Lester is in the Building

What a treat! Lester H. is visiting from Frederick, MD for a few weeks and was quick to volunteer his services. Les scoped the car and was quick to claim dibs on the damage to the passenger door. It was near 100 degrees that day so staying hydrated during the repair was essential. Here Les is showing us the damaged door panel prior to repairs.

A close up of the damage. This was probably caused at the race track when the door was opened into a nearby bollard. Could have also been a grocery cart I guess. After limited access to the backside of the panel was obtained Les had to be a contortionist to reach inside using the angle grinder to remove some of the fiberglass thickness.

This is a shot of the inside of the passenger door after Les was finished grinding. To show the remaining thickness of the fiberglass we held a trouble light on the outside. Shortly after this picture was taken two layers of 8" x 8" matt were installed.

Les is pointing to the area that requires further attention. Be sure to watch for updates to this blog where you'll hopefully see more of Les and the completion of the passenger side door repair.

First Bondo

The fiberglass work that we've been doing over the last month has been finishing work. Most the areas you've previously seen have been completed. The work performed over the last month includes back grinding, placing fiberglass mat and resin on the opposite side of the repairs, removing rivets and tabs, filling rivet holes, etc. Unfortunately, it is near impossible to photograph this work because all the fiberglass resin we use is clear which means you can't see the progress. So, for the benefit of the blog, we will change our work process. Usually we would complete all fiberglass work on the whole car, skim coat the whole car with bondo, shoot the whole car with primer, then paint the whole car. Instead we will primer when ever a section is complete. Whenever and where ever you see primer will signify completion of the body work. There is a video at the end of this posting that tries to explain the intent. But for now, it's bondo time... A full skim coat of bondo was put down on the left front then 95% of it was removed by block sanding. The bondo that remains is paper thin. The thickest area might be 1/32" but no more. These irregularities could have been corrected with primer only.

This is the same fender. All damaged fiberglass was removed until a solid foundation was achieved. New fiberglass matting and resin replaced all the voids. The bondo corrected minor surface irregularities. This fender has been the most labor intensive of all the fiberglass work.

Another shot of the same fender near the windshield. The top of this fender is now ready for it's first coat of primer.

A picture of the bondo applied to the front of the same fender. Primer to follow.

Below is the video. Be sure to push the play button.