If painting scuff like you would fiberglass and epoxy for your base.
If just clearing gray scuff pad is fine.
Clean well with 700 and after you dry it let set for a couple of hours.
Other optiin for just clear is we have a manufacturer that cleans with 700 and then 710, lets set overnight and clears with universal the next day with no sanding.
These parts are used on new cars costing 200000 to 700000 thousand dollars.
The raw part he showed me a picture of was extremely glossy, so,deglossing is clearly step one. It is a camera tube, so probably 32 inches long, 10" diameter with a bulge on the front to house the bigger million dollar thermal camera that ends up inside. The sunshield for it will be a half circle, probably 12" arch to cover the bulge part and keep the sun from beating on the electronics. So DA is gonna be ugly, probably just be red scotchbrite until the gloss is done.
I know carbon fiber is more of a rubber band racer deal (import hondas with tight rubber band turbos) and really not what I am reading here, just looking for some kind of idea. I was really surprised how much of a solvent smell the waterborne wax and grease remover had when I finally ordered the gallon.
Painting to military spec and certifying means follow the standards written on the spec. I already told them, I will write what I did, but I cannot certify carbon fiber if there is no part of the specification that gives cleaning requirements like it does for steel, aluminum and even wood.
Its like you telling a customer if you did not scuff the bare steel with 80 grit on a DA, dont come back to me and tell me my epoxy was bad. So I can use the right stuff, whether or not that epoxy is made for carbon fiber. We have 2 we have to use, one works fine over phosphated steel and iridite, but will peel over anodize, where the second will stick to anodize, but just too tough to work with for everything else.