Air grabber bubble - repair advise please

E

edp

so I'm hoping the resident guru's like Barry, Shine, Flynam & anyone else whose has a lot of fiberglass experience can guide me in the3 right direction of this repair.

this is an Air Grabber bubble for a 71 Roadrunner/GTX - its original but has many cracks & repair area's needing attention, I really want this to come out right so the repairs are invisible when painted - I'll paint it in a SEM Hot Rod Black - I know, for all you mopar purists its not "Orangasol but my car's not pure anyways so no big deal.

I read a corvette thread from Shine I think in which Evercoat 870 ?? was recommended as a filler, would something like that work & I assume I dont necessarily want to lay glass mat on this verses some kind of fiber imbedded/mixed into the resin.

Some pic's & thanks for the help.

Evan

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Crash - here's a pic of the underside - I dont know what its really made out of. i thought fiberglass as its kind of a fiber looking crack not just like cracked plastic but not really sure. Maybe some Mopar guys know what the material is...... it is relatively smooth.

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Shine, is the epoxy type something like System 3 your referring to, I'm not sure what to use & when using mat how far out from the cracks would you want the mat to go? Are there any "basics of fiberglass" threads on the site, my glass experience is pretty minimal. I assume I'll want to V-groove the cracks & fill with the resin - would I want to mix in any loose fiber into that part of the repair or just lay the mat over the crack & epoxy?

crack pic's...
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grove the back an inch or so and lay some mat in with epoxy resin from the west system . doesn't matter what it is made of . parts were made in smooth molds as far back as 55 so that tells you nothing. just use epoxy resin and you wont have to worry about it.
 
OK thanks for the help, I'll give the West 105 a try. I think the piece has a few broken screw bosses on the back - something that small & for strength do you add filler to the epoxy - West makes some fillers, they kind of look like thickeners. One last thing, what about paint removal - chemical or scraping?

My plan is for paint was remove existing, do all repairs then shoot black epoxy, prep that for base then shoot SEM Hot Rod Black on top of the SPI Epoxy - any other suggestions on prep?

Thanks, much appreciated.

Evan
 
edp,
Please take some pics of your progress in repairing this part. I would love to see how its done and hear how well it holds up for you.
Jim
 
crashtech;20876 said:
Is that an early type of SMC? Is it smooth on the bottom, like a molded part?
Click to expand...

Sure looks like it could be SMC doesn't it.
 
HI Jim, I'll take pic's and post progress when I get to it which is hopefully soon. Lately I've been resurrecting the heater box - thats a challenge but done now & am reassembling the doors. Now that's a real challenge I'm finding out since I didn't take it apart - ever done a b-body door....well actually you probably have now that I think of it!

So if this thing is SMC are there issues I should be aware of for repairing?
 
edp;20903 said:
So if this thing is SMC are there issues I should be aware of for repairing?
Click to expand...
I only know about the materials and procedures I would use, which I know are suitable for both traditional fiberglass parts and the newer SMC, and don't involve epoxy resin, though epoxy primer can be a great addition to the final stages.

I don't have any direct experience using epoxy resin on SMC parts, but I read a post here where one of the respected members (Andy K?) asserted that the epoxy resins used in fiberglass type repairs are not suitable for SMC. Just check with the manufacturer before proceeding.
 
I never heard anyone say that they actually repaired SMC with West Systems products, so I called West Systems this morning and asked, and they say their products will adhere to properly prepared SMC.

BTW, the article I posted was not intended to take the place of experiences, nor answer any questions. It was meant for information, and to cause more questions to be asked, not less.

If my contributions are no longer welcome, it's no problem for me to stop making them.
 
Thanks guys for all the info, I certainly didn't mean to get the pot all stirred up here. I know less than any of you about this stuff so I try to ask questions that'll help me understand what I'm doing better so my end result is done correctly. When I posted this I asked for input from the fiberglass experts that I knew about like Barry, Shine & Flynam (also wasn't trying to exclude anyone either)as I assumed this part was glass, I hadn't even thought about it being other types of plastic. I wouldn't of thought of epoxy, I assumed I'd be doing traditional glass & resin repairs.

I appreciate all the advise you guys are willing to share with the novice like me, its extremely helpful so hopefully nobody goes away with ruffled feathers.

thx.
evan
 
Reading through this thread, I think crashtech has given some very good information and some fair points whether the part is SMC or not. I don't see any problem with referencing an article for a little history of the development of SMC. There was never any implication in the article or implied by crashtech that it should be used to determine the repair process.

I have several years experience repairing aircraft structures with fiberglass/kevlar/carbon fiber, but I'm sure I'm not in the "experienced, knowledgeable people" group Dub is referring to.
 
I think I may have misunderstood a statement made earlier in the thread that stated the material that the sccop is made of did not matter. Now my experience tells me that it does matter, because some repair materials are not compatible with SMC, so taken at its face value a statement like that is demonstrably wrong!

But if the statement was meant to mean that it did not matter what the material was IF you are using the right epoxy resin system to repair the scoop, then OK, that is right, and that is how it can be done. It's not how I do it, but even though I have been fixing SMC and 'glass parts for over 25 years, I would not assume that my experiences are the only ones with any validity.
 
You're a respected member in my book Crash, and I'll follow your advice anytime. I especially like the way you explain your answers and help us understand things better, there is always another time when that information will be needed.
 
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