Carbon Fiber Part Repair

[gav240z]

Hi Everyone,

Looking for advice on potentially repairing a used intake that is cracked / damaged.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270917453885

 

I'm not sure if it's genuine carbon or fiberglass overlaid with carbon? I've previously repaired a fiberglass front bumper / air dam on a 260z and from memory it was very easy to do. Carbon I know nothing about.

 

This thing has been in the war it looks like but it's actually an expensive intake.

 

See here: http://www.nengun.com/autoexe/ram-air-intake-system

 

Hence the reason I'm looking at repairing it. I'm not looking for a perfect finish but would be nice to touch it up without it looking like a sloppy repair.

 

Don't want to go to the effort of shipping it to discover I can't really repair it.

 

Any advice is appreciated.

[Scoota G]

Problem is with repairing the carbon that the woven fabric would be difficult to join and visually seeing that it had been repaired. Unless your not concerned about the carbon fibre look (which we all think is reallly cool) and paint the product after repair. Other than that it is just fabric and resin!

[nizm0zed]

Im going to assume its not structural, afterall its just an air intake.

It also looks like the damage is on the underside of the intake.

If thats the case, most of it wont be visible.

 

So, you should be able to sand back the gel coat till you hit the fibres, then lay another layer of mat over it, then resin it all together.

For the bit where it'll be visible in the inside of the intake mouth, cover it in resin to fill the cracks and imperfections, then sand smooth.

That should blend most of it in.

That should also work quite well on the backside cracks and chips.

You could allways paint the inner surface of the intake in a matt black, it wouldnt look out of place.

It looks like the upper surface (the bit that'll be most visible) will look just fine.

If you want to keep the carbon weave visible, you'll never hide it completely.

 

I say do it, what have you got to lose? a bit of your time?

[gav240z]

Thanks Scoota - I'm not too concerned about the repair being visible since as nizm0zed mentions most of the damage is on the underside of the part, which won't be visible. It also shouldn't affect it's functionality.

 

Do either of you have good tutorials on working with carbon i.e links? I always thought there was more voodoo to it than resin and mat. However it sounds pretty easy from the description so far.

 

I've sent the seller a question to see if it has the other 2 parts not pictures (that hold the air-filter in) and the intake plastics / rubber hoses connect to. I couldn't see it in the auction photos and I imagine finding them to be a PITA so if they are missing it might be more hassle than it's worth.

 

[MickieB]

There is a LOT more voodoo to it if you want to make a structual piece, but doing repairs on non structuals where looks don't count should be pretty straight forward. It is supposed to be the easiest thing to repair if you are going to paint it to cover up miss matched weave.

 

Only thing i'd check is if you have to press it or bake it, but once again if it's just an intake it should be fine.

[Scoota G]

I worked at Southern Vehicle Enhancements for 8 months fitting, repairing and constructing body kits and it's as easy as pie just can get a little messy so don't forget the rubber gloves. Air bubbles in the matting are the largest concern which we had special little metal rollers to knead them out. A solid surface behind the repair such as a pipe may also help when reforming the shape.

[gav240z]

Thanks guys, I was willing to give this a go. However after discussing with the seller it was missing some other parts and I had no idea where to source them from. I don't think the original supplier sells these components separately so it was just going to be too much work and not really worth the effort.

 

Last time I saw 1 of these air-boxes it was £100 second hand which was a good price, I just spotted another that's being sold with a rolling shell, so I've asked the seller if he would sell it separately, but not holding my breathe. Plenty of other work to be done on the car anyway.