59 Rear fender damage - bad enough to redo both sides?

[Ian G.]

I'm hoping some of you guys who've been helping me so far with fiberglass advice can take a look and let me know if it was your car if you would completely repair this from both sides? Before I dug out the old filler it appeared structurally sound, but a little suspicious based on all the spider cracks I was seeing above left of it, so I just wanted to replace the filler with a more sound repair (famous last words) and sand down the spider cracks and reglass them. You can see some separation of the layers of fiberglass, but it doesn't look terrible to me. I've repaired another crack already above the reflector hole (which turned out well). From the inside of the fender I can only feel one crack towards the bottom (visible in pic). I'm debating whether to fiberglass over it from the top only or also grind it out underneath and repair from inside as well, or just keep grinding to the sides till I stop seeing delamination. I'm honestly worried to turn a perfectly good looking fender into a bigger problem.

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[Richard M.]

Re: 59 Rear fender damage - bad enough to redo both sides?

Ian,

On that large void I would use fiberglass matt, cut to fit, maybe 2 layers, built up above the surface near the edges so it'll sand evenly. You could glass it in underneath for extra strength too. Just rough it up with 80 grit, then brush clean with some acetone to give the existing glass some teeth. It'll help bonding in the resin and matt.

I also use "Vette Bond" instead of bonds in localized areas for strength. It Sands like fiberglass so it's more tedious. Less shrinkage than bondo too.

Take a look at post#14 in this thread, HERE.

Rich

[Ian G.]

Re: 59 Rear fender damage - bad enough to redo both sides?

Thanks Rich,
I'm getting a little better at this and I think I can repair it OK. I was more wondering if you felt I should completely remove fiberglass to get to a place where theres no delamination of layers. It's a bigger job if I do, but wondering if it's necessary. It sounds like you think I should just repair it as it is? I actually made the void bigger trying to get to the edge of the damage.

[Richard M.]

Re: 59 Rear fender damage - bad enough to redo both sides?

Ian what I've done is use a plastic throw-away syringe and inject resin in areas like that. Then using a heat gun to thin it out to seep in. Not too hot to cure it, just to make it wick into the existing glass. Keep adding a little more resin, heat, repeat. You could add a touch of acetone to the mix to thin it a bit too.

Another product you could use is West System epoxy. It's clear and thins out with a little heat too. I've used that on rotted mahogany boat planks.... primarily as a "season saver", but also on fiberglass boats and snowmobile hoods. They also have several classes or microfibers you can add to the epoxy to add strength.

But mat and resin is my ideal choice for the pre SMC Corvettes.

Rich

[Ian G.]

Re: 59 Rear fender damage - bad enough to redo both sides?

Thanks Rich I'll give the syringe idea a shot!