Jaguar Carbon Fibre Repair
Jaguar Carbon Fibre Repair
Giving Your Jaguar Carbon A New Lease Of Life
Jaguar has a great heritage for producing high performance GT and sportscars. These big cats are often styled with some exotic materials and finishes such as carbon fibre both on the interior and exterior. With Jaguars having a lot of carbon fibre on their flagship models, they are commonly taking impacts and damage, in particular the front splitters and rear diffusers which tuck into the low slung areas of the car. We have a wealth of knowledge with carbon fibre on these cars and bringing back carbon parts that otherwise would be thrown away. With some of these carbon parts installed, they are also no longer produced meaning to keep to the OEM specification, repairing the carbon is the only option.
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 Jaguar 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 Jaguar from exterior parts such as front splitters, rear diffusers, side skirts & rear spoilers to interior parts such as centre consoles & dashboard trims.
Jaguar XKR-S
£132,000, 2013, 5.0L V8, 550PS
Carbon Fibre Front Splitter
Original Part Cost: £3,197
Repair Time: 10 Days
- This Jaguar XKR-S had been subjected to impacts both front and rear of the car on both carbon fibre elements.
- This particular front spoiler had not only been hit in several places to cause various splits and cracks, it also had been ground out on driveways many repeated times wearing through the lacquer, resin and some of the carbon as well. It was in quite a sorry state.
- This splitter initially received a host of reinforcements. Access on the inside of this part was possible meaning we could layer a substantial amount of reinforcement carbon layers to bolster the part and gain back a lot of strength this part was missing. Fortunately tolerances were good between this part and the bumper which allowed space for layering the carbon reinforcements.
- Once structurally sound, we focussed on the front side by sanding down the entire part to get as much of the heavy scuffs out from the finish. Using several layers of resin infusion we levelled the part and fill in dry and damaged fibres.
- Like all repaired parts, this piece went off to lacquer to receive a UV stable clearcoat to seal in from the elements.
- Once back from lacquering, the spoiler was flatted and polished ready to go back on the car. The difference is quite drastic!
Carbon Fibre Diffuser
Original Part Cost: £2,695
Repair Time: 12 Days
- This rear diffuser was damaged at the same time as the front spoiler above. When reversing a pesky tree stump got in the way which cracked a lot of the diffuser in different areas as well as taking a chunk out of the lower half of the diffuser. Where the fixings points where also took a lot of load which snapped out these areas too.
- As with the front splitter, the reverse side was reinforced in the first instance to gain strength. Several layers of carbon were used to make this part stronger than when it was new.
- The lower section had to be rebuilt mostly from scratch by layering new carbon both front and back of this part. The fixings holes where a lot of the damage had occurred, we rebuilt and also reinforced along with metal penny washers encapsulated within the carbon to form an even stiffer fixing point.
- Once levelled, the entire part was resin infused to smooth over and give the best uniformity possible.
- Post lacquer and polish, this diffuser was fit for purpose with absolutely minimal signs of previous damage.
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 BMW 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 Jaguar 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.
