Thank you all for the positive comments I’ve received regarding the fiberglass fabrication I have been *attempting*.
The beautiful thing of trying to do something new with no experience is that you make lot’s of mistakes and hopefully learn from it so you can do it differently next time. Unless you do the exact same thing over expecting different results. But that is the definition of insanity and I’m not that. Maybe a little crazy.
But definitely not insane.
Throughout the building process I was never quite happy with how the fender extensions were coming out. I put a lot of time into them, and kind of got them to the point where I would be kind of sort of okay with putting them on the car until I did test fitting with the grille and headlight bezels installed.
I soon as I started buttoning up things I could see a serious issue the passenger side extension.
Then I went and measured the gap…
The drivers side was only marginally better, still had a nice 1/4 inch gap.
Could I half-ass it and keep adding resin, and filler and filing and what not? Sure. But I’m not going to and I’ll file them away and start new.
So what did I do wrong? Well a number of things and I will share them with you. I want this blog to be informative as possible, so I will share my successes and failures.
First thing I did wrong was slap the ’74 header panel one, adjusted it to close enough and traced the outlines and then went to town.
Second thing I did wrong was choose the wrong fiberglass mat for this job.
So… Back to the drawing board…
I never took into consideration of putting the bezels or grille in the first time around. And honestly I only did put them in to check the bumper gap after I tucked the front bumper in about an inch and a quarter.
Although I saw a difference I had to put the grille in (still needs to go back another inch and a half). Since I put the grille in, I might as well clamp the fender extensions in and screw in the bezels and blah blah blah…
But I am glad I did. With the bezels installed I was able to get some decent measurements and realize where I went wrong in the first place.
As you can see with the bezel installed it forms an almost perfectly straight vertical line. And you can also see that fender end is not straight. Since I don’t have my protractor or whatever other tools are out there to figure that shit out I’m assuming that’s something like an 87 degree angle. Enough to cause a sizable gap hows that for your angle. FML.
Starting at the very bottom and going up in inch increments I measured between the end of the fender and head light bezel. I’ll add on foam prior to clamping on the car for carving to account for the extra with I need.
Another mistake I made was thinking the ’74 fenders were perfectly straight. That left too much on the sides next to the bezels, so it looked off to me.
Well that’s because there is 1/2 an inch difference between the edge of the headlight bezel and the outer edge of the fender!!!!
Scouring the internet for real ’74’s, I concluded that the outer edge of the fender shows about 1/4 inch out from the bezel. Maybe 3/8. I’ll stick to a 1/4.
But enough about that boring stuff! Lets move onto the fiberglass…
I chose epoxy resin for its strength and it does not emit fumes as noxious as polyester resin, so I could work on them in my basement without killing the family or dog. That limited me to a weave fabric. SO I went ahead and ordered 10 oz figuring I can do a couple of layers and it would be strong.
Well I was right about that part, that was true. BUT it is not the best choice if you want it to conform to different shapes/angles/whatever. So I had lots of bubbles, heavy resin in some areas, not enough in others, and in reality what turns out the be a weak part.
For the type of work I am doing I should have went with Chopped Strand Mat to begin with. It wets out nicely and once the strands chemically react to the resin, lays the mat tight against the plug.
Only problem is that Chopped Strand Mat only works well with Polyester or Vinyl Ester resins. Groan. Better get gas masks for the family.
I went with Vinyl Ester as it is supposed to be the best of both worlds. Almost as good as epoxy, not quite as noxious as polyester, so we will see how it goes.
I am off to start working on my new plugs while I await my new shipment of fiberglass supplies!
But, I really want to end this post on a positive note. Even with all the mistakes and purchasing additional supplies, so far it is still cheaper than a set of fenders, if you can even find them!
So I will continue on until I get this right!
