body work help
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,550
Likes: 652
From: Richmond VA
body work help
Looking for input on materials and the best methods for repairing minor stress cracks. What is the best book or online literature that will keep me out of trouble. I am going to have my car painted and plan to do all the prep work myself.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 2,114
Likes: 33
From: ct
Re: body work help (GEM '62)
first i need to know what you mean by stress cracks. are they in the surface or cracked right through. do not grind a v out and fill. you will see this come back later. i can tell you what to do but i need to know more. i will give you an idea of what to do. whenever you grind out a crack you must make it as wide as you can and keep the edges round never a sharp edge. you can use your own mix of reisn and fiberglass mat cut in to small chunks and mixed together to fill. then grind smooth and finish. there are some great products outthere but you may not be able to find them. reisn and mat is a good old way of doing this. when you get your cracks filled you must apply heat to set the reisn. you will want a surface temp of at least 200 degrees for about an hour or more. if you have ever seen a dark colored vette in the hot sun a saw what i call halows, marks where guys leave shape edges when they fill cracks . resin will move every time it gets hot and the diff. materials used will all expand and contract diff. so the idea is to heat the surface more than it will ever get out in the sun. if you have a white car as to a black car the surface temp is diff. hope you get the idea. if you need help email me ill do what i can
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,550
Likes: 652
From: Richmond VA
Re: body work help (aworks)
Thanks for the input I need all I can get. My car is a 62 with imron (not sure that's spelled correctly) paint. I haven't started the work yet so really don't know the extent of the problems. For the most part the body is in very good shape. What I see are several spots on one fender that have a small spot with 5 or 6 fine cracks in the paint radiating out from the center about 1/2". There is cracked area in the center of the hood that appears to be from closing the hood on an air cleaner bolt that was too long. Along the edge of the fenders next to the hood the paint is cracked and I assume that the glass may be cracked also. I have a spot on the right fender that the previous owner said was hit with a hammer by his kid, he did a very bad repair that I will have to fix. Besides the above the car dosen't appear to have ever been wrecked or otherwise damaged.
Race Director
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 17,659
Likes: 3,666
From: Central Arkansas
Re: body work help (GEM '62)
I think the star like cracks in the top of the fenders are from stones being thrown up and hitting the underside of the fenders - a common problem. If you fix them and repaint, put a good thick coat of undercoating up under there to cushion impact. Imron is basically urethane paint I believe. They are all in the hardened enamel family. Touch up and blending isn't as easy as some other paints so you may be in for some pretty extensive touch up. I think Aworks point is don't try to fill the cracks with body filler after grinding them out - use fiberglass and resin. Grinding the cracks out is the only proper way to fix them. Don't be afraid to grind them out pretty deep. You want to put at least 3 layers of glass and resin back in. On some smaller ones I used a dremel tool and gound a v-shaped groove down the crack alighnment. Then cut narrow strips of fiberglass and started layering them in with resin, cutting each strip of fiberglass a little wider than the last one. Roll it out with a fiberglass roller to compress the air out of the mat and use the heat lamp moderately as suggested to help it cure out. Then comes all the fun of grinding, spot putty, sanding, priming and painting. :steering:
[Modified by DansYellow66, 11:56 PM 2/10/2004]
[Modified by DansYellow66, 11:56 PM 2/10/2004]
