Most of the glass I need to remove is now off the car. Since the guy who assembled my car was a nutcase with the adhesive, there are a few areas where I split the bonding strips. By split, I mean it was glued so well on both sides, that half the strip stayed with the panel being removed and half stayed with the strip. Obviously in any areas where long stretches split, the bonding strip will have to be replaced, but what about small sections or even one place where I went through it with the chisel? Can I just shoot some resin in there with a needle between the split fibers and clamp them so they lay back down? As hard as this stuff is glued, if I try to remove all these bonding strips I'll be right back in the same place, but the splits will be on the body. My plan was to grind off the really messed up strip sections so I don't damage any of the parts I'm not replacing.

Also, on the sections where it's panel to panel - such as floor pan to firewall - there is no bonding strip so I'll have to fix what's there.

Incidentally, I used sharp chisels, a heat gun, and a LOT of time to remove these and still some of them are a mess. I was beginning to think I was just a moron. Then, Tuesday, I was removing some glass from a donor car and the bonding strips popped right off... get the knife under a few inches and the following 8-10 inches would pop free from the pressure. Mine would not do that at all. Each milimeter had to be pounded and heated to get it to release.

I have the glas-ra book and have searched the net, but I'm still not clear what to do with this split glass.

Also, this is a no-hit body - every original bonding strip is (was) intact with no repair spots anywhere. My car is a #'s matching BB vert so I want to put it back together cleanly. Incidentally, it's apart due to birdcage rust and my desire to remove aftermarket flares. THANKS!!

Here (on the #3 body mount piece inside the wheel well) you can see that part of the bonding area took some abuse. The pieces would not separate, so now the removed piece is really thin on that corner. Closer to my finger, its much thicker. There is no bonding strip here - just panel to panel - so I have to repair these panels if I don't want to replace them.



Another shot from a different angle


Again, another shot


Here is the front of the panel


This is the tranny hump from inside the car looking down. You can see the panel is cracked in two places and slightly split (not all the way through) along the bend where the firewall bonds to the back of this piece.



This is inside the drivers rear wheel well looking up. The fender is removed. At the top edge you can just see a bit of the bonding strip from the upper deck, on the bottom is the inner fender. In between is 3/4 inch of bonding adhesive. Do I worry about this area where it split? The bonding strip is not split, but the thick adhesive is cracked.

 

anybody?

 

Not knowing the full story if the car is to be a driver .Grind down and re-glass damaged areas .even the blonding strips can done this way

 

Grind down, cut the break lines and reglass.

 

You might give it a try where you kind of open up the split with a screwdriver or something and 'inject' (or just dribble some into the crack), then clamp tightly between some metal pieces. Then remove the clamps. I'd give it a try and see how strong it is. You will probably still need to do some grinding to get it the same thickness as the non-split areas.

Mark G

 

Thanks for the responses.

Since there are a few different types of cracks or breaks, it looks like there will be a few different repairs I'll need to make.

Charles - to answer your question, it will be a fair-weather, every-now-and-then driver and sometime show attender.

Belgian vette - do you mean cut out the breaks? i.e. remove them and then patch?

Mark - I think I'm going to try injecting into the cracks in the thick bonding agent on the rear quarters. I'll post later on how it goes.

Thanks again guys

 

For cracks like in picture #5, I'd probably do a two-step repair: first, 'dribble' some resin on the crack and clamp it together. Then, once hard, I'd "V" it out with a grinder and lay in some matt and more resin, then when that hardens grind down both sides to it's flat again.