advice needed before I attempt a little fiberglass mat/resin on my firewall.

[Brandon T.]

Hi, on the firewall of my 68 on the drivers side about where the small white sticker goes..there is a small area that is bare. It lacks the fiberglass mat look and the blackout paint. The area is about 3 inches long and 2" wide or so if I remember (car is in storage)

I am going to attempt to put a little fiberglass mat strand down and some poly resin to regain that fiberglass strand look to that bare area and seal it up with the resin, scuff it a little then paint my firewall (engine is out and finished cleaning up engine bay before it goes back in)

any advice? I have used the bondo brand fiberglass mat and poly resin you get at walmart before when I put a new floor in my ski boat. I coated the new plywood with resin then put some mat down then rolled a layer of resin over the mat..turned out just like the original floor I took up!

anyway thats my only experince with the materials..first off is that the correct materials I'll need for this little project?

I'm just wanting the firewall to have never looked to have had that bare place and in the middle of the bare place is a small indension so I'll have to build that up a bit.

thanks! and I may put a pic of to show the area.

[Tom H.]

Re: advice needed before I attempt a little fiberglass mat/resin on my firewall.

Is this bare spot from a previous repair ?, or is it the way the car has always been ? Hate to see you repair a "factory defect"

[Brandon T.]

Re: advice needed before I attempt a little fiberglass mat/resin on my firewall.

ok guys here are 2 pics, one shows how the area is bare and the other shows the indention that I need to build up a tad. Whatcha think?





see what I mean about bare? if I paint it now that area will lack the mat strand fiberglass LOOK.

thanks

[Tom H.]

Re: advice needed before I attempt a little fiberglass mat/resin on my firewall.

Isn't that an area that is factory skimmed with some sealer ? Usually a pretty crudely finished area. Looks normal to me unless I'm missing something.

[Chuck S.]

Re: advice needed before I attempt a little fiberglass mat/resin on my firewall.

Isn't that an area that is factory skimmed with some sealer ? Usually a pretty crudely finished area. Looks normal to me unless I'm missing something.

It is normal. His picture is showing a typical fiberglass bonding joint, which won't have the usual fiberglass texture.

The straight line on the right side of the picture is the top edge of the fiberglass panel that forms the pedal mounting well on the firewall. If that low spot above the straight line, or panel edge, is the depression you want to fill, forget about it...it's genuine Corvette. I believe the smooth area is actually the bonding adhesive where it was "tooled" or smoothed along the joint.

Do nothing but scrape the peeling paint edges to remove all loose material. Some gentle sanding of the paint edges to feather the coating can be done if desireable, but if not required, simply refinish the firewall in a satin or semiflat black paint. Semigloss is a little too shiny in my opinion.

P.S. The gloss of the black used on C3 firewalls varied widely. On second look at the pictures, I would say that the existing paint IS close to semigloss. If your engine compartment has never been repainted or detailed (often hard to tell), you may want to use semigloss black. I doubt you will lose judging points for any finish between semiflat and semigloss.

[Stan E.]

Re: advice needed before I attempt a little fiberglass mat/resin on my firewall.

All press molded panels. No need to change surface.

[Michael G.]

Re: advice needed before I attempt a little fiberglass mat/resin on my firewall.

Tom, Chuck, and Stan have given you sound advice. Your attempts will most likely yield the impression of a repair leading people to believe damage had been present at one time. Not good.

[Brandon T.]

Re: advice needed before I attempt a little fiberglass mat/resin on my firewall.

thanks guys! I just assumed it was supposed to be mat strand there.

well this is good news..if it came that way thats the way I want to keep it. I sprayed a little semi gloss on a spot around the area of the indention place thats why it looks shiny there so I'll go with a semi flat.

I appreciate it! I think I'll even forget about that little indention place..not a biggie really.