Recommendations for rebounding fibreglass panels

[MetBlue]

Looking for advise / experience on rebonding fibreglass panels / skins.
I have two areas in need of attention.
1: The bonnet near the plenum chamber has a strengthening fibreglass form running full width on the inside. Probably just need a good modern adhesive for this one as there is good surface to surface contact available.
2: The other area is the bottom edge of the inner door skin to the outer skin. My car is an early one and the inner skin is different to later ones. Along the lower edge, it's just a fibre glass edge that meets the out skin. A bit like trying the stick the Vertical to the horizontal on a "T". There's a couple of areas where fibreglass has been used to create an angled bridge in the past, but without much success, probably because its difficult to get in and get good stippling.

Thought I'd ask the wise and experienced out there before I get creative!!!!

Tony

[Pete Boole]

Are you just going to squeeze some adhesive between the bonnet mouldings? If so I'd use a hacksaw blade to remove as much of the old adhesive as possible and then use an epoxy - I use Pliogrip - expensive but sticks like the proverbial! With the door I would defo add glass matt. I know it's a real pain but remove the door skin from the beam and access to clean inside is pretty good. If someone has tried this before and it's not stuck it's because it wasn't clean enough. Remove the old patch first. A small air-powered die grinder - 90 degree or a Dremel are you friends here. If you get it clean enough it will be a good permanent repair. You'll never just stick the edges together!

Pete

[MetBlue]

Thanks Pete. Door skin is already separate from the beam, so access is as good as it could be. That pliogrip stuffs a good price (as in expensive) on ebay, but then I guess cost per ml is no different to araldite etc. How does it mix? Picture on ebay seems to show a tube with screw top an two smaller graduated scale things either side. Really just wondering if you need a special gun or applicator to mix it.
How far does 200 ml go? I'll need to run a seam about 1.5 metres just to bond the doors back together and in some areas I can see it will be up to 6mm thick. The bonnet should need less, but not cleaned that up yet.
Thanks Tony

[Pete Boole]

Can you post up a picture of the problem with the door? The Pliogrip isn't really gap-filling, and it's too expensive to use like that! I'm still sure you could fix the door from the inside with CSM and resin.

I also took the opportunity to add a couple of layers at the very bottom where the screws that hold the door card screw in.

Pete

[MetBlue]

Couple of picies.
First is the near side door in need of biggest repair. The separation goes back as far as the light source mid way along the door bottom edge.

This next picture is the off side door, that only needs rebonding from the waste line and above. There was about 5mm of packing in this area ( that looks to me like something the factory did but I may be mistaken), and although I will check alignment to rear wing on the car before bonding, I'm pretty sure that if I just bond the two skins together without some filling, it will pull the top of the door in too much and I'll have very poor door lines.

Tony

[Pete Boole]

Before you go to all the trouble, see my post about doors in the thread about differences in doors!

Pliogrip will easily stick the two shells together. I'd be tempted to completely separate the two parts altogether, that way you can properly prepare the surfaces. If there are substantial gaps you could also consider a PU adhesive - a fraction of the cost, but not as strong - you could then run some CSM & resin around the whole inside seam.

Pete

[MetBlue]

Pete : I'm clearly treading the same path you did when I it comes to doors. The newer inner forms are so much neater than the early ones. Until a week ago, I was convinced I'd use the later doors, but now I'm having second thoughts ( more of that when I finally Start a restoration thread for the car ).
Agree with all your observations on "differences thread", and had noted all the mounting point differences for the frames into the door. Surprise though. Both my doors have generally solid fibre glass around the front mountings ( thankful for small mercies).

I can see where the weeks go in sorting these doors out. I've got a feeling there's going to be so many dry fits coming up, that by the end the door skins, beams and window frames will know how to fit themselves !!

Tony