Repairing Carbon Fiber??

[c5chris]

My CF hood got damaged by freeway debris today (Friday the 13th!!!) and I just bought it 3 weeks ago. A metal shard as big as a fist was hurled to me by a motorist in front of me that ran over it.

I called VIS asking if they do CF repair, and they said NO and take it to a body shop. My question is:

Has anybody here had their CF hood repaired? If not, I just lost a hood that I just bought not too long ago.

Thanks in advance.

 

[SnoopySLR]

the only way to repair it would be to take all the gel coat off. You'd have to sand it right back to carbonfiber, but not touch the actual fabric. It would be hard, but not impossible. Sorry to hear that man. I had mine fly up on me. I was braking when it happened, so it didn't damage it too bad, but its still pretty cracked up.

 

[ECTurboDSM]

If the weave is damaged, it cannot be fixed and left unpainted. Mine came up at over 100 mph on the drag strip and I had to paint it once I fixed it. If the weave is damaged, you can use fiberglass to repair any structural damage as most hoods only have one top layer of carbon fiber anyways and the rest is fiberglass. Mine had two large cracks in it and I just used fiberglass resin to fill them and then sanded it smooth and painted it. If the weave is not damaged, do what was said above and be careful.

 

[c5chris]

What resin do I use? I looked at it, the damage is superficial and did not break the fiber. I would want to try to fill it and then sand it.

What brand/kind of resin is best for it? What grit sandpaper should i use? I wanna try to fix it before i get tempted to trash it altogether.

 

[yoshimitsuspeed]

Where do you live? I doubt your close to oregon but if so I would take a look at it.
If its just pitted, but doesen't go all the way through the gellcoat (the top layer of resin) you might just be able to sand out the imperfections. If it's cracked I don't know of any way to take it back to its original apperance. If you want more detailed ideas on a repair process PM me with a description of exactly what kind of damage the hood has, and weather you want it to look new or just back in one piece. If you aren't extremely attached to the CF look you can gell coat or paint it any color after the repair.

 

[ECTurboDSM]

If the weave isn't damaged, go to a boat supply store and get some gel coat and reapply it. Pictures would be very helpful in this situation.