After more stress and anxiety than I can bear, yesterday I finnished the frame.
I didn't get any photos of the final process because I was hyper focused on getting it right. What I did was first to lightly sand over the decals with 400 grit. I then wet sanded to whole frame with 800 grit to get it all smooth and level. Finally using 1000 grit DA pad I gave it one more going over to make sure it was perfect. A couple of spots needed a touch up with the base colour so I was glad to still have a bit left over. After a through clean and de-grease I applied 2 coats of the Spray Max 2k matte clear.
Thankfully it turned out perfect. I'm extremely relieved and really really happy with the result. The Custom Canz base seems to have a subtle colour shift from brown to green which I wasn't expecting. The decals are smooth and almost look painted on.
Still a few things to do to get the bike rideable but I'm over the moon with how well the frame came out.
Here's some photos
EDIT: First 2 photos a bit naff because my phone warps pictures (fish eye effect) so I have to stand well back and zoom in.
About 3 years ago I picked up a set of these bars pictured below. I didnt like the blue details so set about changing that. The blue and also the decals are under a clear coat so I was able to carefully scrape away the blue areas without disturbing the branding. Then the bars got a sanded down with fine grades of wet and dry to blend in the edges of the existing clear coat and raw carbon. They remained like this for some time.
Yesterday I gave them 2 coats of clear and left overnight to harden.
Today they got a wet sanding with 800 grit, 1200, and then 2000.
After a final polish with buffing compound this is the result...
I really pleased with how they turned out
The cranks are in the process of getting their final finish also. They were pretty rough so they've had 3 coats of clear yesterday. This morning I re-sanded them with 400 and 800 grit, I had to make sure all the fine defects were filled in.
Today I have applied another 3 coats of clear ready for a final flat and polish tomorrow.