Fiberglass hood repair

[firebird19_99]

anyone know if fiberglass hoods can be repaired, and if they can how do you do it....just got hit with a piece of metal while driving and now have a hole on one of the vents, wondering if it can be repaired??

[Niko97RS]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

fiberglass has to be repaired by a fiberglass pro.

takes alot of talent

but it may not be fixable. get an estimate

[CamaroJeff™]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

the front left quarter of my hood was broken almost completely in half. grind any cracks down to a wide "v" pattern, grind 3" to 4" out from the damaged area(s) and patch with a product called "carbo-fill" made by SEM. i paid $32 for a small can, probably a quart or a little better, but ill tell ya nothing beats this stuff.

i still have a chunk of this stuff that kicked off on the spreader, maybe 1/4" thick, that to this day nobody has been able to break in half by hand. its 100 times stronger than a fiberglass repair and you wont have to worry about it cracking in the future.

ive tried duraglass, "tiger hair", high stress adhesive, fiberglass, and panel bond. next to carbo-fill panel bond was the closest but that takes days to cure before you can grind it down and finish it. you can go straight to glazing putty from the carbo-fill. i know i sound like a rep from SEM but this stuff works friggin great!

[firebird19_99]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

the front left quarter of my hood was broken almost completely in half. grind any cracks down to a wide "v" pattern, grind 3" to 4" out from the damaged area(s) and patch with a product called "carbo-fill" made by SEM. i paid $32 for a small can, probably a quart or a little better, but ill tell ya nothing beats this stuff.

i still have a chunk of this stuff that kicked off on the spreader, maybe 1/4" thick, that to this day nobody has been able to break in half by hand. its 100 times stronger than a fiberglass repair and you wont have to worry about it cracking in the future.

ive tried duraglass, "tiger hair", high stress adhesive, fiberglass, and panel bond. next to carbo-fill panel bond was the closest but that takes days to cure before you can grind it down and finish it. you can go straight to glazing putty from the carbo-fill. i know i sound like a rep from SEM but this stuff works friggin great!

im guessing you work at a shop??? if you do how much would you charge for a job like this...its about a 1 1/2" hole on the side of one of the vents on the ram air hood....drove all the way through the other side....im guessing you guys might have thought it was the fender, should have cleared that up.....but if anything im gonna buy that stuff and see how hard it is, and if its too hard, gonna go to a bodyshop. good thing i still have my old hood so i dont have to leave it their......yesterday was the worst day of my life :(

[CamaroJeff™]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

yep. ive been doing bodywork for 6-7 years now and ive been leaning toward some of the new products that the old farts are scared of...

if you brought it to my shop it would cost more in gas than the repair itself :D
however, the estimate would be around $200-$300 depending on the color. being where you say it is there shouldnt be any need for blend time (keeping the color all on one panel) so the repair would be pretty easy... providing you dont have some off the wall color.

no, i didnt think it was the fender. i have yet to fun across a fiberglass fender on a f-body, but ill tell ya that carbo-fill would fix that too. the stuff works on pretty much everything. be it steel, aluminum, fiberglass, smc, tpo, odb, dta, abc, ftw, yes ive been drinking, no i dont have the label handy. either way it works, its durable, it dosent crack, and its easy to use.

when i say that i mean its easy, just like bondo. mix it just like you would bondo but use a bit less hardener. it sags quite a bit before it kicks (it is kinda runny), but when it does kick watch out... it kicks quick and gets pretty hot. youll want to rough up the surrounding area of the damage pretty good at least 3" around. put some kind of backing underneath it... duct tape works great... and fill the hole with the mixed product and kind of feather it out into the surrounding area. let it kick and block it down with 80 grit working your way down to at least 220. you may have to recoat if theres pin holes (which there probably will be) but by the time you have it level youre ready to prime it and go to paint from there.

[firebird19_99]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

thanks for the info...im guessing that you have to repaint the whole hood right??? and was that included in the estimate you provided?? i might as well get it fixed, ill just bondo it myself and sand it and just have them paint it

[kristen]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

yes they can be fixed. the one that we have that was cracked from an accident, got fixed and a few months later it started to spider crack.

[CamaroJeff™]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

the whole hood will have to be clear coated, but only your repair area will need color. so keep your repair small. also dont do it if you dont feel capable... body work can be easy and it can be a pita.

next to swelling and shrinking, spider cracks are the worst problems when it comes to repairing glass panels. ever since i found that carbo-fill (i swear im not a rep, it just works great!) ive been using it on urethanes, smc panels, glass, even steel for repair. it cures just as fast as regular old bondo but its as strong if not stronger than the material youre repairing. dont cut any corners by using plastic fillers (fiberglass enriched fillers included) because it will crack shortly down the road.

[firebird19_99]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

thanks for the info....bought the carbo fill 2day, gonna switch the hoods and work on it this weekend......just one last Q, i always have problems sanding down so that its smooth and even with the rest of the surface....any pointers??

[unvmyrs]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

sand off all the paint. i would sand it ALL off and reprimer/paint/clear. it has a possibility to peel from being repainted over old paint. just my .02

[CamaroJeff™]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

thanks for the info....bought the carbo fill 2day, gonna switch the hoods and work on it this weekend......just one last Q, i always have problems sanding down so that its smooth and even with the rest of the surface....any pointers??

use nothing other than a sanding block. do not finish by machine or using just your hand. a block will keep the surface straight. finish with a cross hatch pattern, while feathering the repair with the rest of the surface. if the repair area is roughly 3" in diameter use a 6" sanding block. if you have to wrap a piece of sand paper around a ruler (or anything flat and fairly rigid) to keep the surface as flat as possible. worst comes to worst get it close and let the people who paint it finish the repair. just make sure to cover the repair with carbo-fill and youll be fine.

[CamaroJeff™]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

sand off all the paint. i would sand it ALL off and reprimer/paint/clear. it has a possibility to peel from being repainted over old paint. just my .02

most definitely do not sand all the paint off. only remove the paint from the repair area. this will greatly increase the chances of a color match by allowing the paint shop to blend the color. worse case scenario they will use a clear sealer if the new paint isnt compatible.

dont worry about it and keep the repair as small as possible!

[firebird19_99]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

yea i went to go get an estimate and they said its 150 for the repair, 50 for the paint and 200 to paint it...they said the whole hood needs to be painted since its a metallic color and it wont blend in if they just do the section where the repair was done.....so 400....im gonna do the repair but its nice to get and estimate

[CamaroJeff™]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

im curious as to how well the color will match when they paint the whole hood.

im also curious as to why they cant blend a metallic color... we do it all the time. hell, we blend candy colors.

[firebird19_99]

Re: Fiberglass hood repair

yea im gonna look around and see if someone can blend the colors in as close as they can...im gonna put vinyl over it anyways later on once i find some stripes.....i basically just wanted the hole filled in