Hi all any body on here had any experience doing carbon fibre repair work on race cars might have some work coming up soon, any information regarding this kind of work or links would be appreciated many thanks.
I work for a Nascar team. And have repaired a number of hoods. I clean out the damaged area. and use a wet layup meathod to repair the spot. Then apply pressure and or vacuum bag. It has worked well for me. If your part is broken bad enough you will need a buck or mold to put your part in. while the repair cures. to mantain the shape of the part.
Been doing mainly f1 for the last 35 years from home based to race team from wet lay through vac,d all the way to chassis an now the latest 3d printed stuff
Bit of le Mans,dtm,paris/dakar thrown in there as well
So what exactly do you want to know ??
Only brief I have is making repair splashes and all aspects of carbon fibre body work repair on x2 cars competing in the wec for 2017
Um,
this makes me feel old. I’ve been gluing aircraft and race cars for 50+ years. the last 15 on purpose built road racing cars.
I generally base my repairs on the Boeing D6 manual or SRM 51-40-06
and vary it to meet the needs of the repairs. there is a lot of reference on the web for aircraft composite repairs that are applicable to racing cars because a lot of it is built by aerospace companies or the same standards at the factory.
I use aircraft grade epoxy resins and cloth on repairs.
I work from home in my garage (for the last 15 years) at present I have Ferrari #63 from Daytona here, a vintage INDY car, FV, Swift sports 2000 for repairs & restorations
My customer base is club racers but I have been with the teams all over North America to LeMans.
On the weekends my wife and I are race officials.
here is one reference for you to take a look at
http://www.tc.faa.gov/its/worldpac/techrpt/ar03-74.pdf
(Dan Gurney signed)
I don’t lurk here to often good luck and tell you customers “if you are not tearing up bodywork, your not going fast enough”
Thanks tom great info and great pics " I’m really quite jealous and envious as to what you have been able to do over the years" I have a love and passion for all things Motorsport and with my pre preg back ground I want to take that forward probably working for somebody else first then might go on my own in some capacity. Are you repairing then holding under vac until cured?
Yes, and infusing parts I build
How about that, very cool, even keep Mike Lewis’ stuff glued together, neat.
Nice work Tom. What method did you use for that nose ?
I have been with working on Mike’s cars for many years. including two LMP1 cars. I did a lot of aero work to the car a few years ago. it is based on the east coast this year so I have not seen it in a while.
the ply schedule is 2 5.7 PW 1 3mm Soric 1 ply 5.7 Infused with PTM&W epoxy. I thing that nose came out about 12-14 lbs. after I installed louvers on the fender top. that was for a Carbir S2000
I too have the “Passion”
The buck in that picture was for an airbox, I kind of ran out of time and doctor’d it with clear
Holy crap Tom. Super nice work! Love seeing the pictures.
I’m sorry I highjacked this thread. but now I do show so form of creditability. I will try to get back here soon with more input for the OP. Right now I’m buried in Ferrari parts to get done before Sebring
make sure you prep the surface for adhesion. and teardown can get messy. I use a lot of this stuff, I never owned a dremel never will
We have some of the same toys. My favorite being the Jacobs chuck, but I run mine on a Rockwell.
Sorry for not replying sooner but its been a busy week
Please don’t think I’m being funny but whoevers given you your “brief” for what your work entails is either an idiot or thinks your a lot more Experienced than you are,what exactly is your prepreg background ?
One season can be totally different from the last one race even.
You can have a Race,cars on the pace,stays out of trouble an you hardly do a thing other than the basics (more of them later).
Next race its like someone has opened the gates of hell work wise,cars off the pace,driver is trying too much,engineers trying to dial in the suspension etc and before you k ow it your off track or someone’s gone Into you or the engines gone pop.or possibly all 3 over the course of a day !
Any team worth its salt should have a composites box in the travelling spares.
Workload will depend on what car it carbon chassis race car there is a lot more work than a converted Ferrari for example with carbon body panels
Most teams will have a few tools but your generally expected to have your own travelling box with the air and hand tools you need
Diamond saw,90deg sander,bobbin sanders,pencil die grinder and 10mm belt linisher are bare minimum
Team should have a travelling vac pump in comp kit,make sure you have plenty of van consumables,cloth (200g 2-2 is pretty versatile !),scales,glues fast 5 min epoxy/wurth bumper repair,genral epoxy,3m9323,and hysol for high temp.
Depending on the car and brakes you might have to get the very high temp hysol glue and epoxy for brake duct repairs.
Lots of pre preg flat stock .5-4mm,will get cut up and used in lots of repair situations,pre preg carbon angle 25mm-25mm ish very handy for quick brackets,emergency strengthening ribs on everything from floors to rad ducts.
Is its a carbon chassis get some small carbon/hc/carbon made up with the appropriate thickness core so you have ready made repair patches for any chassis puncture repair also a hot bonder for chassis repair.
Your “normal” day its just bodywork repair either wear,impact or fire/heat damage.
Do your repairs from behind the bodywork and if at a race don’t try replacing core go with carbon patch onto the outer skin out onto good core/outer skin. Mostly those you don’t bag just use peel ply.
With delam/heat damage if you have a good skin vac it down and resin inject it.
Lots of areas can have a patch from your flat stock bonded on with 9323
You can also use 9323 to laminate with and make a very strong laminate with and make a very strong laminate.
Good crew will strip a car down to help you with a heavy shunt to give you the most time to do the job but you have to use your head !
You have to look at all the jobs and asses them and what needs doing,if you have a floor/front corner that’s got wear damage you might be filling core with 9323,sandind down and laminating new carbon and once that’s repaired drilling and fitting a bobbin to replace the fixing. Obviously you start the first part of that before you look at the brake duct with a simple little wet lay repair.
Some of the stuff you can be called upon to repair are safety critical chassis,gearbox,suspension and wings you should only be touching if you are 110% certain of your ability/process and materials. If you make a mistake someone could die
Few teams have been known to cut corners but to give you an idea a composite mercenary is about £400 a day for someone who knows what they are doing at le Mans
400/day!?
That seems outrageously cheap for someone who could save a race.
For that price, why wouldn’t a big team just contract to have all the top guys sitting in the pits so no one else had access to them?
There are quite a few guys out there,thou it is a diminishing pool of people
Modern composites guys don’t do nowhere the amount of variety of work now to learn the skills
30 years ago you might of had to make the pattern for a job yourself,defiantly had to figure out the splits and flange it up yourself and make a multi piece mould.
Then make the part,trim it,and maybe fit to the car.
99% of modern laminators wont go near a diamond saw or the race shop it will be the fitters who do it,they are mainly the ones that get into race work now
Enjoy wec its like f1 was 20 years ago,you can get stuck in its a buzz.
F1 now you have a bodywork technician,paint technician,sticker technician etc all they do is bolt on spare parts an hardly repair a thing an go home at 10pm
You might also overestimate how much money there is floating around the wec,certainly not enough to be snapping people up for the sake of it
I don’t consider myself as an idiot and the team I do composites for is the 2016 WEC CHAMPION
Tom I wasn’t referring to you ! If you look at the OP,s second post on here and also on his posts on the easy composites site he has been given a “brief” of what the job will entail-I stand by my statement that is was either given by an idiot or someone who thinks the OP is more experienced !!!
P.s been with teams that have won le Mans and the LMP1 wec championship so we probably know some of the same people,you know any of the prodrive boys from when they were running the Ferrari ?