I’ve got a Capra in the grey and yellow colour scheme and I’ve had it covered in black vinyl since I got it as I’m not a fan of yellow but was a fan of the price / exchange rate at the time!

I’m thinking of tidying it up a bit for an annual service and hoping that I can lightly sand it back to get rid of the graphics under the lacquer…

Has anyone done this to a carbon frame before?

I assume the likes of Fat Creations sand the frames back before applying new paint so as long as I’m careful it should produce a good finish?

it might not. the carbon weave look is a cosmetic wrap itself. If you sand it back you may end up with a pretty ugly looking dark grey plastic frame with lay ups going all over the place.

I doubt it’ll look good due to how painted carbon is laid up and even the small amount of extra protection from your existing wrap against nicks and scratches is worth having.

So best bet is to just sand it to prep it and spray over and go heavy on the lacquer since you can’t powdercoat a carbon bike?

I sanded some carbon forks down after the paint started flaking off in places. Basically down to the top carbon coat. Then applied five lacquer coats from a rattle can with sanding in between. They looked excellent after and still going strong now. The forks were alloy steerer and crown with carbon legs bonded in. To make the finish look good, I used a very thin strip of white electrical tape over the joints to hide the bonding glue. This was under the lacquer.

A whole frame would take a long time to do properly, although carbon frame resprays are possible. It’s something I’d pay someone else to do.

lots of this on weight weenies.

Hammerite it. Only way to be sure.

Just sand it gently. Boat masts need doing every 2-5 years (depends on the varnish used) as they sit out in the sun 24/7 getting degraded by the UV.

I’d apply a fresh varnish/lacquer though, as even though it’s not subject to the same conditions as a mast the lacquer is still protecting the epoxy from UV.

I’ve done seatposts, bars and cranks and there’s no way I’d do a frame. It takes forever and is very tedious even with podcasts etc. for distraction.

it might not. the carbon weave look is a cosmetic wrap itself. If you sand it back you may end up with a pretty ugly looking dark grey plastic frame with lay ups going all over the place.

if you have sanding it far enough to go through a layer of woven carbon then you have sanded back 0.25-0.3mm which is very extreme.

Should be pretty easy to carefully sand off the existing paint and lacquer. Be very careful though, if you start to expose carbon fibres then you are going too deep.

If it’s under warranty then it will void that too.