2HorsePower

A brief recap for those of you not playing along at home: my car had a mishap last fall involving hubby's zealous driving, bald tires, snap oversteer, and a curb and sustained some fiberglass damage on the fender/hood above the right front tire. He was busy with other projects and I was tired of driving around with duct tape on my fender so I decided to do the bodywork myself (had never done any bodywork before). I studied up on CF, then did the fiberglass and sanding work from Feb-March and we did the wet sanding, painting, and buffing in April.

We initially secured the area with duct tape to prevent further damage until the area could be repaired (His solution - duct tape fixes all) I started by using a utility knife to cut away the frayed/damaged fiberglass followed with a rough sanding job to eliminate loose fiberglass strands. The delamination was a little more extensive than I originally thought.









Here are the initial applications of fiberglass resin and mat. Woven mat came with the kit, though if I did it over again, I would use the compressed fiberglass mat due to the extra hassle of sanding, covering, and removing the woven pattern from the repaired area. The hardest part was rebuilding the contoured edge of the fender out of the new fiberglass material, as the resined mat did not want to take the shape and wanted to create hollow spots. The trick I used was to build a backing (which I later removed) out of sturdy cloth-backed tape or foil, to use repeat applications (allowing each to cure before proceeding) and forming the repair with multiple layers of medium-sized pieces of resined mat, filling in any voids with resin. I did a lot of hand sanding between steps and used a Dremel tool to rebuild and shape the contoured edge.







Primer and spot putty were the next steps. The woven texture of the fiberglass mats did not want to sand out, so I initially applied a high build primer to the sanded repair. The texture was still not acceptable, so ended up applying a spot putty/body filler paste with a plastic blade (thin cardboard also works in a pinch). The stuff starts to set and gets difficult to work with quickly, so I had to work fast and do it in multiple stages. It does a nice job filling in and smoothing, though it will produce pock marks if you apply masking tape to the area too soon and can leave small shrinkage cracks when it dries if you apply it too thickly. Multiple thin coats & ample curing time are the keys here. It sands down smoothly to a rather embarrassing pink color.





Here are the pictures following the second sanding of the failed spot-paint repair attempt (aka the ringworm look) and the start of the wet sanding. Hubby tried to just paint the repaired area, but the paint match wasn't good enough and there was a sharp triangle of new paint. We tried to sand between the repair and existing sections and instead of the sharp triangle dividing the areas, I ended up with a fuzzy, wavy, line snaking its way between the paint areas. It looked like my car had ringworm. He wet sanded the whole hood all the way through the existing clear coat and paint and did a thorough job priming and preparing the surface, so the new paint should last well and have good adhesion (despite the adventures we later faced with the clear coat).

We set up our paint "booth" in the garage and borrowed a large air compressor. The prep work and base coat went fantastic. Hubby got the first layer of clear coat on, let it cure the appropriate amount of time, and started on the second coat. Midway through the second clear coat, the problems started. The borrowed air compressor's tank had not been properly maintained and started sputtering and spitting rust into the clear coat. (I keep telling him that they're not flaws - it's my custom iron-oxide metal flake clear coat ) The temperature in the garage started to get too low, causing the clear coat to thicken up and cause runs on the hood. Then the big air compressor suddenly konked out and we were forced to use our little pancake compressor to finish the job (was definitely inadequate to the job). Just to make things more fun, hubby had put the headlight pieces up in the house to cure where it was warm. My none-too-bright house-cat decided to jump up and walk across the still tacky headlight cover, leaving a pair of paw prints in it. Darn cat.

Upon the recommendation of CF Paint/Body Work, we wet sanded the drips and flaws with 1500 grit and then used 3M rubbing compound and 3M buffing polish to restore the shine to the clear coat. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND these products for fixing clear coat issues (drips, orange peel, minor surface etching and hazing, etc). Because we were unsure of the results, we erred on the side of being less aggressive with our corrective efforts. However, now that I know how well this method works, I plan to this on the problem areas & some of our other vehicles. This can be done easily by hand or with an orbital buffer. (Just be careful not to burn the paint by pressing too hard or letting the surface get too hot with the orbital buffer)

The final picture shows the finished results of our extended repair efforts. All in all, I think we did pretty well and certainly learned a lot. (Like the fact that neither of us want to do this as a career!) Seriously though, hubby's getting better and better at painting, I'm can identify any Bondo product by smell at 20 paces. We couldn't have done it without the help of CF.

BadjerJim

Wow ... awesome job! Thanks for the narrative and the pics!

Considering the fiberglass resin and mat, and all the time you took, must've been a true "bonding experience" for you and the car.

(sorry, couldn't resist.) Seriously: nice work.

John A. Marker

What a great job. You are brave to tackle a job such as this without prior experience. Fiberglass, prep and paint isn't easy. You should get a "ATTA GIRL" for that.

Now don't let your husband drive it without leaving a large $$$ deposit before he leaves the driveway.

lite blue

Nice work!

Grease Monkey

very . Your husband is a lucky man to have a girl that would even attempt something like that

Aquaman92

Good work

86PACER

What's the underside look like finished?

vinnies87

Very nice,,,, attacking bond and fiberglass is not for the weak hearted, glad it wasn't me...

Bad Karma

Very nicely done!

I've only done minimal fiberglass work with my dad, nothing requiring a good finish. And I need to patch a little tear from the twisted mess of my driveshaft. Lucky for me it's on the underside. I think I'll tab this thread for reference when I patch mine.

runner140*

Great job. I think I am missing that plaid shirt you used to cover the tire, I'll check my drawer again.

Joe C

and

BrianCunningham

Nicely done!

bizaro

outstanding very very cool if you are ever in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by and fix sonthin

Fast Cop

Good write-up and great job.

2HorsePower

Here's a pic of the repaired underside and a closer pic of the repaired exterior. Matching up the underside repairs to the rest of the hood was a little more tricky, as there are a lot of molded-in ridges and contours along the edge. I did the best I could, but also intentionally left the repair a little thicker underneath for the sake of strength. I mimicked some of the ridges with the Dremel tool and tapered the thicker repaired section into the the rest of the hood. Used body filler to cover & smooth out the weave of the fiberglass mat here, too, and finished off with an application of black satin finish spray paint. (Took off the wheel well tub and painted the entire area.) Liked the finish so much that I spray painted the other wheel well, too.

islandcruiser

great job

redwing76

So how long did that take?

Brian9

Excellent work!

VetteUSA

Awesome job!

tomtom72