Exotic car repair

[David]

I own a body shop in Austin TX.  We repair a lot of exotic cars. Mostly Ferraris. Their diffusers are made of carbon and some exterior trims. In the new models there are no available parts for replacement.  I been needing to repair some of this parts but the carbon weave is different.   I can send a picture

[lo_0l]

Hey @David, welcome to Composites Community! That looks like it might be 12K 2x2 Twill which you can find here at Rock West Composites.

Carbon Fiber Repair can be repaired. But getting it to look right can be next to impossible.

Most of the people that do repair on carbon fiber bikes (for example), repair the CF structurally and paint over it. A repair option for you might be to repair it structurally, and do that. Another option is to rough it, and skin it with a piece of carbon fiber, or do a CF vinyl wrap over the repair. Others like @John Kimball and @Adam C might have more input/ideas.

Sorry to hear you're having difficulty sourcing the parts you need!

[John Kimball]

David,

As mentioned, repairing woven fabric is pretty easy, but cosmetically, extremely difficult. The first issue is finding the exact fiber and then matching the weave so you don't see any seams is a very time intensive project. The best possible outcome is to repair it properly for structural integrity, then skin the entire diffuser for a cosmetic look. Looking closely at the picture, you have a 3k plain weave fabric. Skinning is a time intensive project and takes some patience, but done correctly, you can get fantastic results.
You can use the same fabric and resin for repair and skinning. You can find the fabric here: https://www.rockwestcomposites.com/13006-d-group.
A good resin can be found here: https://www.rockwestcomposites.com/shop/pro-set-laminating-resins
And Hardener here: https://www.rockwestcomposites.com/shop/pro-set-laminating-hardeners.

I recommend the Pro-Set LAM-135 Resin with LAM-226 Hardener