Aston Martin Carbon Fibre Repair
Aston Martin Carbon Fibre Repair
Giving Your Aston Martin Carbon A New Lease Of Life
Aston Martin prides themselves on producing some of the most luxurious sports car the world has ever seen. Although cars that leave the factory are designed for chewing through continents, they are also built to be some of the most exiting cars to drive. Carbon fibre has been used throughout these cars for getting on a couple decades now and we are seeing almost more Aston related carbon repairs than any other manufacturer. With these being naturally quite low sports cars they are prone to catching front and rear diffusers but the good news is here at Carbonwurks we have you covered in that sad occurrence.
Whilst every carbon fibre piece is unique and every damage is different this will massively influence the time involved for the repair as well as the costs.
As we are repairing more high performance carbon fibre than we ever have done, we wanted to really drill down into some of the repairs of these parts to show case the before and after of them as well as explaining what’s involved in the repairs. Below are just a couple of examples of Aston Martin Carbon Fibre Repairs that we have completed recently and a brief explanation about what happened and what was involved with the repair.
We can within reason repair any carbon fibre part on any Aston Martin from exterior parts such as front splitters, rear diffusers, side skirts & rear spoilers to interior parts such as centre consoles & dashboard trims.
Aston Martin Vanquish S Volante V12
£223,995, 2012, 5.9 L V12 Engine, 573PS
Front Carbon Fibre Splitter
Original Part Cost: £5000
Repair Time: 10 Days
- Front splitters are more prone to taking impacts than any other carbon part on a car. The main reason is they take hits daily from stones, they can catch on high kerbs and steep driveways and are generally the first impact point for the car.
- This particular front spoiler had been caught many times on a driveway to the point it had worn through all the protective lacquer and resin. At this stage it was still possible to bring this back to near enough brand new. Addressing this now stops the potential for the carbon to be stained or UV damaged.
- With any carbon part, we strip down the lacquer and resin to get to the carbon fibres themselves so we can address any damage first before making the carbon cosmetically perfect.
- On careful inspection, this splitter didn’t need to be reinforced from the inside as it hadn’t cracked of split the structure. With the carbon being exposed however we did need to resin infuse the part again to form a barrier, to smooth the finish and to prep the surface ready to be re-lacquered completely.
- With all lacquered carbon parts, we flat and polish the finish to give as best as possible shine and obtain surface smoothness. The end result speaks for itself. Originally made in Britain and now repaired in Britain too by ourselves.
Aston Martin Vantage S V12
£114,995, 2017, 5.9 L V12 Engine, 565PS
Rear Carbon Fibre Diffuser
Original Part Cost: £4250
Repair Time: 14 Days
- This Aston Martin Vantage diffuser had been subjected to a variety of different carbon torture! First off the car reversed into a less moveable item which caused a crack behind the number plate section, this in itself was the main reason for repair. Sadly the bodyshop who were disassembling unfortunately managed to inflict more damage. The fixings behind the diffuser often rust which makes it difficult to remove other trims, the bodyshop heated the metal inside too far and burnt/bubbled the lacquer and resin in the carbon. Some of the carbon tabs had been weakened heavily and damaged again due to stuck fixings along with some punctures through the carbon.
- As with all carbon repairs, we made the part structurally sound by reinforcing the reverse with fresh carbon and addressing any fibres that had been damaged. Some of the clips had to be completely rebuilt which involved building new layers of carbon and machining the area back to the correct size and dimensions. This is a form of reverse engineering to ensure good fitment of the part once repaired.
- Once structurally sound, we made good of the frontal sections on show by removing the old dead lacquer and resin and reintroducing fresh resin to smooth and seal damaged fibres at the top.
- After the diffuser was re-lacquered, this part was ready to go back on the car.
Aston Martin Vanquish V12
£199,995, 2014, 5.9 L V12 Engine, 565PS
Front Carbon Fibre Splitter
Original Part Cost: £4725
Repair Time: 12 Days
- This Vanquish front splitter suffered a similar fate to the Volante splitter above. The underside was heavy scuffed and scoured from repeated months/years of driveway scraping. The leading edge had also taken a fair amount of abuse which needed to be taken care of to ensure structural stability. The unique part to this front splitter is the “Q Branch” red tinted lacquer giving a cherry/port red finish.
- With a lot of work required on the underside, the first “port” of call was to get the spoiler structurally sound. We reinforced the inside with fresh carbon to give a significant more stiffness without causing any tolerance issues when fitted back to the car.
- With this part now being stronger than it left the factory, the next stage was to smooth and resin fill the whole part where it was covered in heavy scuffs and scratches.
- Once repaired, the part had to be re-lacquered with the same Q branch red tinted lacquer which is both hard to obtain and more expensive than regular clear lacquer.
- Finished from lacquer, a final flat and polish and it’s ready to go back on the car. Another splitter saved from the scrap heap!
Aston Martin Vanquish Carbon FIbre Front Splitter Repair
so here's what's
Needed From You!
If after reading all the above you want to proceed with getting us to repair your damaged Aston Martin carbon fibre part then we’ll need a few things:
Pictures of the damaged part
We’ll need high quality close up and far away pictures of the item in question so we can see the damage and the overall part. Please ensure you take as many pictures as possible from different angles. If the damage goes through the part then we’ll need to see the rear also
Send over the pictures
Once you have all your pictures you can email them to us at [email protected]. If there is a lot or the files are too big then your best solution is to put them all into a folder, zip / archive them and send them to our WeTransfer Account – WeTransfer.com
Vehicle Info
When you send the photos it would be great to include as much information about the vehicle as possible such as what Aston Martin it is along with Year / Reg or VIN Number. We’ll also need to know how the damage initially occurred.
Once we have all of the above our team of fabricators will look over all the information provided and then come back to you with costings and timescales involved.
Please try to be as accurate as possible with the pictures and the information provided as if we don’t get all the facts prior to the part arriving it may be that extra time and materials may be required which will increase the costs.
For some of the more serious damaged parts it may be that we can’t offer any quote or timings until we have physically seen the item. There is also the possibility that the cost of repair is not financially feasible but we will certainly try to cater as best as we can.
The next step is to get in touch with us using our contact form below:
Frequently Asked
Questions
Often when carbon has damage, the fibres themselves can be fractured and torn. We can bind the part back together along with making it structurally sound but normally if the carbon has suffered cracks, splits or is missing carbon, there will be what we call a “Witness” mark. The best way to think of it is tearing a hole in your jumper, you can stitch it back together, but you may still see a small line where the fabric has been bound back together. Most of the time the witness mark is very small and unnoticeable, other times it can be slightly more obvious depending how bad the damage was. Regardless of this, the end result is as good as can be achieved and saves considerable amounts over replacing the component.
Generally, most repairs do look very good and, in some cases, do look brand new. To re-skin the entire part can be very complicated and very expensive. We try not to go down this route as it’s not always cost effective to do so. We work around the carbon that is there to give the best possible outcome. It’s rare that we would need to consider re-skinning the entire part.
The short answer is yes. We can fabricate small sections and if you still have the snapped off or damaged carbon, we can often make use of this. Depending on the part and the desired end result, sometimes this isn’t cost effective or viable but all the same, this is a type of repair we carry out often.
Very much so. We offer a range of different tinted finishes so if your carbon has a tint to it, we can normally refinish in the same colour.
This will vary massively on the part in need of being repaired. Often aftermarket parts are cheaply made which likely would be cheaper to replace than repair. For higher end, more expensive or rare carbon fibre parts, more often than not it absolutely does make sense to repair as the cost to replace is extremely high or the part is no longer production. We try to cater a repair to the budget of the customer, but we won’t offer a cheap solution if it means compromising the end result.
Sometimes yes depending on where the damage is and the possibility to reinforce. If the part is enclosed, it makes it very difficult to repair behind the damage point and reinforce to suitable level. More often than not however, if we can gain access behind the part, we can make the part as strong or even stronger than before. Carbon manufacturers will only use a handful of layers of carbon, we can add many more layers if required which will increase strength massively.
You can either drop the part off yourself or choose a courier to transport the part to us. We use Parcelforce large for most UK items as they will accept parts up to 2.5 meters in length. If being shipped to us, we do recommend using bubble wrap to protect the part itself along with a cardboard box to ensure the part doesn’t suffer any more damage during transit. If you need help with this element, please do get in touch to discuss as we may be able to help.
Sadly not. The repair process even if it is a simpler and more minor amount of damage, it will still require days of sanding, resin infusing and lacquering. In some cases, we can remove the part from your car here at our workshop (for an additional charge) and you may be able to drive away for a number of weeks until ready to refit.
Although we are capable of removing and disassembly, we prefer not to store any other parts and request the carbon is delivered or dropped off to us in bare form. By this we mean any other elements removed that could get in the way (fog lights, brake lights, trims, cables, fixings etc).
We get asked this quite a lot and the answer is mostly yes. We use specialist high temp resin and cure the part to have the ability to cope with high temperature demands. Often re-finishing/lacquering can be more complicated, but we do have methods to manage this depending on the application.
