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I encountered a devastating surprise with my newly purchased 71 corvette today. The fiber glass door skin is delaminateing from the steel door structure at the bottom seam. The car is an older frame off restoration from 1999. The paint is still in good condition. I would hate to turn this in to a major body job. Any thought on what to do? can the door skin be glued back in the section with out removing the entire door skin? if so what glue or epoxy should be used? Please see attached picture
Hi A,
Welcome!
New poster!!
And a new 71 for you! NICE!
From the photo you posted it appears there has already been some body work done on this part of this door.
There are various reasons that work might have been required:
It might be that corner of the door was damaged by hitting the curb hard while opening it?
It might be that the door was damaged in a collision?
It could be the steel frame of the door was/is rusty and caused the fiberglass skin to become loose.
What work might be required will depend on the cause of what you're seeing and also how thorough a repair you want to do at this point!
Another opinion could also be as simple as the prior owner wanting a cleaner look then the factory, such as what I am going for with my doors. Whatever the reason it appears that either the prep work was poor or the product used was poor quality. I agree with Alan that in that for some reason they wanted it covered up.
Hi folks,
Any thought on what to do? can the door skin be glued back in the section with out removing the entire door skin? if so what glue or epoxy should be used? Please see attached picture
The MILLION DOLLAR question is what is the condition of the metal???
When you open it up carefully and look in there...is it rusted???
REGARDLESS of what type of adhesive you choose to use. The adhesive will only BOND if the surface can be prepped so it can bond. Applying an adhesive on rust and the adhesive that is still possibly attached to the outer door skin may work for a while....but may not work at all. Then you have to deal with all of the fresh adhesive you just applied and start all over again.
SO...just pumping an adhesive in there may work...or it may not.
Have I seen this before many times..YES I have. Have I had to take the outer skin off and repair it correctly...YES I have. Have I just pumped adhesive in the seam due to the owner does not want it fixed as how it should...YES I have AND with the clear understanding that if it fails..I am NOT warrantying it in anyway due to the owner chose to have it repaired 'their way'.
YES..I feel your PAIN and it rather unfortunate that you have to deal with this.
You will need an epoxy adhesive that will bond to fiberglass/SMC and metal. I would suggest using the SEM 39747. But you can try about whatever you find if it can bond what I mentioned ...even if it is JB WELD.
It will totally depend on what you expect and want.
Thank you for all the helpful feedback. Ill will proceed to try the repair myself. As suggested, Ill first slip some sand paper in to the seam and sand both surfaces as best possible. Since I have no experience with fiberglass adhesives, Ill go with DUB's recommendation of SEM 39747.
fingers crossed, I hope it holds!
Thank you for all the helpful feedback. Ill will proceed to try the repair myself. As suggested, Ill first slip some sand paper in to the seam and sand both surfaces as best possible. Since I have no experience with fiberglass adhesives, Ill go with DUB's recommendation of SEM 39747.
fingers crossed, I hope it holds!
Thank you for all the helpful feedback. Ill will proceed to try the repair myself. As suggested, Ill first slip some sand paper in to the seam and sand both surfaces as best possible. Since I have no experience with fiberglass adhesives, Ill go with DUB's recommendation of SEM 39747.
fingers crossed, I hope it holds!
Thanks-
To get the maximum adhesion of the SEM product it really needs to be CORRECTLY prepped. Simply sliding some sandpaper between these two panels and scuffing it may not work. But do as you wish.
The cost of what you are going to spend for the SEM product and obtaining the special applicator gun that is required to use it is up to you.
I do not know where you live due to your Public Profile is not even basically filled out. You do not have to be specific...city and state is fine. SO...obtaining the special gun may or may not be able to be possible due to you may not have a local area rep for SEM who would have one to loan you for a one-time use.
Would it not be best to score the entire perimeter and remove the skin completely from the inner panel, then prep the metal and skin panels properly, then re-bond it?
Would it not be best to score the entire perimeter and remove the skin completely from the inner panel, then prep the metal and skin panels properly, then re-bond it?
Yes, but the trick is trying to do that without cracking or damaging the paint on the outer skin which the odds would be against.
Following this one. I have the same problem on my 76. On mine the entire bottom seam of the passenger door has separated from the frame.
Just keep an eye on it...because if you let it go too long and do nothing to it....the metal flange on the door frame itself can rust so badly that IF you choose to do it later...you might regret that you did not deal with it sooner.
I have seen some doors where the adhesive stuck to the metal part of the door but pulled away from the outer door skin....thus...the metal would not rust quickly due to being covered.
12-18-2017, 07:19 PM
fiberglass door delamination !
