1982 Outer Door Skin
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 92
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From: Carol Stream Illinois
1982 Outer Door Skin
Good afternoon.
My passenger outer door skin on my '82 has separated from the steel frame. Any ideas and/or products to re secure it? Any help would be appreciated.
My passenger outer door skin on my '82 has separated from the steel frame. Any ideas and/or products to re secure it? Any help would be appreciated.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 780
Likes: 1
From: Shelby NC
Former Vendor
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 76,656
Likes: 1,851
From: Jeffersonville Indiana 812-288-7103
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15
We see this quite often... and for us it would depend on how far the skin is separated.
The cause of the separation is usually due to rust or corrosion of the metal door frame so you'd need to direct your attention to this area as well.
We have a tool for splitting fiberglass panels which is nothing more than an old school putty knife (an old thick one) that we ground a sharp edge on. So initially we'll pull the skin away from the door and then use this knife to split it a bit further. This allows us to be able to grind on the metal frame and remove all the rusted areas if possible. If you go to this link you'll see a picture of the tool we made years ago for doing this, it's on page 2.
http://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/w...stallation.pdf
Once we know the metal frame is cleaned up as good as possible, we then use SEM Part number 39747 to re-glue the fiberglass to the metal. Now if you follow these directions you'll notice we said to clean up the metal, but it is also very important that you make sure the sectioned fiberglass is scuffed as well. You can do this with what I call a whiz wheel on a die grinder but you should slow down the air pressure (speed). Grinding with an angle grinder or die grinder with 80 grit becomes a mute point when you have the speed jacked up. You want a slow scuffing speed that'll leave good adhesion marks in the fiberglass.
I like the 39747 glue because it has a long cure time. This allows you to make clamp and make changes in the fitment before the glue cures. This is the same glue I use to bond on new front ends as well as the header bars when we re-install them (Per the PDF above).
It's not hard work, it's just work making sure you use the proper materials and the proper method. If you do it correctly, I highly doubt you'll be doing it again in the near future.
IMHO,
Willcox
The cause of the separation is usually due to rust or corrosion of the metal door frame so you'd need to direct your attention to this area as well.
We have a tool for splitting fiberglass panels which is nothing more than an old school putty knife (an old thick one) that we ground a sharp edge on. So initially we'll pull the skin away from the door and then use this knife to split it a bit further. This allows us to be able to grind on the metal frame and remove all the rusted areas if possible. If you go to this link you'll see a picture of the tool we made years ago for doing this, it's on page 2.
http://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/w...stallation.pdf
Once we know the metal frame is cleaned up as good as possible, we then use SEM Part number 39747 to re-glue the fiberglass to the metal. Now if you follow these directions you'll notice we said to clean up the metal, but it is also very important that you make sure the sectioned fiberglass is scuffed as well. You can do this with what I call a whiz wheel on a die grinder but you should slow down the air pressure (speed). Grinding with an angle grinder or die grinder with 80 grit becomes a mute point when you have the speed jacked up. You want a slow scuffing speed that'll leave good adhesion marks in the fiberglass.
I like the 39747 glue because it has a long cure time. This allows you to make clamp and make changes in the fitment before the glue cures. This is the same glue I use to bond on new front ends as well as the header bars when we re-install them (Per the PDF above).
It's not hard work, it's just work making sure you use the proper materials and the proper method. If you do it correctly, I highly doubt you'll be doing it again in the near future.
IMHO,
Willcox
Burning Brakes
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 780
Likes: 1
From: Shelby NC
We see this quite often... and for us it would depend on how far the skin is separated.
The cause of the separation is usually due to rust or corrosion of the metal door frame so you'd need to direct your attention to this area as well.
We have a tool for splitting fiberglass panels which is nothing more than an old school putty knife (an old thick one) that we ground a sharp edge on. So initially we'll pull the skin away from the door and then use this knife to split it a bit further. This allows us to be able to grind on the metal frame and remove all the rusted areas if possible. If you go to this link you'll see a picture of the tool we made years ago for doing this, it's on page 2.
http://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/w...stallation.pdf
Once we know the metal frame is cleaned up as good as possible, we then use SEM Part number 39747 to re-glue the fiberglass to the metal. Now if you follow these directions you'll notice we said to clean up the metal, but it is also very important that you make sure the sectioned fiberglass is scuffed as well. You can do this with what I call a whiz wheel on a die grinder but you should slow down the air pressure (speed). Grinding with an angle grinder or die grinder with 80 grit becomes a mute point when you have the speed jacked up. You want a slow scuffing speed that'll leave good adhesion marks in the fiberglass.
I like the 39747 glue because it has a long cure time. This allows you to make clamp and make changes in the fitment before the glue cures. This is the same glue I use to bond on new front ends as well as the header bars when we re-install them (Per the PDF above).
It's not hard work, it's just work making sure you use the proper materials and the proper method. If you do it correctly, I highly doubt you'll be doing it again in the near future.
IMHO,
Willcox
The cause of the separation is usually due to rust or corrosion of the metal door frame so you'd need to direct your attention to this area as well.
We have a tool for splitting fiberglass panels which is nothing more than an old school putty knife (an old thick one) that we ground a sharp edge on. So initially we'll pull the skin away from the door and then use this knife to split it a bit further. This allows us to be able to grind on the metal frame and remove all the rusted areas if possible. If you go to this link you'll see a picture of the tool we made years ago for doing this, it's on page 2.
http://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/w...stallation.pdf
Once we know the metal frame is cleaned up as good as possible, we then use SEM Part number 39747 to re-glue the fiberglass to the metal. Now if you follow these directions you'll notice we said to clean up the metal, but it is also very important that you make sure the sectioned fiberglass is scuffed as well. You can do this with what I call a whiz wheel on a die grinder but you should slow down the air pressure (speed). Grinding with an angle grinder or die grinder with 80 grit becomes a mute point when you have the speed jacked up. You want a slow scuffing speed that'll leave good adhesion marks in the fiberglass.
I like the 39747 glue because it has a long cure time. This allows you to make clamp and make changes in the fitment before the glue cures. This is the same glue I use to bond on new front ends as well as the header bars when we re-install them (Per the PDF above).
It's not hard work, it's just work making sure you use the proper materials and the proper method. If you do it correctly, I highly doubt you'll be doing it again in the near future.
IMHO,
Willcox
Former Vendor
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 76,656
Likes: 1,851
From: Jeffersonville Indiana 812-288-7103
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15
My pleasure. The downfall is the application gun needed to use this glue. I love it because it works great and it dries almost a factory color. (When scuffed it will lose it the gloss and looks almost grey)
