Warped rocker molding panel on 68 fastback Eleanor kit

E

Eleanor

Hello. I am new to this site and was wondering if anyone could guide me in the right direction here. Here is my question. I have a Eleanor body kit I purchased from a reputable company about 7 years ago. I had a body shop do the work on the car and the body kit. They never totally finished the car and the owner ended up in a divorce so I took the mostly finished car in fear of loosing the whole car. Anyways the rocker panels moldings and wheel well flares were never put on but they were painted and cleared. Another body man put them on but the drivers side has a warp on the top edge which is significant. It bows out at the front because the back end has a 90 degree on it that slides up under the rear wheel to hold it in place. The front then is almost an inch away from the actual rocker. The body man put them on by epoxying studs at the front center and rear but just the car running vibrated them away from the panel. I have moved since then and took them off and had a body shop here fix the holes for me and repaint it. I then put it on with 3M two way tape but the front just wants to pull away from the rocker. I'm not sure now what to do with this thing or if it can even be fixed. Any thoughts would sure be appreciated.
 

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What I would do if someone brought this to me is, do a trial fit to the car, see where the issues are then cut and reshape the fiberglass until it fits the car. What should have been done in the first place by the Shop who painted it. It's bowing because there is too much material there.
It can be fixed. It's fiberglass so it doesn't really require any special skills other than knowing how to cut and rebond glass properly. Sounds like everyone has been trying to avoid doing what needs to be done. Fit it, cut it until it fits, then reglass it. Once that is done and it's painted, good 2 sided tape will hold it (provided it's applied properly).

If two sided tape is going to be used the backside of the part should be at the very least primed with epoxy, sanded and re-primed with epoxy to ensure the 2 sided tape will bond. 2 sided tape doesn't like to stick to bare fiberglass.

Been my experience over the years even fiberglass parts from the "best" companies are mediocre at best. Everything like this I have had to do over the years usually required quite a bit of work to fit properly. Rarely is stuff like this "bolt-on"
 
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I remember the first 67 Camaro I worked on while in high school had the cool fiberglass fender flares on the back. They always molded them into the body, is that an option? Clamp with panel bond adhesive then glass over to the body to close the seam and keep it in place? If thats not an option, I would probably install some weld nuts in the rockers and drill thru with a countersunk allen head set screw, then cover those up and repaint. I know its not the look, but we had that miserable panel on the back of the Jeep Wrangler with the threads in the fiberglass that dont stay, then just drilled thru and put some fancy stainless acorn nuts on the outside that fits the jeep well. You would just decide whether to accept the look or counter sink them deeper and fill over.
 
Thankyou for your replies. Two different ideas for sure and both good. I thought about getting the body shop to mold them into the body at one time but I really don't like that look and worry in time that it may just break/crack there anyways. I also thought should something get dinged on the panels they could easily be taken off and fixed or replaced much easier than if bonded into place.
The current body shop thought I could drill holes through at the front, center and back up close to the top of the molding and use some sort of nice looking acorn nuts to hold it in place on the top where it's pulling away. Again I suppose that would work but geez it's just another look that I'm not too fond of. I'm liking Chris' idea here and thinking it right in this case. That would be the look that I'm looking for. The panel is secured from the bottom with a galvanized "L" bracket front to back that the fiberglass molding attaches to so two way tape on the top should easily hold it in place. Unfortunately both options are going to be expensive I'm sure and I wouldn't really know how to do this myself although I'd probably give it a try maybe???
 
Screwing it to the car is "ghetto" as the kids say now.:) Plus I hate the idea of drilling unnecessary holes in a nice car. What will happen if you drill it and force it down is it will crack in one or more areas at the top lip. The part was made too long and forcing it will hold it, but it won't be clean looking, it will crack and you'll have screw holes that will eventually invite corrosion.

If you decide to attempt it yourself, you'll find lot of us here are willing to help.
 
Couple hours work compared to a couple days of work. I know we are all assuming the work on the rockers themselves were perfectly straight and not the reason the panel is bowed. It makes sense to space the molding off the car and scribe the molding, find the high point and work that back, so if it pulls off a quarter inch, space it off that far and see where its too close. It might end up being the support structure down the middle.
 
Wow, you guys are great! So what your saying is that you would be willing to help me by telling me how to do the cutting and rebonding of the fiberglass in a step by step manner. I'll have to get the current body shop to repaint it afterwards.
Something I would be for sure be willing to do ... don't know if I have the ability to do that but I guess worst case is I have to buy new moulded rockers.
I know you are assuming the steel rockers are straight and I believe they are as they are new rockers. Doesn't seem to be any bows or ripples going down them except for the fact the original shop drilled holes through them in three places and into the inside to attach the epoxied studs that I mentioned earlier came off. I didn't have a clue back then how they should have been done and obviously they didn't either now it seems discussing it with you guys.
So before I decide to go down this road I will have to take pictures to show you exactly what needs to be done and how I can fix it with your help of course. Can do for sure. Should I just post them to this site then? I'm not a real computer techie when it comes to stuff like this.
Again, Thanks so much ... you have no idea how much I appreciate your guys help with this. I'm pretty sure the other side at some point will do the same thing and come undone and maybe it's best just to take it off now as well and I'll know what to do after the first one is done.

Here are some pictures I took. There are a few issues here. The back of the panel which has a 90 degree bend on it has to slide up into the outer rear wheel moulding so it is then the closest to the body. The car's rocker does indeed have a curve to it from back to front as shown in picture 4-5. The fiberglass panel bows exactly the opposite way on the leading edge. When I attach the front of that panel to match the front wheel flare at the bottom it seems to torque the top of the panel out even more. And finally it looks like the whole panel is about 1/4" too short in the front as compared to the right hand panel.
So multiple issues here I can now see.
 

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Screwing it to the car is "ghetto" as the kids say now.:) Plus I hate the idea of drilling unnecessary holes in a nice car. What will happen if you drill it and force it down is it will crack in one or more areas at the top lip. The part was made too long and forcing it will hold it, but it won't be clean looking, it will crack and you'll have screw holes that will eventually invite corrosion. If you decide to attempt it yourself, you'll find lot of us here are willing to help.
 

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