The most common type of repair we do is cracked carbon tubes, generally from either crash damage, something being dropped on the frame, or the frame being attached to a car and driven into something. The cause of the damage doesn’t matter as the repair process is very similar.

Inspection

First we start by inspecting the damaged section of the frame and surrounding areas. What caused the damage? Did it cause any other damage which isn’t immediately visible? It’s important to get the whole picture before starting work.

Damage Removed

We carefully remove all the damaged carbon fibre. The damaged fibres have lost their strength and there is no way to repair them so they must be removed

Cut and fit new material

New carbon is then cut from rolls of cloth to match the size and shape of the repair area. We stock different tyres of UD (unidirectional) as well as different weaves so we can match the new material with whatever the frame was built with.

Mix with Resin

The new cloth fabric has very little strength by itself – it relies on resin to hold everything today. We use a two-part epoxy resin especially selected to match the carbon fabrics we use and the type of resins used in the original construction of the frame.

Vacuum Bag and Cure

The best way of curing carbon fibre is under vacuum. We wrap the area (or sometimes the whole frame) in bagging material, seal everything up, and draw a vacuum to suck all the air from the bag. This compacts the new layers of carbon fibre and ensures no voids in our repair or between our repair and the original frame.

Depending on the repair the cycle of cutting and fitting new material, mixing with resin, and curing will occur multiple times.

Prep and Paint

We can then either leave the carbon repair raw for that “battle scarred” look or paint the repair area to match the rest of the frame.