I have a 1973 Jeep cj6 which is essentially a 20" longer Cj5. I bought a replacement body in fiberglass to get it back on the road . I am limited to to one manufacture of fiberglass bodies for it. They aren't known for being the best made but they get the job done.
I got the tub up and onto the frame but it has a dip in the top rail on the drivers side.. This is a pretty long area ...something like 25" is dipped down.
I have attached a pic of the top rail (albeit on the passenger side and on a cj5) to show you the area in question. Its just flat on the topside. The last pic is the actual low spot on my cj6 tub. At the lowest spot it is maybe .250" deep. All of the other panels on the Tub are fine it's just this one top rail.
What would the fix be for this? Should I Just grind away the gel coat and build this up with layers of stranded mat? Should I use a woven cloth as the last piece when it gets it built back up? This is a Knock around Jeep and will get a cheap garage paint job but I would really like to get this side rail straightened out. It catches the eye pretty quick
Any advice on how to correct this? I'd like to try and tackle it.
If the lower part of the tub is the right shape you could fit it and then cut the rail down to be parallel with the rest of the body side.
But, if the body is ALL correct except the taper you could fabricate a wedge out of something impervious like starboard.
Have you ever worked fiberglass? You will need to get a good respirator and suit.
Grind back to the glass, make your piece, screw it in with countersunk hardware, glass, gel. Voila.
I don't know which fiberglass to use. If doing for myself I'd research it. And One place I'd go for information is the Iboats.com restoration section.
I have worked with fiberglass and resin doing subwoofer boxes. But its just fabric and resin.
The rest of the side panel is correct and the high side of the rail is the correct height. The low spot needs to come up. I have posted on the Boat designer forums. I haven't seen a reply there yet.
It does need to be structural in that spot because of the hardtop. Thats why I thought I would have to use mat or cloth.
I think you want some stranded mat for gap fills, and some cloth to do structure.
Don't quote me, but as I recall you do the glass, then you fill it smooth, then you gel.
There are tutorials in iboats, and at Jamestown Distributors webpages.
You are going to have to learn to shoot gelcoat. Or get to that point and pay someone.
Let's wait for someone who really knows fiberglass before you do something but I am thinking the best way would be to slice the body up from the wheelwell to the center of that low point and bend the back down and glass up that slice.
If that thing was brought to my shop to fix here is how I would go about it. I would cut out the offending area. Feather the edges on the inside with 36 grit in a roloc and then fix a "patch mold" of sheet metal to the outside of the body. Be sure and use mold release wax on your mold. then I would do mu layup with 15 oz mat since most of these car bodies are gun layups any way. use 4 to 6 layers of mat until you get the thickness of the patch area consistent with the rest of the body. tear your glass and not cut it and by making each succeeding layer a bit larger it will be hard to tell just where the repair was made. You can use molding clay to get the curved edges in the mold. If I or Randy (New interiors) were to do this most would not know it was ever done..
Lets say this guy needs a radius on the edge of the body. So he bends his patch mold in a sheet metal brake which makes a sharp corner. What we do is to take some molding clay and stick it in the corner and tool it with a popsickle stick or tongue depressor to make a curve in the corner. Works fine for a one off deal. Also on large complex molds we place metal valve stems in the mold so we can apply air pressor to the mold to help pop the part out. We put a bit of molding clay in the inside of the valve stems so resin does not get in a plug the air stems up. Easier if you see it done.
In the near future, I'm looking at repairing a cowl on a '36 Auburn fiberglass body that has been deformed over 30 years from tension in the convertible top and no structural support for the windscreen.
Another use for the molding clay is when we have a larger multipiece mold we lay some in the mold seams to prevent leakage of the resin into the mold joints. if you get a leak there you may bond the mold pieces together and will be a caution to get the mold pieces separated.
is the other side straight??? take a mold off that side... finish the mold smooth built up a section longer than what you need.. make it thin.. you can then grind the surface on the sagging side.. and cut and back grind the new patch to fit.. you will built up with some resin.. and filler powder.. perlite or bakelite. i forgot the types of filler that get blended into the epoxys to make it thick and easily grindable.
probably stick the new part into wet resin/filler blend..
its been a 3 decades since i worked in fiberglass on the main deck and pilot house of the 104' boat.. we went thru 2 sets of 55 gallon drums of resin that was mixed 1 to 1..
i have a huge question.. does the cab seal cover it well.. or does it stick out like a sore thumb..
......At the lowest spot it is maybe .250" deep. All of the other panels on the Tub are fine it's just this one top rail.
What would the fix be for this? Should I Just grind away the gel coat and build this up with layers of stranded mat? Should I use a woven cloth as the last piece when it gets it built back up?......
Don't make this too complicated, it's only a 1/4 inch buildup. Just grind it
like you say and fill with mat. Use a long carpenters straight edge to get
it level. It shouldn't take more than 3-4 layers tapered from bottom to top.
Then grind and finish normally. Easy peasy.
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