Crystal Red ZR1

I damaged my drivers side Carbon Fiber Side Skirt and are wondering what is the cheapest way to fix or replace it?
The factory skirt is over $2,000.00 which one body shop says they cannot repair but I see other places like RPI design that has a pair for $645.00 for both sides plus the cost of 11 rivets per side to install. The damage is a scrap about 6 inches long at the front.
What is my best option?
Thanks

LGK-SD

When I searched on ZR1 side skirts there seemed to be a few choices considerably under (thank God) what you stated as the price.
Seems there is subtlety between "ZR1 style" and "ZR1 replacement" the latter of which I will assume is the desired choice.

Crystal Red ZR1

I found that WSA Auto has them for $405.00 for a pair including shipping. However I don't know what kind of quality they are.

Blue Devil 146

How about a picture of the scrape? If it isn't splintered it should able to be re cleared.

Crystal Red ZR1

Here are pictures of the scrape.[ATTACH][/ATTACH]

cruzc5frc

ouch

ZRJUAN.

make sure you check those skirts that are cheaper. A lot of those are fiberglass units that have a CF top layer and that's why they are so cheap.

Blue Devil 146

From the picture it just looks like a scrape, I would think you could sand and re clear that. Does not look splintered nor cracked. Go to a high end bike shop that deals in carbon fiber bikes, they actually have repair kits for them.

Crystal Red ZR1

Thanks for all the replies. Currently I am studying my options, either purchase new 100% CF skirts from RPI at $645.00 plus shipping or I sent this picture to a high end sports car body shop to analyze the damage and see if it can be repaired, check with a bike shop that deals with CF and see what they say.

FAsnakes

Last time I scraped my front splitter (I was on my second one) I just sanded it down and threw some clear on it.. . Wasn't perfect - but hardly noticeable.

That's not too bad and it doesn't look like it into the fibers..

gl

FAsnakes

BTW, here's the vid that inspired me::

Chris Scott

I do carbon fiber manufacturing.

As stated previously, as long as the number of spider cracks are limited and the depth does not reach the actual fiber, it can easily be repaired.

If there are spots that do reach the fiber, it can still be repaired to a much better state [really all depends on how picky you want to be].

Make sure a nice clear epoxy is used, using polyester or vinyl ester will 'brown' out the color of the weave. Additionally I recommend having the side skirt re-cleared or somehow protected from UVs. Otherwise over time it will yellow, embrittle, crack, etc.

If you were local, I would be happy to get this corrected for you. If you have any other questions or guidance, feel free to contact me.

Crystal Red ZR1

Thanks for your response Chris, I had my son look at it and he wet sanded it lightly with out taking off the clear coat and said that the impact crushed the weave and it was the best he could do with it which is passable because of the location. However I intend on replacing both of the side skirts with the RPI Design skirts. I would be interested on your advise on the repair and replacement. Please see the attached picture of the repair

Joezone914

I replaced mine with APR. the nice part is if you damage again they sell individually rather than pairs. Since they are different shape from factory you would need the set first.

Crystal Red ZR1

What is APR?

GMJim

I was at Carlisle last weekend and was looking at the RPI carbon skirts. They were real nice and looked as good or better than factory. $645.00 for the pair.

nolimits

You can do much more than that. Wet sanding isn't enough. Clear coating is the key to appearance as long as weave isn't compromised bad. Backside support repair with light weave is what you do for structural weakness if you're concerned.

For clear coat:

-Tape off area so you don't damage anymore when sanding.
-Sand some more, not a lot or not down to the weave if you can help it.
-Smoothing with less and less grit, no water, wipe off.
-Spray some clear coat.
-Let it dry, light sand and recoat as desired.
-Now start the fine wet sanding and polishing, wax or whatever last.

The main difference will be getting clear coat on there, soaking into the cracks and damage, most of them will disappear. You can even flex the area a little during the first application to work the clear coat into cracks etc. It gets tougher when the damage disrupts or shifts the weave as others have mentioned. Yours appears to be an easy fix if someone wants to spend the time vs paying for new ones. Or fix and also buy spares for when you really smack em, hopefully not. Good luck.