Ive been gearing up for a frame off this coming winter so today I pulled the rear bumper, lights etc and all the SS trim from the bottom of the doors, fenders and quarter panels to see what I'm getting myself into and sure enough there's a lot of work ahead. Luckily the rot is mostly confined to the outer panels and skins.
I cut most of the rust out and sealed it up with some 2k primer and fill to stop it for the time being this got me thinking about fabricating replacement panels from fiberglass now that its basically a nice straight mold. I've built fiberglass canoes and various marine hulls before so the how to of constructing these parts isn't an issue. But obviously without being able to weld these on and relying on adhesion I have some concerns about torsional flexing cracking the seams.
Has anyone used adhesives to replace quarter panels with any success?
You can see how the lowers are basically gone but door jams, rockers and floor / truck pan needs minimal work. My basic idea was to make a thin overlay for the rear quarter then cut the bulk of the existing steel panel out leaving the corners and some stiffening sections then spray an epoxy sealer before gluing the new panel on with a decent marine epoxy. I dont think there will be any issues other than the lower sections where there's limited mating surfaces. anyone have any thoughts on this approach?
I cut most of the rust out and sealed it up with some 2k primer and fill to stop it for the time being this got me thinking about fabricating replacement panels from fiberglass now that its basically a nice straight mold. I've built fiberglass canoes and various marine hulls before so the how to of constructing these parts isn't an issue. But obviously without being able to weld these on and relying on adhesion I have some concerns about torsional flexing cracking the seams.
Has anyone used adhesives to replace quarter panels with any success?
You can see how the lowers are basically gone but door jams, rockers and floor / truck pan needs minimal work. My basic idea was to make a thin overlay for the rear quarter then cut the bulk of the existing steel panel out leaving the corners and some stiffening sections then spray an epoxy sealer before gluing the new panel on with a decent marine epoxy. I dont think there will be any issues other than the lower sections where there's limited mating surfaces. anyone have any thoughts on this approach?
