Yeah, I'm a little tardy on the updates. I've been trying to get pictures organized and every time I sit down to post I get interrupted with something else.
When I'm doing this stuff one of the things I like to do is try new products and different things. Most of the time I wish I hadn't as they rarely work as advertised, but once in a while you get lucky. My Carquest guy really recommended that we try some of this:
So we got a quart. One thing about it that looked promising was that you can either squeegee it on or use a roller. We used a roller. That kind of makes sense, since most of it is going to be sanded off anyway.
Doesn't look bad in these pictures. After drying completely we started sanding and I was not impressed. It sanded fairly hard and was terrible about clogging the sandpaper.
Speaking of that, I picked up several packages of 3M's "Sandblaster" Paper.
3M Sandblaster PaperIt really, really works well as far as long life and non-clogging. I only found it up to 320 grit but 3M says they have it up to 400 grit. It costs about 50% more than regular paper but you use a whole lot less of it.
The true bane of fiberglass work is pinholes. They keep coming up even though you fill and sand and fill and sand. There is a product that airplane builders use called "Smooth Prime" that also contains a UV blocker that I've used before and didn't care for because it sanded very, VERY hard, but I tried it again, this time spraying it on instead of using a roller.
It really does kill the pinholes better than anything else I've tried, but spray it on and don't roll it on like the instructions suggest. It just gets too thick and there's too much sanding if it's rolled on.
As you can see, things are coming along and getting closer at this point.
Note that on this picture and the one before, those little depressions aren't there in the door and fender at the lower front of the door and the lower rear of the fender. I wanted that smoothed and filled them in. I checked for clearance several times and it looked OK, but very close. Later, on final adjustment of the front clip and door panel, there was interference when the door was fully opened and all that work had to come back out and the depressions are still there. If you went with a VDC, you could fill them as you can open the door over 1/2 way before it even gets close, but for conventional hinges.........fuggitaboutit.
The B pillar caps came out very nice and you can see the lip that the B pillar interior pieces will fit under.
The rear ends with any custom tail lights take WAY too much time to get right. I'd say that the back end of this car, and the copper Finale, took at LEAST as long as the rest of the stock body panels put together.
I really liked the looks of the smoothed door and fender, too bad it didn't work out.
This is how the door fit with little to no adjustment and just bolting it on.
It took a slight amount of grinding and tweaking to make flush, but not nearly as much as the first Finale took. Such are the variations in fiberglass parts. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.
Everybody makes mistakes, here's one of mine. I drilled the mounting holes for the front clip and when we started adjusting, it just wasn't far enough back. All of the mounting holes had to be elongated and the mounts shimmed up. This was not acceptable.
I considered glassing the holes shut and redrilling, but got some fender washers instead, stacked about 20 of them, clamped them in the mill, and made them fit in the channel and beneath.
Much better. And the clamping load is spread over a much larger area as well.
(yeah, I meant to do that. that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)
The rockers got glassed in, smoothed, and primed.
As you can tell, we're getting to the "details" part of the build. A lot of the re-body's are now ready to go to paint, but I wanted this car to be built up to the next level, or b eyond, when it came to fit and finish.
I'm very happy with the way the header came out.
It's definitely getting there.
John Stricker
[This message has been edited by jstricker (edited 04-14-2007).]
) You can vary that and make it "wet", "dry", "very dry" or anything in-between. If you're working on vertical surfaces you want it pretty dry so it won't sag or you can cover it with peel ply as I showed in the pictures on the fuel filler. The drier it is (more micro, less resin) the easier it will sand.
) but when I get back in I'll post some more to the thread.
