Thread: Any fiberglass/'Vette Guys?

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I am an utter rookie at F'glass and Corvettes, but it looks like I am aquiring a pr of '75's.

You know how a fiberglass body hood or door can take a edge hit and it gets kind of fuzzy at the site? The gel coat repowders and falls away leaving a soft fuzzy area. Anyway that what I am going to be dealing with. At the back body tail panel edge (see pic) on a '75 'Vette.
I know squat about F'glass other there is resin, hardener and glass mat involved and that you can't screw around once the three are mixed. (been since Junior high that I have messed w anything F'glass)
Now, can I just blow the opened crack out w clean air, rinse w a good solvent, mix up a batch of resin and soak the area, then let it harden? file ,Sand, fill etc.. Or am I going to have to get more involved like cutting those areas out and starting to rebuild the entire area?

Second there are a few 6 to 10" long splits in the qtrs from the same edge can I open them up and let mixed resin dribble in. Then let it close back up again sqeezing out the excess? Proceding again with the file, sand and fill process?

Third, Any good F'glass repair sites out there?

Use epoxy resin, mix up the resin and hardner, then start mixing in silica thickener to just about the thickness of bondo. Use a small bondo squeege to put it down. All paint and other non fiberglass material must be removed first. Wait two days and sand to final shape. On note you can epoxy on polyester glass but not polyester on epoxy.

I use Evercoat Fiberglass resin and pieces of chopped up mat. Apply a bit of resin, then some of the little pieces of mat, a bit more resin, a bit more mat and keep going til your repaired area is a bit higher then the panel you're fixing. An acid brush works good to apply the resin, just make sure you work the mat in so that the repaired area is solid and does not develop an air pocket....

i done alot of this work i done it with fiber gell and mat. i think your vett is smc .epoxy as said will work to with silica . the west system work s .do not use vett bond for this repair .you can clean out the spots with a grinder and i sand blasted it to seams to work good . i like to work the repair spot out as far as 2x the spot so i can get a good build up mat . work small pices of mat in the spots and work out like dave said till your abit hirer then panle .in the back is all open you can lay up some spots from the back side then open up from the out side i used a 8 inch soft pad with 40 or 36 for a good tooth till you just break thru the old panle then lay up the mat that way you have a inside and out side repair that will hold much better .i work on vettes but have done many of the flip hoods for semi s were some were deer hits and some like a droped hard boiled egg them i sand blasted . post heat if you can if smc may be good to it will not hurt

Yeah,Pat has it in one..ALWAYS repair from both sides if at all possible..You do get a better grip on SMC if its sand/grit blasted,plus,I use a small amount of gelcoat,and when I catalyze the brew,I put a few drops of cobalt in too,,,that makes you work a bit faster,and helps with the heat and bonding.I do this for a living,and have repaired a lot of Mack,Western Star KW,and Pete fronts,in fact,I have another W/Star coming in tomorrow,,hey,Dgas56,just flop ya Vette into an A4 sized envelope and post it to me,,Ill sort it for ya...

Dgas56, all of the info given tells you to repair from both sides if you can, and to add mat/fiber to the mix. I am a fiberglass rookie, too, and I am learning as I go. Your question was can you use resin alone to "glue" the damaged spot back together, and the answer is "No". Resin alone is quite brittle and it will not be a lasting repair. You have to have new fibers in the mix for strength, using the resin to glue the new fibers into place like the aggregate in concrete - mortar alone is not so strong, but it glues the rocks together.

Thanks all of you for your information. It will come in handy as I work on this/these cars. I aquired two 75 Vettes,The Red one is pretty horrible, but complete + structurally solid. and a decent silver 75 'Vette w no engine/trans,but nice body.