hi all

bit of advice/ tips from the experts please

basically picked up this bit of rare touring car history, its a 1999 Vauxhall Vectra BTCC touring car front splitter, as you can see its took abit of a beating in its time, this a little project for myself and to eventually fit it to my car for show perpose 





as you can see i have damage to this corner its cracked the carbon and actually took a chunk out of it and theres a hole, now im not after repairing it so that it can be used in racing terms.... but i would like to repair it so cosmetically it looks like new my plan was to fill the hole and smooth over the damage with fiberglass and then wetlay the whole splitter in carbon..... your thoughts please guys

many thanks

phil

Hi, if you try and do a "patch repair" cosmetically it wont be great, ie you will see the patched area. If you want a cosmetically pleasing repair I would do as you suggest fill the hole/holes with GRP/Body Filler, finish and polish the whole front edge/ lip . Take a mould of the front lip. Then lay up a 3/4 layer "skin" from the mould and then bond that over the original.

hi warren thanks for your help

i wasnt thinking a patch repair, i want the look to be almost flawless like its never been damaged, i intend to spray the whole splitter black so no repairs are visable threw the carbon and "skin" the whole lot, when you mention about making a mold for the front lip? why would you do this? i was hoping for wetlaying it straight onto the splitter in one and do a few layers, skinning it as a whole. (the white bit is actually paint thats been painted over carbon so underneeth that is pure carbon its one whole item not 2 seprate parts just incase you saw it as 2 parts) the blue top half is just a original bumper cut so it can be bonded onto the splitter and that bit will be painted the same colour as my car.

Hi, ok if you are going to paint it then a patch repair would be the quickest/cheapest option.

hi warren yes i was going to paint it all black so it masks any imprefections that there may be visable.

i think it would be very costly to make a mold of the splitter lip as it would be huge lol!

im in mid wales welshpool mate

niice any pics?

Hi, got loads of pics in boxes somewhere. Before the time of digital cameras so they are hard copies I will have to get some scanned of whatever it is you do with them. (old bugger me).