Repairing carbon wheels - when is it too late

A friend of mine is giving me sone carbon wheels, he says they are knackered but they look/seem fine on first inspection. Where is good to repair carbon or is it a waste of time and money

I know 'knackered' is a completely acceptable technical term, but I do think you (or your friend) will need to be a little more specific...

The wheel is buckled quite badly. Spokes and hub are fine it's the rim

Does the rim wobble quickly or is it a slow/gentle buckle? Latter much more likely to be removable.

How's the braking surface?

braking surface is fine. its a long slow buckle. no carbon damage visible. purely metal rim

braking surface is fine. its a long slow buckle. no carbon damage visible. purely metal rim

it's like pulling teeth...
you say carbon wheel, then metal rim... spend a few words and describe the wheels if you want sensible advice

https://www.flickr.com/photos/40612430@N08/13945540167/

how do you post a video??

Mmmmmmm, it does go pretty far out of true and the buckle seems to have a fairly sharp peak so I wouldn't be counting on getting that trued out.

Seems like a big wobble. You have to ask the owner if it is the result of a crash, in which case the rim is bent.
Release tension from all the spokes and check again, if it's still there it's definitively a damaged rim. In which case, Normally it would be bin, but they are very expensive rims and maybe worth trying to resuscitate it. Bench vice might help if used wisely

Thanks for the advice. It is a big wobble and they were super expensive at some point so would really like to try and bring them back to life. And they were free to me

The biggest straightening job I have done was a penny farthing wheel... the buckle was about 10 cm out of true. We tried a bit of everything and it turns out squeezing the dodgy part of the rim between two wood beams and hopping on and off on the wood slowly made it better. If you manage to reduce the wobble significantly, then the wheel can be trued within reasonable spoke tension. Of course in your case you need to be extra careful to avoid damaging the carbon fairing.
If the rim doesn't straighten, you can try to peel off the carbon fairing, with the help of a sharp blade, which is the valuable part of the wheel and epoxy it to a different rim of the same hole count, followed by a wheel rebuild...
In other words, there are options and they all sound like a lot of fun... :-D

I'm thinking black and decker workmate for this and see how it goes. I can't see how I can adjust the tension without ruining the carbon

I'm thinking black and decker workmate for this and see how it goes. I can't see how I can adjust the tension without ruining the carbon

The carbon is only a hollow fairing with no structural function. the nipples actually sit on the alloy part of the rim. But yes, it needs to be straightened before you can attempt to true it

how do i get the carbon off? and if i do how do i get it back on?

Why would you take it off? The alloy rim is the widest part of the wheel, so clamp it down between two bits of wood and flatten it, before truing.
Tape over the carbon if you think you might damage it, but otherwise I can't see why you'd remove it.