I’m about to repair a CF helmet…but I can’t think of a good way to go about this. As the picture shows, there is a crack in the topcoat, and the carbon has separated from the surrounding resin. This largely only affects the top composite layer, and the carbon itself is intact.
I need a way of injecting (or pulling) new epoxy into the damaged area, so that it will fill most of the voids that have opened up, and leave a fairly seamless repair.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
I would never recommend trying to repair any helmet. Consider it to be a cool garage hanging object of art!
Sorry…but if you lay it down and hit the helmet again…
Apologies, let me clarify…
The shell of the helmet is all that is cracked.
It is not for motorcycle or road use, but for mountain biking.
The helmet never saw an impact. The inner foam (the part that actually absorbs impact) was never damaged. This flaw is from factory, as a result of a poor layup.
I wouldnt repair it either…
You cant get them to replace it?
Guys…
I work in the bike industry, and have a close relationship with the companies that produce and market this equipment. I know exactly how this helmet works, and I know as a fact that repairing this helmet will absolutely NOT affect it’s safety, and this has been concurred upon by other industry professionals.
I know what I’m doing here.
I came here because this forum is choc-full of very knowledgeable people who can help with this sort of project. So…in all respectfullness, how do I fix this thing?
If it were a bumper, the way I would do it is seal a small area of the helmet and pull a deep vacuum, then infuse the thinnest epoxy i could find. let cure sand and fill with more epoxy as neccesary, sand and clearcoat. but since it is a helmet I would just hang it on the wall and never put it on my head, My head is the most valuable thing I own and I would never depend on a discount or defective helmet.
the quality in that is appauling,most of us on here made better parts as scrap practise parts when we first got into doin carbon.
Buddy, it was a poor mold release, get over it! The rest of the helmet was laid up extremely well. I’ve since put close to 10 hours into prepping and painting that helmet, and until you’ve got that much time staring at it up close, you are in no position to criticize, mmkay?
lol,whatever 
I think “fan” isn’t going to have many FANS on here…:o
If you have spent 10 hours prepping something that most people would throw away, and then need to ask on here how to repair it, you must have plenty of time on your hands, and very little common sense!
looking at the whole thing, just slather on some epoxy and sand it back down. I would also use something finer than 80grit paper! I take parts up to 1000grit. People are being slightly mean here, but that part doesn’t exactly look that good. Needs alot more fine sanding. Also, IF the carbon is broken (doesn’t even look like that, just looks liek a bad epoxy/clear coat job), it IS a helmet. The outter shell is part of the helmet, not just the foam inside. Now, if the top layer of CF is just a layover, providing only looks, then all you need to do is recoat the top coat, and resand.