Crashed parts repair

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Crashed parts repair

Crashed parts repair

Author	Message
ajb100	ajb100 posted 10 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 346, Visits: 4.4K	Hi guys, thought I'd share a repair I'm doing at the minute and get an opinion on the method I'm using. The repair is on a front splitter and rear diffuser that got damaged in a crash. The front splitter has been pretty badly damaged on one side and was beyond repair. Luckily the team had another splitter which had been smashed up on the other side. So the plan is to trim the good side off one splitter and attach it to the other to make one good one from the two. The old splitter Splitter to be repaired The splitter to be repaired had a lot of hidden damage once I started looking at it in detail. The length of the splitter is made of two pieces bonded together, which had started to crack apart And there were multiple other joints that had started to separate Once I'd decided what was getting cut off/saved/transferred, I needed to make a mould of the splitter lip as it was going to get cut up and needed a section to replace it. First up was to flange it and a couple coats of easy lease Then to lay up a mould Once I'd de moulded, it was time to try and make them a bit more manageable and prepare for the cutting so time to try and split the splitter along the cracked joint Once seperated, I was surprised how shoddy the adhesive had been applied, especially coming from Caparo. Two massive air voids on the joint Next was to cut off the damaged and good sections and check fitment with the splitter to be repaired. The plan for the repair is expertly shown below in a drawing from my ipad and I'd be interested in getting people opinions on it. Because the parts are all honeycombe cored and there is a large number of forces on this, I wasn't happy with just bonding the bits back together and relying on the strength of the glue. The black lines are the original carbon layers, with the shaded yellow being the honeycomb core. The red lines are new layers of 450g carbon and the green is foam core. The top two layers will be made separately and then bonded in with adhesive. The final top layer of carbon will be vac bagged on. Once all that is finished, I'll flip it over, clean up the join line underneath with a little groove and fill with adhesive (blue in the picture) So the join line was exposed And the two pieces placed side by side I've done the first two layers of carbon and put in the core, but haven't got a picture at the minute Tags aero diffuser repair Splitter Edited 10 Years Ago by ajb100
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ajb100	ajb100 posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 346, Visits: 4.4K	The diffuser wasn't as badly damaged, its set quite far in board so protected by the car Luckily the veins unbolted from this design so minimised the collateral damage. Marked out a nice simple piece to cut out to replace The vein had got some damage around the mounting holes First thing has been to make a new section to go in the main diffuser section. Due to the foam core I wet lay the piece instead of double bagging to infuse it. Straight from the mould The thick line on the left marks the 2mm step for the vein to sit in. As I'm using 450 and 650 carbon, I ran 3 strands of carbon at the step to prevent bridging. The mark on the right is we're its bridged on the back of the core The core was made over sized so will be cut off. This panel will be attached in the same method as joining the two parts of the splitter Edited 10 Years Ago by ajb100
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20_rc51_00	20_rc51_00 posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 95, Visits: 548	THanks for posting, I"m curious to see how this all comes together!
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ajb100	ajb100 posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 346, Visits: 4.4K	Using the mould made earlier, a new lip section was made. These parts are mainly focused on weight so a few pinholes aren't a big worry, and to be honest, most the wet lay parts have come out better than the pre preg original. Although may have something to do with me making it a little resin rich! The new lip offered up You can see in this one the damaged bits that had been removed, and the core in place. The plan is to vac bag the top layer layer to minimise air content in the repair, so there is a little carbon bridge front and back to run the gum tape across New lip in place and the repair being bagged for the top layer. The final 2 layers go up and over the duct as this part is the weakest and bends, so I wanted to try and take some of the load away from the repair Once all done, it was flipped over and the join underneath tidied, smoothed then a layer of epoxy over it just to seal it and tart it up a bit. The chunk that was missing under the lip was filled with a mix of carbon chopped strand and foam core as this isn't a load bearing part. The last layer was a nice piece of carbon, again just to tart it up a bit Bit of release film put over the repair And as I didn't have a former for it, a few bits of wood weighted and clamped down to match the surrounding angles and squeeze out excess air and resin That part is done now, just need to repair the rear mounting holes and then bond the two halves back together
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ajb100	ajb100 posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 346, Visits: 4.4K	The diffuser was much the same, the damaged section removed and repair piece shaped to match Channeled Jig made to hold it in place Clamped in place Carbon and foam core in You can kind of see in the pic above that there is a large arc mark leading away from the corner of the repair. I only noticed this when smoothing out the core that it looks like a bit of damage from the crash It wasn't much, so I just keyed it and the last two layers of the repair were extra large to cover it just in case This is all now finished so ill get pics tomorow. The vein was pretty simple using a few off cuts of carbon slightly thinner and then layer carbon either side of it
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combustioncraig	combustioncraig posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 26, Visits: 46	That was a big repair I know that doing carbon fiber repair work can be super frustrating. Good job
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ajb100	ajb100 posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 346, Visits: 4.4K	Thanks, I quite enjoy repairs, they're a different mind challenge from the norm
	Reply Like 3