[jase_lamont]

First off, great forum!!

So I'm restoring a 67 Galaxie and had a couple of questions. The first is regarding a fiberglass teardrop bubble on a steel hood. What is the best way to get this to work without it cracking/peeling in the future? I've talked to a few people and get different answers everytime. One guys sez just rivet it and use bondo. Another sez sheet metal screws, then fiberglass it in place, remove screws and patch the holes. Another sez cut the hole first, then mount the bubble from underneath coming through the top, then glass it to finish...I don't mind elbow-grease, I just want to do it right and have it stay looking good.

OK, now my second question:

The rear driver's quarter was pretty messed up on this car, it got hit and folded in pretty bad at some point, then a hack repair job with about 8 lbs of filler - so far I've cut out the cancer, used a shrinking wheel to bring the really bad but savable spots out, have cut and fitted and welded in patch panels on both the outside and inside on the fender shell and have leaded the lows and weld marks - now its at the point where its pretty darn close. I've got a skim coat of filler on there now and have blocked it a couple of times - mind you this is all on bare steel. Then I was reading that I should have done my steel work then epoxied the car, THEN used bondo as a skim - is this true? Do I need to remove all the bondo and block work I've done and epoxy coat the area then go back and do it all over again?


OK, sorry for the long post but these two issues have been driving me nuts the last few days. Any help would be great - thanks a bunch!!

-jase

[John Kelly]

Hi Jase,

I'm not a fiberglass type of guy, but my understanding is, use epoxy based resin when attaching fiberglass to steel.

A better way to go would be to shape a blister by hand using the tools/techniques in this album (blister at the bottom of the page):

http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/communit...=9980138836765

Practice on some scrap first of course. A ballpeen hammer and a sheet of rubber to pound into would do most of the shaping on the cheap.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

[BarryK]

Re: the hood scoop Bond it as posted.
Second most important thing is after bonding is dry with a 24 grit grinder taper it as much as possible to blend in with hood so less filler is needed, its worth the extra time in the long run.
Next spray epoxy on all areas to receive filler this will help prevent bubbling and cracking because you have two different materials here expanding at different rates.

Quarter is fine, its been done that way for years, the epoxy first is just an option, you will be fine.

DO NOT glass it to the metal, worst thing you can do, in my book worse than rivits.

[S10xGN]

We used 3M body adhesive to bond a (steel) Grand National "hood bulge" to my stock (steel) hood on my S-10. Worked great, no warpage from welding, and minimal filler.