Fiberglass or steel?

[gnbldr]

I'm in the process of grafting a '60 Morris minor body to a 2001 s10 blazer chssis. I'm looking at major body mods (stretch and fastback). On my last build (s10 that looks like a 40's pickup) total custom, I did all the mods with glass. Thinking of going steel on this one but, seems like a lot of cutting, forming and tacking. Any thoughts on pros and cons?

[sunsetdart]

Either way you go ,glass or steel, you have lots of work. If you patch in with steel, you can seam weld and then apply a skim coat of putty to smooth things out. Plus the patch will be much stronger.
Making patches from glass still will require making a skeleton for strength, then dealing with all the mess of glass mat.
Like I said, either way it is a ton of work.

[HOTRODPAINT]

After being in the biz for almost 40 years, including decades of fiberglass repair, prototyping, and production.

I always think of fiberglass-to-metal bonding as temporary. Eventually it will delaminate from the metal somewhere. One problem is the expansion rates. As glass heats up and cools down, it moves farther than steel... so every day it's a "push-pull battle" as things heat up and cool down. I would advise steel.

Since we are on the net... someone will disagree... but it's your choice.

[Dave Severson]

Use steel with steel. As Jay said patching with glass is a temporary repair, or good for making up a mold for glass parts--but not a preferred method on body work that you intend to make nice and keep.....

[gnbldr]

Thanks for the input. My last projest (85 GMC s-15 Hot ROD see pic) is steel and glass and seen 7 years of daily driving, no delamination problems. Then again I live in So. Calif with a mild climate all year. Just finished intstalling Air suspention front and rear on the Morris so I'm ready to get back on the body. Still undeceided, lean ing towards metal.
I guess I'll figure it out as I go.
.

[39poncho]

Steel is the only way to go with a steel car. You wouldn't patch a glass car with steel would you?
Why use an S-10 frame?? are you building it as a truck? It is a big thick frame for a little street rod. A custom built 2x3 Frame would be a better choice in that case.

[gnbldr]

The reason for the blazer frame is I got a 2001 blazer rollover with 50,000 miles on it for $900. Runs and drives. The Morris is the same width and I'm stretching the Morris to fit ( my wife wanted the extra room in the back it's going to be her car). Using the blazer floor and grafting the Morris body to it. Was going to use the blazer suspension but after cutting off the body and putting the Morris on it sat 3" higher. Thus went to ride tech suspension. Otherwise using all the blazer running gear engine, trans, 4 wheel disc brakes, even ABS and SRS. Even the seats and carpet fit.

As for steel I'm joining the Morris body to the blazer floor and firewall now. Getting used to working with sheet metal. Maybe by the time I'm ready to do the fast back I'll be up to speed. Last project was glass and steel, real easy to make the plug and layup the glass to get the final shape