In April of 2022, while in the process of readying the Enviate Hypercar to compete at the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, the bodywork was badly damaged. Cody Loveland hired me to fly in and perform repairs to the bodywork, as time was short and he didn't have the time to do the repairs himself.
The first two photos above what Cody sent me. The damage is quite obvious, it had been crushed under some heavy machinery. Even the lexan windshield was cracked almost in half! Upon arriving, I removed as much of the decorative vinyl as needed to see the full extent of the damage and plan the repairs. (Vinyl removal not shown.) The repair was performed from the back side of the part, to keep the shape of the bodywork's outer surface from being changed. The part was propped up to be easy to work on.
In order to strengthen the bodywork, carbon cloth was applied with a good margin surrounding the crack, as well as along the leading edge of the windshield opening. 3 layers of carbon cloth were used in the repair. In order to get the new cloth to adhere fully with the bodywork, the repair was put under vacuum and infused with new resin. The crack had to be bagged on the other side (not shown) to make the system airtight, and to allow new resin to fill the crack for additional strength.
The crack, filled with resin after the infusion.
Masked off for wet sanding
Sanded as smooth as possible.
Once the repair was finished on the underside, it was time to make the visible surface as good as possible. The crack had excess resin and fibers that needed to be sanded back. The area was masked off, the worst of the excess was sanded away before turning to wet sanding with a finer grit sandpaper. Once it was as smooth as possible without going too deep, I polished the repaired crack.
Repaired and ready for new vinyl!
A beautiful shot of the Enviate doing what it does best - attacking the mountain.
Here it is, all polished and ready for new vinyl details to be applied. Thankfully only a small section of the crack will actually be visible, but it really isn't noticeable unless you look closely. And best of all, the car was completed on time and made it to the mountain to compete.