Fiberglass repair in the begining

[Walter F.]

I was wondering when the Corvette first was produced being the first real production car whos bodies were fiberglass how were body repairs handled? Did Chevrolet have service bullitins on repairing fiberglass? I remember one of our shop teachers had a 61 and ran into something and all us kids were amazed to see a fender actually crack. Body shops had no experience with fiberglass repair since all cars were steel. What did they do just replace whole fenders and doors?

[Bill H.]

Re: Fiberglass repair in the begining

My 67 was repaired in 1970 or so using old glass pop riveted to the back of the crack and bondo, lovely.
I'm now back 99% glass.

[Bill W.]

Re: Fiberglass repair in the begining

I have seen lots of repairs made with cardboard , wood , old broken fiberglass and pop rivets or screws . Even when new panels were used they would be riveted or screwed .

[Chris S.]

Re: Fiberglass repair in the begining

my car was hit hard in the RF in the late 50's - the gap between the OE fender and replacement was filled with resin and backed with ckicken wire......

the hood corner - where the hood hinge was repaired - they used a tube sock as backing....
I still have the tube sock.....

I see tack....wood screws...pop rivets.....

[Philip P.]

Re: Fiberglass repair in the begining

There is a portion of the ST-12 (page 1-48)that deals with the repair process that was to be used for C1 corvettes. In my early life I worked at a boat repair/building company and that was one of the task we did for a local Chevrolet Dealer (Appleway in Spokane, Wa). I can remember grinding the cracks/breaks of paint and we did what we needed to get panels back to shape. The one thing that the owner did not like to use fiberglas cloth as he said it would eventually show in the surface, we would fill with mat material and do final work with body filler. We also were not allowed to leave anything that we used for molding in the car I can remember removing chicken wire and cardboard as was mentioned on cars with previous repairs. I just repaired a set of kick panels for our 1960 using the same procedures even made a couple of small molds for the areas that were missing.
Phil

[Bill M.]

Re: Fiberglass repair in the begining

Here's a repair done to my '59 in 1960 after a Buick smacked the rear; lots of metal screws.
This was done at a Chevrolet dealer who sold a lot of Corvettes (Doane in Dundee IL)

[Philip P.]

Re: Fiberglass repair in the begining

Interesting repair, we would make a backing and screw it to the area and lay in glass and once set would remove the screws and what ever else was used. Normally both sides of the break was glassed if you could get to it. The front portion would have the breaks ground out and new glass laid in then sanded down and finished. The back sides were cleaned up some but in looking back they were not given lots of attention.
Phil

[Domenic T.]

Re: Fiberglass repair in the begining

We would use aluminum strips on the outside pop rivited to the panel to hold it's shape, then use mat on the prepared back to give it it's strength.
Then drill out the rivets, V the cracks and fill them.

DOM

[Russ C.]

Re: Fiberglass repair in the begining

I have receipts from a body shop in Washington state that worked on my 62 back in the early 70s. not sure if they did this particular "repair" of the trunk latch but this was apparently done because of a crack in the latch support face and it was broken loose from the rear panel. as you can see, the bondo was over 1/2" thick and covering the screws that held in the latch mechanism. nice! I also found various pieces of aluminum riveted in under a mass of fiberglass "cotton candy" in the rear right corner and tail light area.