Wildcardfox
Well-Known Member
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- #1
Almost anyone who’s driven on the carbon wheels has faced the dreaded rock 🪨 damage that can quickly turn a beautiful wheel into a scarred eye sore. Not only is it unsightly but the protective thermal layer that shields the carbon fiber from transitioning back to gel state if temperatures ever reached high enough is gone.
My first rock damaged happened around 6000 miles. I bought two spare wheels that needed repair. I had my friends at Wasp Automotive and Tin Works in Oak Hills repair the paint on the wheels and then I sent the spare front up to Spyder Composites to have the ceramic coating redone.
(pictures of my spare front and spare rear being repainted before the spare front
My plan was to swap out one of my original wheels whenever I got more rock 🪨 damage. I would then send the wheel in need of repair back to Spyder and continue on.
My plan seemed sound but I never sent my original wheel which a rock 🪨 ripped a large rip in the ceramic that encompassed 3/4 of the barrel back to Spyder and then I had to replace my front Cup 2 Tires at 16000 miles, I now had three wheels with ceramic damage. The spare wheel that had already been repaired had rock scar in its cermaic finish, and my remaining original had lost of rock strikes and one small ripon the perimeter.
The frequency of rock damage—within every 6000 miles, made me decide that I needed to try to find a coating repair solution. Although Spyder offers their repair, the repair is a smooth finish that is dissimilar to the OE Ceramic coating that has a rough, gritty feel. Although it’s fine, I preferred a OE texture.
Being that this is a coating applied to carbon fiber, I decided to use my composites expertise and try to create a solution.
I spoke to some of my chemist suppliers and found a process for repair that gives 1700C resistance, uses Ceramic to repair to the damaged ceramic, and the final finish gives the rough OE appearance
Here is one of my front wheels, this is minor damage in my opinion, but if you look closely at the ceramic there are lots of rock strikes that have removed small bits of the ceramic coating. Then a small rock tear near the edge of the coating.
I don’t have a picture of the large tear on the other original wheel but here’s a picture of a test repair on the rip and you can tell by the width and length of the test repair to have an idea of how large it was.
So anyways, after doing a few tests, I figured out the process and used the material to repair.
Sprayed on here’s the finished repair
And on the vehicle (slightly dirty wheels because haven’t washed the car since getting back
The repair and recoat has that OE gritty feel and after drying is extremely hard and durable as it’s again a ceramic based coating.
Repair done, I’m very happy with the results. I need to do the other two wheels which I used as testers as I did trial and error to learn the process.
I’m probably going to teach this procedure to Tin Works in Oak Hills since they’ve worked previously on repainting a few carbon wheels for customers so they can offer a ceramic repair.
With many people having carbon wheels, we’re going to need multiple avenues for repair.
My first rock damaged happened around 6000 miles. I bought two spare wheels that needed repair. I had my friends at Wasp Automotive and Tin Works in Oak Hills repair the paint on the wheels and then I sent the spare front up to Spyder Composites to have the ceramic coating redone.
(pictures of my spare front and spare rear being repainted before the spare front
My plan was to swap out one of my original wheels whenever I got more rock 🪨 damage. I would then send the wheel in need of repair back to Spyder and continue on.
My plan seemed sound but I never sent my original wheel which a rock 🪨 ripped a large rip in the ceramic that encompassed 3/4 of the barrel back to Spyder and then I had to replace my front Cup 2 Tires at 16000 miles, I now had three wheels with ceramic damage. The spare wheel that had already been repaired had rock scar in its cermaic finish, and my remaining original had lost of rock strikes and one small ripon the perimeter.
The frequency of rock damage—within every 6000 miles, made me decide that I needed to try to find a coating repair solution. Although Spyder offers their repair, the repair is a smooth finish that is dissimilar to the OE Ceramic coating that has a rough, gritty feel. Although it’s fine, I preferred a OE texture.
Being that this is a coating applied to carbon fiber, I decided to use my composites expertise and try to create a solution.
I spoke to some of my chemist suppliers and found a process for repair that gives 1700C resistance, uses Ceramic to repair to the damaged ceramic, and the final finish gives the rough OE appearance
Here is one of my front wheels, this is minor damage in my opinion, but if you look closely at the ceramic there are lots of rock strikes that have removed small bits of the ceramic coating. Then a small rock tear near the edge of the coating.
I don’t have a picture of the large tear on the other original wheel but here’s a picture of a test repair on the rip and you can tell by the width and length of the test repair to have an idea of how large it was.
So anyways, after doing a few tests, I figured out the process and used the material to repair.
Sprayed on here’s the finished repair
And on the vehicle (slightly dirty wheels because haven’t washed the car since getting back
The repair and recoat has that OE gritty feel and after drying is extremely hard and durable as it’s again a ceramic based coating.
Repair done, I’m very happy with the results. I need to do the other two wheels which I used as testers as I did trial and error to learn the process.
I’m probably going to teach this procedure to Tin Works in Oak Hills since they’ve worked previously on repainting a few carbon wheels for customers so they can offer a ceramic repair.
With many people having carbon wheels, we’re going to need multiple avenues for repair.
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