dawrenn

I was wondering if there is any way to fix carbon fiber. I got a CF and when I looked at it I saw that the corners at the back of the hood are chipped. I think it happend during shipping. Is there any way to fix this?

cowanpp

For the mostpart, it looks like those are only in the gel coat, although the second one has a little bit of invasion into the actual fiber.

There are a few ways you could try to fix it. The easiest would be to mix up some epoxy and apply a little at a time and let it harden and try to mimic the shape. Or, if you had a non injured hood to take a mold off of, you could take a small, corner mold off of the good hood, and use that mold to hold the shape for the chipped hood while you put epoxy in on the chipped hood. Either way it's not really going to look wonderful, but it might look better than it does right now.

dawrenn

I do have a non injured hood. What would I use to make the mold? How would the mold hold the shape and how would I put the apoxy in?

cowanpp

I would make a fiberglass mold. Put down mold release on the non-injured hood and make a mold of the areas you want to fix (the two corners. I'd only make the mold size like a foot by a foot or so.) To do this you'll put down gel-coat on the non-injured hood and then when that has cured properly (fingerprint test) You apply the fiberglass and resin. You let this cure for about a day or so (the decision for how many layers is up to you, but I'd probably go for 2 or 3, hell maybe even 4, fiberglass is cheap and you'd want the mold to be strong). You then remove the mold. It would probably be a good idea to over lap the edges of the corners so the mold will line up on the injured hood.

Take your molds and clamp them into position on the injured hood (I'd use saw horses or something and have the injured hood on top of the molds). Be sure to apply more mold release inside the molds so they don't stick to your hood after you pour in the epoxy. Once you have everything set up, mix up some epoxy (use the part a and part b kind, not the polyester resin for this) and pour in a small amount into each mold. Let harden for a day or so and then remove the molds. It won't be perfect, but it'll look better than it does now.

P.S. You should probably work on some of these concepts on practice pieces before attempting on the real thing.

Josher

If you bought the hood from a company, I'd say send it back if it was insured or the company covers shipping damage. A good place for resins and hardeners is shopmaninc.com . Having used fiberglass myself to make a custom sub enclosure, it's not the easiest nor most enjoyable product to use in a project.......