This is my first restoration project ever- a '75 coupe.
Right now, I am simulaneously redoing the interior and patching holes in the body.
I also need to replace the flywheel.
I am planning on doing a conversion to manual transmission in a few months.

Today I started doing some fiberglass work. There is a lot of damage to the front left fender (my own fault), much more than you can see on the photos. Since there are a lot of cracks, there isn't enough strength in the material to just patch + relaminate, and the damage is too extensive to just cut out the damaged area and patch it. The solution I came up with, was to make another layer on the inside, that covers the entire damaged area, that way I can sand down/off the original material, and cover it up with new glass. Is this what I should be doing? I couldn't really think of anything else to do.

Hole in the fender (the outlying holes are the border of the extent of the damage)


The inside of the fender, before adding resin:


After applying the inside layer of fiberglass (the black is not open space, its just a shadow). I am a little concerned by the bulging out of the fiberglass. It happened when I pressed it in to really seal around the hole. I'm thinking it should be still a little bit pliable when I go back for layer two tomorrow? or perhaps I can just cover it up and sand down the bump if it makes one? Any thoughts?


The front bumper after sanding down + applying a layer of fiberglass over all the imperfections (do I need another layer?)

 

Is that body filler you glassed over?

 

Check out stinger 12’s glass work on his thread “Rookies first attempt at a restoration” Jeremy is the “Glass Master”

 

Hi Ryan,
Roco is right that you'll want to checkout stinger's thread.
I'll only mention that I believe you want to 'feather-out' the layers of glass as you lay them further and further into the good fiberglass. You don't want to just make a patch the size and shape of the hole or crack.
You want to taper the good glass into a very shallow v for the new glass layers to bond to.
Good Luck!
Regards,
Alan

 

I'm pretty sure I sanded / cut off all the original repair work- I missed a tiny spot of the pink stuff, which is an undercoat over the entire body (possibly the original paint blended with the grey stuff? I have no idea what it is)
The white stuff is just glare off the fiberglass.
I'm going back to do another layer today.

 

Work I finished today:
Sanded the middle of the bumper. This is really encouraging, as I can't even tell where the damage was anymore, the patch is invisible to both the touch and sight. All that remains is the giant hole in the paint :P


Prepped the last hole on the fender. I don't have a picture of the original damage, or the fiberglass I put on today, but heres after I just started prepping (sawzall + sanded rough edges off)


And here's a close up right before I put the glass on:
I also sanded down + put the next layer of glass on the other hole in the fender. I should be doing the last layer tomorrow, provided good weather maintains itself.
I hopefully will also get started on making a mold to wrap the corner of the bumper around, and possibly start on fixing the power window so I can start doing the interior.

 

Fender to bumper zone: initial layer


Fender to wheel well: layer 2 out of 3

 

Did you glass on the original rubber bumper? If so, the first bumper tap will cause it to separate from the surrounding rubber! If it is rubber, than I would suggest replacing the whole bumper.
Good luck.
Glenn

 

I may have to do that anyways. Right now I'm really just using the bumper as practice, I'm definitely going to replace it soon, hopefully before I paint it!

 

Today, I completed the last layers on the fender. It is still curing so I don't know how it will turn out yet. Feels pretty good to the touch.
I started rebuilding the corner of the bumper. It turned out to be a lot easier than it looks-- due to the rigid nature of fiberglass, it kept the curve from the front without any support from the back. Tomorrow, I will just have to reinforce it, and patch the remaining hole that I have not filled yet.

I also started working on the door. The window not going up turned out to be because of a stripped regulator gear. Rather than replacing the regulator assembly, I think i'm just going to get one of those bolt-on "repair kits". I think the reason it stripped out was because the window bumper was too tightly pressed against the window, enough so that it binds when going up. Of course, that may have been because the window was leaking, or something. I'm not sure yet.

Tomorrow I should be almost done with fiberglassing. Now to wait till I have money again... i'm in the red a little this month.

 

More glassing today. Today, as I sanded to do another strip, I discovered a lot of little cracks and odd fiber joints- So far, i've tried to just cover them when I do other repairs, but I'm not sure if I should do a full repair of them.
Also, I have noticed that there are definitely some irregularities in the shape of the areas I have done repairs on. How much of this will show, and can I solve this by glassing a large sheet over the whole area?

Fender work. After this picture was taken, I sanded back another 6 inches or so to repair the large crack and some issues around the wheel well.


And, the finished hole in the fender, next to the bumper. Before sannding.

 

Today I discovered some damage that a previous owner had "fixed", by fixed meaning filled with body filler and painted over. From the looks of it, there are some mismatched parts here, that were possibly cut down to fit together. Needless to say, I am not satisfied to leave this mess of body filler, and so I started working on it.
The bumper is starting to look good. And the area that before looked like some mutant fiberglass scab, is now nice and uniformly sanded. Can't even tell its there, except from the inside where light shines through. I am now planning on sanding down the whole thing to make sure there aren't a bunch of other... suprises. I also met with a guy today to do my paint. He gave me a few pointers with the fiberglass, was a little helpful.
Tomorrow, I am going to go check out another car for a daily driver... Not sure if I will have time to do any more work.

Something fishy here:


Would have been fine, but there is a crack here!


Holy crap! This goes a lot further than it first appeared.


There was a big bubble in my bumper fix. i removed it (patched it since)

 

Last night I ordered the regulator gear repair kit. Also got some bondo and some floor mats for until I get new carpeting.

Was going to wait until another sunny day to continue working, but I am really impatient. Will probably fabricate the area around the wheel well today. Maybe start sanding off the paint and body filler, look for more damage that will need to be repaired, etc.

 

Today, I got over the rainy factor and decided to sand. Got a lot taken off, but discovered another, enormously botched repair job. I have yet to discover the end of this, and I am repairing it as I go so that I won't cause my own problems.
Notice the fiberglass underneath is attached with finishing nails, not actually glassed on! Ridiculous.

 

WOW........... That car was beatup pretty good throughout it's life

Hammadown

 

That's a lot of fiberglass repair work. Keep up the good work.

 

No kidding.. But I want to make it perfect before I blow a few grand on a paint job. Plus, I've definitely got awhile before I will have enough saved to do it- my bank will give me credit to buy another one, but not to paint

 

suscribed in.

Corvette Mike

 

So, yesterday I busted out a bunch more fiberglass work. Still waiting for my regulator gear to arrive, so interior is still on hold, but we's getting there!
I decided to take a short (5 hour) break from doing repairs, so I sanded down the bumper and started glassing it to the body. I also experimented with some pigment for the resin, but so far I don't like it. Need a grayer color. It is nice that the glass is more opaque though.
The bumper prepped for glassing. There were some issues getting the two surfaces perfectly flush. It is definitely an art to keep the curvature and the sharp lines intact while sanding.


I saw some chrome C5 wheels on craigslist for $650. Is this a good deal? I wasn't able to find a better one froogle. And will these fit on my C3?

 

Looking good.