The undeside of the deck lid on my GT has some small cracks. These cracks appear to be at stress points as shown in the pictures below:

These cracks are definately through to the otherside of the inner panel. What would be the best way to repair these? Will using SMC adhesive be sufficient? Should a layer of fiberglass be applied? If so do I need to use a particular type of resin?

Thanks in advance!
Nolan

My decklid has similar cracks in it and I used fiberglass with the resin you can buy at the auto parts store. I still am working on it cause i am adding a scoop to it too. I imagine just regular bondo would work but fiberglass would be stronger and last much longer.

Yes I agree that the fibreglass would be better, but I thought that I read a thread that "normal" fibreglass resin doesn't adhere very well to SMC.

Bump, anyone else?

Nolan

deck and hood are fiberglass. repair them like they are fiberglass ( ie: use fiberglass and mat)

To properly make a repair with fiberglass, you need to grind away the area around the crack. Then you need fiberglass cloth to make the repair. If I was doing it for myself, i'd use "Epoxy" resin over "Polyester" resin The epoxy cost more but it has no smell, and it bonds to anything, where as the polyester resin has that harsh smell and it has the tendency to "not stick" to many surfaces

Excellent responses everyone. +'s for all, unless you already have them.

Thanks
Nolan

[This message has been edited by Sourmug (edited 11-14-2005).]

i would do a lil grinding on the cracked areas and use angel hair. it contains small,fine amounts of fiber in it and much easier than soaking pieces of matting and trimming them to fit. you can just put this stuff on and sand it smoth.

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Keith
Topsail Beach,NC
86&87 Fiero GT
86&96 Corvette
04 Harley Davidson Softail

73 Lotus Europa TC
86 Lotus Turbo Esprit
"He who dies with the most toys wins!!!"

quote Originally posted by fiero88v8: To properly make a repair with fiberglass, you need to grind away the area around the crack. Then you need fiberglass cloth to make the repair. If I was doing it for myself, i'd use "Epoxy" resin over "Polyester" resin The epoxy cost more but it has no smell, and it bonds to anything, where as the polyester resin has that harsh smell and it has the tendency to "not stick" to many surfaces

I agree with this idea. The fiberglass cloth will recreate the structure that was destroyed when the original panel cracked and give you the support you need so it won't crack again. The cloth will spread any impact force over the entire repair area instead of just the area around the crack. Using the fiberglass cloth and resin won't be especially pretty, but with care and a lot of sanding you can make it look really nice. Make sure that you grind out the crack a bit so the resin can get into the damage along with the surface area where the cloth will go. You should have the resin bond to a rough surface ( the grind area ) instead of the factory smooth surface. If you are careful, you can even make the repair look half way decent with a lot of sanding and possibly using body filler to smooth out the fiberglass work. Just don't go too thin on the repair cloth and resin or it will crack again.

Looking at the damage near the latch, you're going to have a fun time getting this area to really have a lot of strength. You can do it, but you also might want to consider replacing the decklid. Was this thing slammed really hard or did someone try to get into it at one point? The stress damage seems to have come from either the wing being used as a handle or someone trying to pull the wind off. I'm just curious.

Good luck and take a few pics and show us how it's going.

Mark

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Thanks for the additional replies. The damage was already there when I purchased the car. I think that I will attempt to repair this deck lid, you don't learn without trying, If it ends up that I need a new one then I have just lost some time and a bit of fiberglass. Thanks again and more +'s for those who don't have 'em.

Nolan

[This message has been edited by Sourmug (edited 11-14-2005).]

It's certainly worth a shot as the fiberglass repair materials aren't expensive. Even if it looks half-way decent, it's cheaper to repaint the underside of the deck with semi-gloss black than the top side with body color.