I have to splice in a battery box on my 69. The bottom has been missing since the 70's :eek: I put a temporary(Bubba) piece of sheet metal back in 1980 from an old swimming pool :lol: Now I have the rear suspension and differential out I have about as much room as I'm going to get with the body on to do this. I have another used piece but what's the best way to do this? If I cut the old one old maybe a few inches from the bottom and cut the replacement the same can you butt splice them or do you need some type of overlap joint? This will bw my fist time glassing :confused:
Thanks,
Gary

 

Hey Gary!

You can butt it up to each other but you should grind a dish along the joint. Make it so it tapers out as far as is convenient (2 -3 inches or even more would be great). The deep part of the taper should be at the joint. Then place in strips of fiberglass cloth into the dished area to build it back up level. Do the same process on the inside too. It will be important to have good stregth as that battery is pretty heavy.
This is how I would do it. Maybe someone else has an easier method though.

 

First, read an old post of mine... Try this link. http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=203236 If it does not work, search under my username and look at the fiberglassing topics... There are a few of them.

Second, I would also agree with the suggestion made by Lbell101... I would taper back the new box portion and the old box portion.

Good Luck!

 

Ok I'll start the search process, I'm wondering if I'll enough room to work on th efront side of the box? I have to get back under there fro a better look. Any particular brand of materials or just the stuff that NAPA has?
Thanks guys,
Gary

 

Dave, I just opened that link and there's some good info there :cheers: What about temperature and humidity levels? I'll be doing this in an unheated garage and these days CT is in the mid 50's, should I wait until the temp is 70* + ?
Gary

 

Yes, warmer is better. Can you get a couple of space heaters in the vicinity? The stuff will cure pretty fast but should stay warm (above 60) for at least 4 hours.

Also, practice with the stuff first if you've never glassed before. It's not that hard, but it can be messy until you get the hang of it. Use latex gloves, a long sleeve shirt (that you don't care about), and don't lay underneath of the box. Getting resin on your skin sucks. Make sure you have cardboard under your car, drips of resin can be a pain to clean up as well. You'll need some cheap paint brushes to apply the resin and a small roller to roll the air bubbles out as you saturate the mat. One of the most common first timer mistakes is not using enough of the hardener and ending up with resin that won't cure. Also, you can use too much hardener and the glass can end up brittle.

To secure the box in place, one technique you can use is to cut some sheet metal strips and rivet them to the inside wall of your box and the bottom or side of the replacement box. Duct tape can hold the box in place while you rivet some strips to the box. Then you can glass the box together from the outside. Use a small width strip first (1/2" -3/4") and add progressively wider strips on each layer along the butt joint. 3-4 layers outside, remove the rivets and then 2-3 layers inside should be more than sufficient.

Best advice, go slow. :cheers:


[Modified by 74-Roadster, 8:49 AM 4/1/2002]

 

If you have a local West Marine store in the area check out their epoxy resin and hardeners. It makes the mixing simple. They sell calibrated pumps that screw on to the resin and hardener containers. For every pump of resin, a pump of hardener.