The general repairs are coming on well but… On the doors, the join between the outer and inner sections is coming apart in places especially at the seam where the outer skin joins the inner - a sort of delamination at the edge.
Has anyone any advice for ‘gluing’ the parts together please? I have considered glue - epoxy or superglue. Or should I just use resin?
Must admit I haven’t done this repair but I have to say I have very little faith in most glues. Most are good at one particular task (superglue on rubber, for example)
I know the problem you are referring to and I think if I was going to tackle it I would run something like a thin cutting disk along the seam to open it out.
The purpose of this would be to clean out any accumulated dirt and to expose the original matting.
I would then wet out some strips of new matting (perhaps two or three layers) and put them in the gap. Then clamp the seam shut and it should form a bond at least as good as the original.
It would be a bit awkward pushing the wet mat into the seam but should be possible without too much trouble. (You could do it in short lengths, folded over something like a plastic filler spreader.
The only glue I would consider trying would be polyurethane, something like “Tiger Seal” or “Sikaflex” -again having opened out the seam
I think 'glass is the way to go and mat and resin would be better than just running resin into the gap… good luck
Thanks John. I did think I might open the flood gates with people who had had the same problem.
Great fun today removing lots of fibreglass from another earlier repair on the driver’s door post - look like the door might have been torn off at some stage - they’d just put loads of new fibreglass and filler over the original paint so it came off easily. Next job is to repair it properly!
Mike
I think it is a fairly common problem. When I described the way I would tackle the problem, I was thinking particularly of the seams on the top/front of Elan doors. Luckily mine were OK but I’ve seen quite a few which aren’t.
I had similar horrific repairs on my car which needed sorting out. Stripping the paint off a Lotus is a bit like an episode of “Time Team” suddenly the history,warts and all, is exposed. (all you need to complete the picture is Baldrick waving his arms about!)
Agreed with nebogipfel. I would not use anything other than epoxy or polyester resin to repair this. And clean is they only way it will stick. Appereantly they only used resin to ‘glue’ them together as I’ve found no evidenace that they were backed by a glass layer. trying to get your hand inside the door you can understand this.
If it is in an area where you can reach the back of the seam, I’d try and get a layer of glass accross the seam on the inside so that it has more support and won’t be inclined to open again.
I’m no fibreglass expert but had a splitting seam on my car door trailing edge a little while after I bought it. I followed the instructions in the factory manual section B Body page 11 “split bonds”. Basically it entails opening up the split a bit, roughening up the inner surfaces with a hacksaw blade then “glueing” with bonding resin. Clamp together & keep fingers crossed. I would read all the section first.