Getting ready to do some fiberglass repairs and I?ve noticed that I have a crack in what appears to be a hole on the passenger side engine bay compartment near the shock absorbers.
I?m assuming that is not a good day and I need to fill the hole and reinforce the crack, is that correct? Hole is circled in red, crack is in blue.
Thanks for humoring my two rapidfire questions this morning. Happy Halloween!
Not sure how you feels about modification, but that bump or protrusion you are looking at is there to provide some extra clearance for the steering shaft. On most cars it protrudes much more than is required. Trimming it back a half inch or more then laying in new 'glass is, IMHO, a worthwhile mod, as is then covering it with a section of thin foil faced thermo insulation to prevent future issues from exhaust heat.
Better yet to have the exhaust manifold ceramic coated which will reduce heat significantly.
Good morning Steve, thanks for the response and info. I am fine with sensible mods that improve the car so I will take a look at clearance. Having a bit more of an air gap is probably not a bad idea, and will use heat shielding for sure.
Good morning gentlemen, hope everybody is having a good weekend so far. I am planning on addressing this hole and crack tomorrow and wanted to get some coaching on how much coverage is needed to repair those.
To be more specific and clear In my question how far over those damaged areas do I need to overlap the fiberglass?
Are the blue and red circles in the first post about the right size of what the overlap needs to be? Just one layer of additional material on the crack or should that receive several layers of mat?
I’m confused. You say it is passenger side yet there is talk of steering clearance, what am I missing? And if there is heat damage, presumably from the exhaust, you must be RHD.
I had this problem with cracks on a plus two and it was the Towers collapsng .
You need to check the camber angles of the Wheels. Easy to check with angle cube.
Alan
I would feather from cracks 3 cm.
Use only chopped strand matt and finish with Tissue. If you finish with Tissue when it"s rubbed down you will never see the repair. Imho i don’t use filler but Tissue and resin to finish.
Alan
I use the P40 as a one stop repair, P40 is a 2 part glass strand reinforced polyester resin base, very simple and clean to use when compared to the glass cloth and separate resin. It can be applied in a thick or very thin layer.
In my opinion a near perfect solution for your repair, but remember any repair is just stuck on to the existing fibre glass so clean dry surface, as with any adhesive, is needed for a good bond.