GM reinvents carbon fiber to dress up the Corvette ZR1

[Rob]

GM reinvents carbon fiber to dress up the Corvette ZR1

By Don Sherman, Popular Science
Posted 04.02.2008 at 4:28 pm

After spending $100,000 on a car, you don’t expect the lightweight carbon-fiber trim to turn yellow and peel in the sun. But that’s the downside for carbon fiber with clear-coat (instead of colored) paint, as GM found when testing materials for the 2004 Corvette Z06 Commemorative Edition. So the company redesigned the clear coat and the epoxy resin binding the carbon fibers in the roof and trim of the 2009 Corvette ZR1.

Standard clear-coat paint lets ultraviolet light reach the epoxy, causing it to discolor. GM engineers added a benzene-based powder to the paint to block the lower-frequency part of the UV range, and they created an epoxy that won’t degrade under the higher frequencies. Unfortunately, the new clear coat has its own yellow tinge, but GM developed what it calls an “offset additive” to shift it back to a neutral hue.

Although the technology isn’t cheap—the half-gallon of paint on the ZR1 costs nearly $1,000—GM is patenting it for other uses. So even if you can’t drop 100 grand on a car, you may see the benefits in somewhat less expensive products such as tennis rackets

 

[Evolution1980]

Although the technology isn’t cheap—the half-gallon of paint on the ZR1 costs nearly $1,000—GM is patenting it for other uses.

That a far cry from the original rumor of $60K per gallon! :eyerole :L
As long as it works!

I wonder if some of those other applications is going to be applying it to headlight lens and whatnot. I've seen plenty where they start to get cloudy and yellow after a few harsh years of being outside. You can sometimes polish the yellow away, but the fix only seems temporary.