaust is it? are you lowered by any chance?

You could likely polish the scratches out... but I don't know how thick the resin is... Tony would have to chime in on that.

Carbon fiber under your car is not a good idea if your into cosmetics.

I know it must feel like a kick in the mouth!

All depending on how deep the scratches are, they may be able to be buffed out. If not, the sleeves will have to be replaced. I can tell you it is nearly impossible to get the cans off of the mufflers but I have done it!

Email me some pictures and call me as well if you like. Maybe I can help...

Thank you, Tony

Thanks guys for your input. I will take pictures when i get home today....

And Tony thanks again for your help but I dont think there is going to be anything that can really be done. ill post pics later tonight...

Ok here are the pics. Very strange, i just cant figure it out because im super carefull with my car. You can see in the pics that one of the scratches has some red coloring, which really throws me off....

Edit* - i think what looks like a scratch with the red is actually the damper reflection...

honestly man... from here they look like surface scratches that can be buffed out. When you rub across it with your fingernail lightly does it go into the scratch? Like can you really feel it or just barely?

you can really feel it. thats actually how i noticed it. I thought the carbon fiber was unwrapping or something. its very rough to the touch. i mean, its an exhaust that sits under the car. and you cant even see it from looking under unless you look under the right tire and towards the can, so im not making a huge deal out of it. just have no clue how it happened.. only thing i can think of is i did it washing it but to scratch it up that much seems odd...

It looks like someone is mad at you. The scratches look to be surface but the red paint area are pretty deep. Honestly it looks like someone grab a key and scratch it intentionally.

Those scratches are pretty high up. Seems like the only angle would be from you backing up into something? That's just an assumption. Is it only on one side?

unlikely that washing it would have caused scratches like that... especially if the water was clean and not used on something else first... even then it's unlikely.

If they are deep scratches and you want to get them fixed I would talk to Tony and find out what kind of resin was used on the carbon fiber and get just a little bit, brush it on, let it fill the scratches, wet sand and buff it out. Sounds like a lot of work, but I don't think it would be to bad if you took the cans off.

You don't want to sand it first due to the fact that you may get down to low and get into the carbon fiber. Just my .02 cents.

Yea they are high up, and i dont think it is from backing up into anything but guess ill have to keep an eye out..

Thats what I thought too... I dont think i have any enemies!

That just plain sucks. I would call your insurance company to see how much would be covered to get it fixed by a body shop.

If they won't cover it or the deductible is too high, there's always touch up paint sites like AutomotiveTouchup which I've heard guarantee a color match.

Reported

I seriously doubt that, if i hate someone so much that i wanna do damage to the car, i definitely wont crawl under and scratch your exhaust where i can easily scratch the surface of the car.

Doesnt look like dmg from speedbumps due to the angle. Did you leave the car at a shop? Maybe you dragged something under the car without noticing?

Thats why i dont think someone did it intentionally. The only place i left it at is the detail shop, but why would they be under the car like that?? (although they did mess my window up tinting it and i made them replace it, spite maybe? Seems silly to go scratching the muffler under my car where you cant even see it when you look from the back...) doesnt seem right. Like I said, not much I can do, just really strange. The main point of the thread was to see if anyone else had scratches happen to these. At least if i knew they did in fact scratch easily then I could peace of mind hahha.

The only thing i can think of is when i hit a big piece of asphalt not too long ago, maybe it somehow dragged or something?? Thing sounded like it exploded underneath the car. I thought i seriously f*cked up my front end but it much have just cleared...

Old post but curious as to how you handled your scratched carbon fiber . Just got mine and they very lightly scratched from driving up my shitty driveway. Only visible if you get under the car though. Still sucks.

OP's last activity 05-03-2016. Good luck getting a hold of them.

Anything under the car will turn to sh!t anyway so why worry about it? Unless $howcar.

That sucks, but could be worse trust me. On my second FI Carbon Fiber cause i scraped holes in both my canisters. Good thing, its cosmetic amd under the car. Just dont look at it;)

I would say road debris caused this. It happens. I had an alligator on the road and dinged the back of one of mine also. Oh well. I heard when it happened on the interstate.

Gator vs CF is a good story.:tup:

LOL, A gator on the road is a tire that blew the tread off of a big truck. Not a real alligator.

F.I. - Carbon Fiber Scratched??
 

Don't sweat it axmea? Here in California we keep the gators in the amusement parks

Thanks for the proper perspective on this everyone.

So I had a friend watch me pull into the driveway and it turns out it doesn't come close. That means it must have happened before I even got the car at the mechanics place as they have a pretty inclined driveway. I did wonder as I got out of there about that. Should have looked under the cans at the place. Oh well.

Just for future reference, has anyone had there carbon fiber cans re-wrapped ? Curious as to cost + labor on that if anyone knows.

F. This is funny. Shows how little I know.