Repair of cracked carbon fiber trim? An idea.

**Timpanogos Slim** · 08-08-2021 09:40 PM

I drive an S5 but posting here because the S4 is a much more common car and it's the same trim pieces.

The shifter console trim on my car is cracked on the passenger side. I'm sure it's not particularly uncommon. I know that the new part costs $700 and I will never ever ever pay that much. Also won't pay the going rate for 2nd hand trim. Ain't gonna happen. Shifter trim is worth $50 to me, maybe $70 at the outside. I'll smack every piece three dozen times with a ball-peen hammer to achieve a uniform spidering of cracks before I break 3 digits for a replacement piece. I buy cars to drive them not to look at them.

But that's not to say that a defect doesn't bother me.

I have a friend whose hobby is boat repair. He spends a lot of time with fiberglass, carbon fiber, resins, etc.

I was thinking about the fact that we are all well-acquainted with resin that has wetting and wicking properties sufficient to obscure a crack in safety glass when i asked him about this problem.

He says he has, I forget the term, the epoxy that is specified for impregnating fibers under vacuum. And he has a really big vacuum pump.

Has anybody actually tried this sort of thing? It *should be possible to draw some water-clear epoxy into the crack, cure it, and sand and polish back to a high gloss.

**simonh** · 08-11-2021 03:03 AM

What you are suggesting is perfectly possible - you need a thin water clear epoxy for the job, it is a good idea to try and flex the piece so the cracks are "open" when you fill it.