Composites coloured resin

[dedge]

Hello everybody (and sorry for my english!)
I have a question about composites parts : what type of paint are the team using on they car?
I work for aeronautics and I am always surprised of the influence of painting in parts final weight.
So my idea is : why not colouring the resin of the carbon fiber parts?
Or use a synthetic rowing of carbon like this :

I suppose the body of a F1 does not need to be strong, so the mechanical properties of the material might not be important, does it?
If the engineers have a loss of weight on wings, maybe they could reenforce some critical parts, or balance the weight a better way (and keep the total weight of the car just upper than the regulation minima)?
Here is an exemple of what I am thinking :


I'm dreaming of the F2007 in raw red carbon fiber

[flynfrog]

that cloth you posted is more likely fiberglass with carbon and sold to import car "tuners"

You also have to factor to get as smooth of a finish as a paint you need to add more resin to the part even the best prepreg molds don't have that great of a surface finish

and an f1 body NEEDS to be strong so using a dyed glass fiber would have huge weight penalties

[dedge]

Ok for not using fiberglass on the body. But only for the weight, because when I see how the engine roof is set (with 1/4 turn bolts on fixed nuts) I am sure that part has no utility on the car resistance.

For the need of more resin to get a last ply as smooth as possible : I am not agree any more! (I am sorry). If you count on painting to have a flush surface you will need a lot a paint (so add a lot of weight)! Or you will have to sandpaper (I don't know the word for "poncer", sorry) the surface and remove some resin... impossible!

The idea I had was to mix some pigments with the resin or to make a last ply of tainted fiberglass.
Moreover I think I remember that fiberglass has a density of 2,5g/cm² and carbon fiber 1,8g/cm². Maybe the paint is heavier than the difference for a single ply?

Anybody to help me? How a F1 is painted?

[BreezyRacer]

Last I heard (a few years ago) they paint cars using special lightweight paints and they do not paint where it doesn't show (underside of wings for example). They do repaint the cars just about every race by stripping off paint, examining the CF, and then repainting.

Paint is essential for sponsorship changes, etc. Believe me, if they can save weight somehow, they've already figured out how to do it. Expensive is obviously, no object.