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Avanti Fiberglass Repair

SDC Forum - June 2013

Jeff McCain - Greensboro, NC


SDC Forum # 72776

Avanti Fiberglass Repair

When I bought this `63 Avanti, I knew that the paint was not perfect. After rebuilding the motor because of low oil pressure I decided to strip and paint the car. There would be no better time to do this and I knew there would be no stopping once I started.

I could see before I started to strip the paint that there had been some fiberglass repair to the right front of the car. The repair was begining to show through the paint and there seemed to be screws everywhere. Once I had stripped the paint from this area I was able to see that the front part of the fender had been replaced and the body man had screwed everything together. The only problem was that he hadn`t removed the screws, just covered them with fiberglass.

After removing all of the screws, I began the repairs.

Grinding the fiberglass is about the worst part of fiberglass repair, but this must be done correctly for the repair to be done properly. The area to be repaired should be ground in a "v" shape and any holes enlarged and tapered. I cut small pieces of fiberglass mat and wet them with resin on a piece of cardboard before filling the holes with them. It`s important to use a paintbrush and wet the holes also before the fiberglass mat is inserted.

Once this has cured it`s time to grind again. I used 36 grit paper and hand sanded the area because I didn`t want to make a lot of dust. I then added several layers of mat and resin. After letting this cure,I sanded the area once again and added more resin and mat to the low spots. When working with fiberglass it`s important to use as little resin as possible to wet the mat. This ensures maximum strength of the repair.

Once the repair had cured It`s time to sand again using a sanding block. This helps keep the shape and will show any low spots.

This is the final repair there is no need for Bondo when done correctly and the repair will never show through the paint.