Repairing Fiberglass Panels - Glass Act

In this shot, Adrian is showing one of the keys to making a repair area look like it was never repaired. Note how he's holding the sander parallel to the fender lip area, matching the original contour here as well as above it on the sloping fender side.

After further smoothing the repair area with 500-grit sandpaper on a D-A sander, Adrian does a little fine-tuning by hand. So far, so good, and the front wheelwell repair looks just as good.

The hood had time to fully harden while Adrian worked on the fender cracks. Removing the metal mold revealed that we were only half done.

After using the coarse-grit 400 sandpaper and sanding wheel to smooth out any rough edges in the new fiberglass on the underside of the hood, Adrian smoothed in a layer of Mar-Glass.

This fiberglass-impregnated filler material will provide a smoother, sandable surface while also adding extra strength to this area.

With the hood's underside done for the moment, Adrian flipped the lid over and, after resanding the repair area to ensure that he was working with clean 'glass, added another 4-6 layers of fiberglass to the repair area. In addition to making sure the hood is as strong as ever, this will provide material to create the proper hood contour.

Once this new patch had hardened, Adrian again got to work with the heavy sandpaper. Note how he sands from the outer edges in towards the middle of the hood in order to maintain the peak that runs down the middle of this panel. The action is similar on the front edge of the hood.

At this point, the coarse work is done. With this extensive fiberglass work, we've got the strength to make sure this hood is structurally sound, and the original shape is in place, albeit roughly. Adrian continued by applying a mixed layer of Mar-Glass and body glaze.

While the newest layer on the hood hardened, Adrian again turned to the fender repairs. After applying a layer of lightweight body glaze and letting it harden, he used a pen to trace the fenderline.

Using this line as a guide, Adrian sanded the glaze with 400-grit paper until it was smooth. The exact repair area is all but impossible to pick out, which is the way we want it.

Returning to a D-A sander and 400-grit paper, Adrian moved back to the now hardened hood. Again, note how he sands from the outer edge in, maintaining the original point on the hood's nose.

Among the things we learned during this project is that there's no substitute for feel. Here, Adrian is tracing the hood's centerline down into the repair area to make sure that he doesn't sand over this peaked area.

With the Mar-Glass/body glaze concoction sanded smooth, the care that Adrian took to maintain the hood's stock lines becomes more evident. This area was treated to a coat of straight body glaze before another round of sanding.

Entering the home stretch, Adrian masked off the appropriate areas of our newly re-glassed Vette...

...and sprayed on a few coats of high-build primer to fill any minute flaws and prepare the repair areas for paint.

The primer didn't take long to dry during a typically balmy California winter, so Adrian didn't waste any time loading up some 500-grit sandpaper to wet-sand the primer.

Don't be surprised if a lot of primer comes off--it is high-build material, after all. Special attention should be paid to the edges of the primered area; the ridge created by the primer will need to be smoothed out.

This cracked lip is history--the flaw is filled, and with the primer sanded smooth, this panel is ready to paint.

To fully rehab this Vette's busted snout, we ordered a new urethane front bumper cover from Mid America Motorworks. Also note the new driver's side fog light, which also came from Mid America. This is one of those jobs that looks harder than it is--side marker lights need to be transferred to the new piece, as well as the side mounting brackets, which are riveted in place. Check out the accompanying sidebar for more info on this process.

With the new bumper cover in place, Paul and John Morrow set the hood back in place.

As you can see, Adrian's careful work has paid off with a near perfect reproduction of the factory hoodline. We'll need to do a bit of fine-tuning on the bumper cover to complete the fit, but we're lookin' good. Next stop for this Vette: tons of sanding, then the paint booth!