molding sides in
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Nice!! Now I got some idea of your fiberglassing skills! Very kool.
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before glassing the skirts on did you use any kind of an epoxy based panel bonding adhesive? The reason I ask is that I do this work regularly and by just fiberglassing the door jams you'll likely end up cracking.
I bond the skirts on first with Fusor #147 allow 24 hrs to cure and outgas.
Also rather than using fiberglass mat or cloth I used milled glass fibers mixed with resin to blend the door jam. I first drill small holes into the metal so that the fiberglass filler I made drips down in and once cured it's almost like a weld. After I rough sand the milled glass fiber filler I smooth it out with a lightweight filler.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
I bond the skirts on first with Fusor #147 allow 24 hrs to cure and outgas.
Also rather than using fiberglass mat or cloth I used milled glass fibers mixed with resin to blend the door jam. I first drill small holes into the metal so that the fiberglass filler I made drips down in and once cured it's almost like a weld. After I rough sand the milled glass fiber filler I smooth it out with a lightweight filler.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
yea i used 3M panel bonding adhesive to glue the sides on first. then 3M seam filler for the top of the sides in front and rear of the door. after that i glassed in the jams. you can still see some of the screw holes from the screws that held the kit on tight while the adhesive dried in a couple of the pics so far.
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yeah that 3m adhesive works well. The only problem I ever had with it was when frenching the door handles it tends to expand in the heat more than tthe fusor does. The 3m caused the handles to ghost out badly on a cougar I did. I'm redoing the handles and this time will grind a grove into the seam and glass that and overlap the seap with cloth.
You're doing a good job. It's nice to see someone doing their own work. When you are done you can appreciate the amount of work that went into it.
You're doing a good job. It's nice to see someone doing their own work. When you are done you can appreciate the amount of work that went into it.
the sides dont fit at all until you cut them. but i think the problem with other people's sides not fitting right is they or their body shop didnt cut enough and tried to push the kit into the jamb and screw/rivet it down making the door drag on the kit when opened or closed.
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yeah the door jams of the cougar don't allow for much thickness. are you molding the rear or doing any other custom body work?
yea we are molding the rear in also. there are posts with other pics on them for the other days we work on it. will post more probably today when we finish up for the day. other progress so far
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Are you frenching the handles? There is a ton of pics on my website showing how I do the handles. I'd do that and the fender trim pieces for the mirror. Really smooths the car out.
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From the pics it looks like he cut the lip off that goes into the door jam and fiberglassed right to the car. There is not much tolereance in the door jam for much material from the sideskirt and the filler used to blend it in that by cutting it you make it alot easier and reduce the chance of rubbing the door on the body work.
Is it necessary to mold the frontmost (fender end) and rearmost (quarterpanel end) portions of the sides, beyond the doorjambs, to the car? Could I get away with just seam-sealing these areas? I'm using Battle sides, and I'm also planning to incorporate flares (molded to sideskirts and bumpers but seam-sealed to the fenders and quarters if that would suffice, $$ to have the car fully resprayed just isn't there). I'd love to be able to do it myself, and I consider myself fairly skilled with fiberglass, so any advice on the best way to do this would be appreciated.
Thanx
JD
Thanx
JD
you could just seamseal them and only mold in the jamb but the seamseal will still need painted. im guessing you just want to have the jambs painted and leave the rest. if the paint shop is going to paint the kit and the jamb i dont think it would be that much more to feather in the seams in front and rear of the door.
however if you already had the kit painted your color and you just want the jambs done then just use the panel bonding adhesive on the kit first (but get in front and rear of the door as tight to the car as possible when glueing it on) then foget about the seamseal, then mold in the jambs and have them painted.
however if you already had the kit painted your color and you just want the jambs done then just use the panel bonding adhesive on the kit first (but get in front and rear of the door as tight to the car as possible when glueing it on) then foget about the seamseal, then mold in the jambs and have them painted.
I see. In the paint department I'm more worried about the flares, but from what you're telling me it shouldn't be a big deal to feather the seams on those. I intend to have that bottom strip (mostly covered by sideskirts) repainted on the car simply because I need to smooth out that ugly lumpy area ([email protected]$$ ford using lumpy hide-a-chip crap instead of factory sideskirts) but I really didn't want to have to repaint the whole door/fender/quarterpanel area, at least not now since money is tight. I'll go back and have the whole thing repainted when I have the money to do so, but for now if I can get away with just having seam-sealed flares feathered into the factory paint and save some dinero that will work fine.
Thanx for the info,
JD
Thanx for the info,
JD
w00t! money for painting the car may no longer be an issue, as one of my top pick schools just offered me some serious scholarship dinero! still waitin to hear from the #1 choice, but if all goes well this project could turn out much better than planned. gotta love freein up mod money.
JD
JD
one option if your short on cash would be to go to a technical collage and check in with the body shop class instructor. ask if they would be able to paint your car and that you would like to see a car or two that they have painted. usually they will paint your car for cost of materials. so roughly couple hundred bucks.
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