Fundamentals of Fender Fun...

[KANE]

I finally broke down ad decided to pull the door off and split the fender from the bonding strips around the cowl.

It was repaired at some point in time by a previous owner and it wasn't the best repair. It wasn't properly bonded to the upper cowl bonding strip- it stuck out about a 1/8 inch. So, the "horn" of the fender (the area between the hood and door) stuck out a little bit by the door.

You might see it in this photo if you look really close...
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc96/Johnny-s_Shark/DSCF0255.jpg?t=1224208769

 

[fine69]

Sorry for the long reply...

Hey DarkShark...

Wow... I am also doing fender repair work. The problem I had is that the curve of the right hand fender where it meets the hood was too high.

Not sure how others would have fixed this -- but this is how I did it, and maybe this may be helpful:

Underside:
I completely stripped the undercoating off in the fender well.

Directly underneath the area, I used fiberglass matte and made layers. I did each layer one at a time to help reduce shrinkage.

After each layer cured, I sanded with 80 grit to remove the resin and to help promote adhesion. I did seven layers total.

Topside:
After all layers underneath cured, from the topside, I used a 6" DA sander and went at it... sanding away the old fiberglass and penetrated into the "new" fiberglass. With seven layers, there was enough material for me to grind a little deeper.

So now I had a concave area where it was formerly too high... so, now to reinforce the bond between the old and new again, I used fiberglass matte and a made layer that extended the area on the topside.

To help reduce some of the sanding needed. I used wax paper and a cheap J-roller I picked up at Harbor Freight to smooth out the bubbles and remove the excess resin... I kept acetone and a rag nearby to clean up the excess resin. ALSO, I wore three layers of nitrile gloves... whenever the gloves got too sticky to handle the fiberglass - I would just remove it.

One additional step before using surface filler - I used Evercoat "Kitty Hair"to get the rough shape of the curve (again using waxpaper and roller).

It turned out good. I am still allowing it to cure for a bit longer and have not yet used the filler to get everything perfect. I plan to use Evercoat Rage with a guidecoat.

Ralph

 

[KANE]

Ralph-

Sounds like a lot of hard work that will payoff for you! That is an ingenious idea- create the panel you want on top of and below the one you have!

I'm going to make some strategically placed cuts to relieve the tension on the panel. This will allow my fender to sit correctly on the bonding strips. I believe the original fender has warped a bit.

28 years of heat and sun do strange things!

 

[Mac]

28 years of heat and sun do strange things!

That explains the residents of Florida... and a few Texans as well...

-Mac