Popular Post PaulH Posted July 13, 2025 Popular Post Posted July 13, 2025 (edited) I have a fibreglass repair to make so thought I would share the progress here. You'll see from the pictures that there is a large hole that needs to be made good, so I have a new repair section to bond in. I'm fairly sure where I'll make the join but I have a couple of choices. I'll make the final decision after a bit more thinking. Very happy to receive advice. A hole: Remove the aluminium under tray. Unplug this connector so the cable can be passed through the wheel arch liner. Dismount this connector attached to the inside of the wheel arch liner. Remove the plastic screws and pull out the fixings that hold the wheel arch liner and remove the liner. This shows where the fibreglass sill is bonded to the aluminium chassis. Inside the sill. Repair section. Keep watching for the next exciting instalment of "Can I make an invisible repair" Edited July 13, 2025 by PaulH 4 Quote
foxy76 Posted July 13, 2025 Posted July 13, 2025 Nice to see the step by step. I'll be really interested to see how you get on. I've got work to do on that section, just cracks fortunately, no hole. Quote
Oakman Posted July 13, 2025 Posted July 13, 2025 It’s a proper hole Paul. Not your car - wrong colour ! Quote
PaulH Posted July 13, 2025 Author Posted July 13, 2025 33 minutes ago, Oakman said: It’s a proper hole Paul. Not your car - wrong colour ! No, not my car, just helping a friend 🙂 1 Quote
PaulH Posted July 14, 2025 Author Posted July 14, 2025 Episode 2 "There's no going back now!" I've decided where to make the join. I was considering using most of the repair piece, but having researched the materials and procedure to bond the fibreglass part to the anodised aluminium chassis I decided to avoid that. So I've chosen to make the cuts close to the hole and cut the repair piece to fit. I've replaced the aluminium engine under tray as I'm not going close to that and it'll protect from dust. I also temporarily replaced the wheel arch liner to protect from dust and placed some cardboard and cloth to protect the car from dust. I also protected myself from dust Hear goes I used the piece I've cut out to mark a line on the repair piece + an allowance for material thickness Then cut it close to the line. I can always make it smaller by sanding the edges Here's what it looks like in the hole. You can see that the shape of the repair piece is not perfect, however it's not in a critical area, and I can imagine how to correct that later. Next step is to clean up the inside of both the car and the repair piece so that polyester resin will stick to them both, so all the dirt has to go. 60 grit sand paper will get rid of the dirt and provide a good key for the polyester resin. The next step is to fix the repair piece in place using aluminium plates and pop rivets, then it gets bonded in place with fibreglass and resin on the inside. I've made a start with placing a couple of fixing plates. Here's some images to show how it aligns. I think the most critical alignment are to make sure the wheel arch shape is correct, and the curved surface of the sill can be made good. The surface inside the wheel arch doesn't align properly with the repair piece. I think I can resolve this by sanding the inside of repair piece to make that part much thinner so it can be flexed into the correct alignment. Here's what it looks like inside. A little more cleaning up required. More to follow in the next thrilling episode 1 Quote
DeanB Posted July 15, 2025 Posted July 15, 2025 Paul you are a real craftsman. Wonderful work. 1 Quote
MrWill Posted July 15, 2025 Posted July 15, 2025 ...am making notes as you go. Keep up the great work Paul ! Quote
DSTOR Posted July 15, 2025 Posted July 15, 2025 Brilliant work Paul, looking forward to the next episode. 👌🏻 Quote
Popular Post duncx Posted July 15, 2025 Popular Post Posted July 15, 2025 Blimey that looks like a right bodge job, and who the blazes would be so stupid as to keep driving a car in that sort of condition? 2 Quote
PaulH Posted July 15, 2025 Author Posted July 15, 2025 Episode 3 Not too much progress today. A bit more cleaning up inside. Pulled off the vinyl sharks fin using a hair dryer to warm it. Good news, it didn't pull off the paint lacquer 🫡 Pop riveted the plates in place to firmly holed the repair piece in place. I had sanded the inside of the repair piece to make the part inside the wheel arch flexible, so that it could flex and pull in line with the bodywork. Don't be concerned about the gaps, all will become clear in the next steps, however it will give Duncan a good opportunity for more bodgery comments 😅 1 Quote
foxy76 Posted July 15, 2025 Posted July 15, 2025 Where did you get the repair piece from? An unfortunate donor? Quote
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