Carbon Fibre Advice

[MattTypeR]

Hi Guys,
Looking for a bit of advice, have seen this carbon fibre bonnet which is mint apart from a couple 2p size holes where the lacquer has come off. Just wondering whether the lacquer could be redone or not?
Any help or advice much appreciated!

 

[Suits]

Firstly, no text speak please fella .

http://type-r-owners.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?69042-View-on-Text-Speak

Secondly, yes, the lacquer can be redone. I had a Mugen style adjustable rear wing, made by Seibon and I was quoted £80 to get it relacquered. It was £80 for the entire blade.

Now whether they would need to do your entire bonnet again not just the damaged parts, I don't know. But I do know that you can get it done.

 

[Composite Guru]

Can you get pics please? I'll tell you if it's repairable or not. :0)

 

[MattTypeR]

Cheers for replies, sorry for text speak!
Will get pictures as soon as i can but as i said there are a couple of holes which are no bigger than a 2p coin! One is at the front of the bonnet and the second is about half way up. Whether that makes a difference i dont no sorry . Also might be a silly question but what would of been the most likely cause of this? Would it just be stone chips etc?

 

[Composite Guru]

Stone chips are the obvious damage and it only takes a chip to get a little moisture under it and it will delaminate the gelcoat. Gelcoat is not a very strong material.

 

[R20190]

Are these "through" holes and not just chips in the lacquer/gelcoat? If so, can't see how you could repair holes as wide as an inch on a bonnet and still keep the carbon look to be honest...

If it's down to the weave, you're not looking at just re-lacquering, you're looking at repairing the actual clear gelcoat resin layer under the lacquer. This is notoriously difficult to get a good enough bond to with a repair resin/gelcoat particularly for a bonnet which gets hot cold very rapidly all the time... I've tried it in the past with a good key and found that it does debond after a while so ended up filling it and painting the bonnet instead.

 

[Hazz]

Sounds fixable to me. Could probably botch repair it but would never look as good as removing all the clearcoat and re-doing it. I personally don't like CFC on cars for this reason, they get damaged far too easily and look a dogs dinner in no time.

 

[TypeRiter]

Yes this can be done, and the cloudyness that CF parts can suffer is repairable.

It's simply a case of a very, very fine wet sand and a relacquer job.

Someone on CTRO carried out the above on a Mugen style CF rear-wing; it looked like new when he had finished.

 

[WILLIUMZ]

All the previous information on this subject is all very useful... apart from the fact that no - one seems to have actually said where you can have the repairs carried out? Does anyone know of a company that can do this type of repair?
I have a full carbon bonnet that has 'clouding' all the way round the edges? It was on the car when I bought it (2004 EP3 / COSMIC GREY), it also has what looks like a couple of stress fractures in it, not sure if if they have gone through to the weave or not?....
Any advice would be appreciated
Cheers!!

 

[Hazz]

As you can imagine Will, there aren't an abundance of companies out there making large laquered carbon parts. Your best bet it to find a local body shop and ask if they have had any experiance working with exposed weave CFC. To go to a specialist or back to the origin of manufacture will no doubt cost more than it's worth. At the end of the day, all you're asking for is the laquer to be removed and re-applied - the substrate is not really important.

As for stress fractures, these are highly unlikely. The bonnet is generally not a stressed item. It is more likely a fluid path/capillery under the laquer or resin lines from manufacture - although you would expect those to have been rubbed back flush. If it was a crack in the resin, I would put money on the fibres still being in good condition.