Dustino Pod Refurb

Over the weekend I worked on cleaning up my carbon fiber pod that holds my Flytec 6030 and Geko GPS.  It really took a beating during the flying season.  The clean super gloss finish was scratched in many areas but mostly on the bottom surface where it scraped in the dirt and rocks at The Pulpit and King Mountain. 
I started with 150 grit dry sandpaper and removed most of the clearcoat finish.

I then used wet sandpaper of progressively finer grit to get a really smooth finish; first 220 then 800 and finally 2000. 

The final uncoated finish looked like this.



I then sprayed it with multiple layers of clearcoat from a can (Autozone).

I added a cool decal to the back side after 4 coats were applied.  It took some experimenting to get the right coating coverage.  Initially I went too light and the surface had that orange peel effect.  I went heavier on subsequent coats until it began to run.  Light sanding between every 3 or 4 coats made the finish smooth.  Finally, I finished it with rubbing compound and car wax.

I need to borrow a neighbor's buffer to get an even better shine.  It took longer than I expected but was inexpensive to do and well worth it.  Wow, this almost beat flying!