fiberglass hood fitment fix

[35regal]

i recently bought this older fiberglass hood for my 67 cuda, after getting home and getting it bolted up and adjusted the best i could i wasnt happy with the fit, my car will never be a show car but im trying to get the panels to fit as well as possible, i didnt take a before pic, there was way too much gap back at the cowl area, i gave it some thought, and i know there is several ways to fix this . this was the easiest way for me, i bought a strip of plastic drywall corner bead, i cut about 1 inch slice in every 1-2 inches in the radius, i took my hand held grinder with a flapper style sanding disk,and removed a layer of i guess gel-coat in the area the corner bead was going to lay, actually the part i grinded was alittle bigger than the corner bead so i can get a good and smooth transistion of fiberglass resin, to get it mocked up i used pop-rivets and a small driil and drill bits , i drilled about 15 small holes thru-out the raduis and strait areas and placed the pop-rivets in to hold the corner bead down, right before the fiberglass resin dried i pulled the rivits out, you have to be carefull when doing this so you dont upset the corner bead, i had to grind a couple rivets out -then refill the small area with resin again. if i had to do it again, i would of tried doing the front of the hood instead of the back of the hood, the front is straighter. hope this helps someone. p.s anyone interested in the hemi scoop? its 5-6 inches tall.

 

[pauly v.100]

good idea.. except..
i read it twice but i never heard mention of fiberglass material, i.e. cloth or mat or both.
if you're just using the corner bead with resin it wont have any strength and will almost surely crack/break in short order.
however, using the corner bead as a form for fiberglass resin and material is an awesome idea.
i spent years building and repairing fiberglass boats, rv's, you name it, let me know if you need some ideas. -pauly

 

[35regal]

thanks pauly , well ill be the first to admit im no pro, the peice i added does seem to be solid, there is a coat fiberglass resin/hardner under the strip,on top of it, and in all the small holes in the corner bead .

 

[392Mopar]

Great idea, thanks for sharing, it looks great. So Pauly, using this trick then adding cloth or mat to both sides overlapping the hood instead of just resin would be ideal. Need to do something similar on a 6 pack Duster hood I picked up as the rear edge isnt perfect, looks like a good idea to get a nice straight edge. I actually thought about making a form of the rear edge using my old hood but ended up getting rid of it before I had the chance.

Butch

 

[pauly v.100]

That would be the idea, use metal from an old hood, or even some masonite, to form a smooth surface to glass to. grind away some of the old glass an inch or so back, then glass over that extending onto the form as far as you like. build the glass up to roughly the thickness of original glass, let it kick off and then pull the form off. a little touch up grinding on the top and trim the edge to what you want so it will fit properly and then you can finish the top with filler.
make sure any material you use as a form is non-porous and/or heavily waxed so the form will release from the glass. wax paper will even work in a pinch. -pauly

 

[pauly v.100]

hope this helps, excuse my art/writing shortcomings. -pauly

 

[392Mopar]

Hey nice diagram, and thanks for the tips.

Butch

 

[pauly v.100]

`y welcome,
let me know how it goes.
i have a fiberglass bumper i bought cheap that needs repairing, i decided that since alot of members here have glass bumpers that eventually need repairs i'm going to post a thread in the tech forum for basic fiberglass repairs to bumpers but can be applied to other parts as well.
before that happens though, i've got bigger fish to fry. I'm using my boat fairing skills to make my valiant straight again, its been challenging so far but i'm real close to paint.
aloha- pauly

 

[FISHBREATH]

Pauly,

What do you recommend using as a release agent?