Wow, it’s been a long time since I logged on to this forum. I’m glad it’s still going and I’m amazed at some of the stuff you guys are doing.
The reason for this post is about Motorsports composites & repair. As some of you are aware that auto racing has paralleled the aircraft industry in construction. Not only the body work but the main structure of what would be called the chassis or frame. In road racing we refer to the xxxxpit of the car where the suspension and engine/transmission bolt up to as “the tub” and is made up of carbon fiber, metal/nomex honeycomb. With secondary structures made up in similar and various combinations.
There are very few individual independent shops that cater to small teams and club racers in the private sector including the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and vintage racing clubs across the country.
Go ahead and do an internet search of composite repair for say for instance a 1997 LOLA INDY Champ Car.
What I’ve been doing from a small shop in my two car garage for the last 10 or so years has been building replacement parts, modifying , and repairing damaged bodywork including restorations . I started out small with only club racers for client/customers and has taken me to being flown to France in June of this year to the 24 Hours of LeMans race. There I was part of the race team keeping the carbon parts glued back together. All week long I was fed parts while they ran practice, qualifying and made simple repairs to their inventory of spares.
My background with composites started in 1974 when I went to work for a company at Van Nuys airport in California. Through the years I’ve worked on just about all I could except for modern military aircraft. After spending 25 years in the airlines as a composite technician at LAX I gained a lot of training and knowledge fixing broken aircraft, from 747’s MD-11’s and Airbus aircraft. When the small side jobs for the club racers (mostly fiberglass) grew into more fun than profit I decided to do the stupidest thing in the world and go full time and work from my garage. Well looking back I could be better off financially but I would never have changed my choice. I’ve traveled all over the country, US & Canada with race teams.
So here’s the rub,
July 4th. I had a small shunt with my motorcycle and broke my left Femur in three places. I’m able to do some small stuff from my wheelchair but what has happened is I’ve left a good group of customers without any support and I have no one to recommend them to. I know of a few people that do work on race car bodywork but from what I’ve seen of their work I would not trust them to my customers.
It’s a dirty job grinding carbon and Kevlar to prep the repairs. Most of it is hand layup and vacuum bagging some cosmetic filling and priming. a good percent of the parts get painted. If pricing is kept affordable it’s better to fix that to by new replacement parts. It does take a lot of out of the box thinking and some creative tooling but it can be a rewarding challenge once your done. And then tune into Speed Channel and watch the cars you fix wiz by at the Long Beach Grand Prix and other venues.
I may be looking for some help in the future, but in the mean time I welcome anyone to get a piece of this game.
tom irwin (old composite hack)
here is one for show
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After