What would you do with this?
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 116
Likes: 3
From: Knee deep in Amish PA
What would you do with this?
Hi all,
I was washing cars and trucks this weekend. Had my kids drying off the vehicles with towels after I was done washing left. Well, according to my kids, my oldest son opened the drivers door to slam it to get the water out of the hatch area (as he has seen me do 100 times), and my youngest son got his hand and rag caught in there when it went shut. He is ok, thankfully. But later on when I was waxing, I noticed a large crack about where his hand was. The door actually has an inch and a half long crack through the SMC! So, it either caught it perfectly to crack it, or my son is Ironman.
Anyway, I included a picture, albeit a poor one. The car is a 1992, and its pretty nice. But, it doesn't need to be perfect for me to be happy. It would not be responsible of me to spend professional money on getting it fixed, so I was hoping to do it myself. It seems as though it doesn't need any structural fix, so I was hoping to just use Fusor on it and touch it up. Any ideas would be appreciated! Thanks
I was washing cars and trucks this weekend. Had my kids drying off the vehicles with towels after I was done washing left. Well, according to my kids, my oldest son opened the drivers door to slam it to get the water out of the hatch area (as he has seen me do 100 times), and my youngest son got his hand and rag caught in there when it went shut. He is ok, thankfully. But later on when I was waxing, I noticed a large crack about where his hand was. The door actually has an inch and a half long crack through the SMC! So, it either caught it perfectly to crack it, or my son is Ironman.
Anyway, I included a picture, albeit a poor one. The car is a 1992, and its pretty nice. But, it doesn't need to be perfect for me to be happy. It would not be responsible of me to spend professional money on getting it fixed, so I was hoping to do it myself. It seems as though it doesn't need any structural fix, so I was hoping to just use Fusor on it and touch it up. Any ideas would be appreciated! Thanks
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 25,406
Likes: 2,744
I believe you are left with just touching up the exterior and live with it. You start to try things and the area will just get much larger. Either a proper repair or a touch up. It's very hard to believe it was from a slam on a rag around a hand. What damage is on the inside door frame? That could likely stand some Fusor of sorts to reinforce it. There has to be I believe obvious damage on the door frame to do that to the exterior panel.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 116
Likes: 3
From: Knee deep in Amish PA
I believe you are left with just touching up the exterior and live with it. You start to try things and the area will just get much larger. Either a proper repair or a touch up. It's very hard to believe it was from a slam on a rag around a hand. What damage is on the inside door frame? That could likely stand some Fusor of sorts to reinforce it. There has to be I believe obvious damage on the door frame to do that to the exterior panel.
I think you are correct in just a small touch up. The sides of the crack are pretty stiff, as in they are not flexing and it is still attached to the interior frame. Perhaps some SMC compatible filler and touch-up paint.
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 2,692
Likes: 349
From: Sacramento California
Touch it up and count your blessings. Glad your son is OK, could have been much worse for the car and the family.
My car is super cherry and sometimes I catch myself getting worried about parking lot door dings and other little scrapes and scratches. I try to avoid this type of thinking because yes it's a very nice, fun car, but in the big picture it's just a car... not a limited edition or exotic or anything like that. As long as I am driving it and enjoying it as intended, which is what I bought it for, a few little blemishes will inevitably happen.
My car is super cherry and sometimes I catch myself getting worried about parking lot door dings and other little scrapes and scratches. I try to avoid this type of thinking because yes it's a very nice, fun car, but in the big picture it's just a car... not a limited edition or exotic or anything like that. As long as I am driving it and enjoying it as intended, which is what I bought it for, a few little blemishes will inevitably happen.
Race Director
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 14,972
Likes: 3,362
From: NYC NY
I'm sure it will bother you a bit but your son is fine and attempting a repair has the potential to open up a huge (read $$$) can of worms.
Racer
Joined: Aug 2015
Posts: 375
Likes: 89
I manage a body shop so from my perspective your long term concern with this is the crack getting larger in time. If it were me I would have a local shop that works on Corvettes in your area look at that and see if they recommend to reinforce the crack on the back side to keep it from spreading over time.
They will be use to working with the material and so I would at least have them check it out to get their feedback before you do anything with it.
If you decide to tackle it yourself my suggestion would be to back tape on each side of the crack ( before you put the type of product the shop recommends into the crack ) as this will keep the product from spreading out pass the crack itself. I would smooth the product down flat and after it is cured I would then touch up the product.
Good luck but from what I am seeing from your photo should be able to make it look decent and hopefully keep the crack from spreading at the same time.
They will be use to working with the material and so I would at least have them check it out to get their feedback before you do anything with it.
If you decide to tackle it yourself my suggestion would be to back tape on each side of the crack ( before you put the type of product the shop recommends into the crack ) as this will keep the product from spreading out pass the crack itself. I would smooth the product down flat and after it is cured I would then touch up the product.
Good luck but from what I am seeing from your photo should be able to make it look decent and hopefully keep the crack from spreading at the same time.
