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Thu Sep 30, 2004 9:39 pm

I picked up a baja kit minus the rear fenders for $70 the other day from a local VW shop. For the most part, the kit is in pretty good shape. Some of the fender bolt holes are cracked and there's about a 3 inch crack in the bottom of the nose, but I didn't think I could complain much for the price. I have the back issues of VW Trends that have the "Fiberglass Fundamentals" articles in them, but I was hoping to find a web site or two that had some more info on making repairs to fiberglass parts. Also, do any of you have a recommendation for what brands of materials to use for the repair work?

Fri Oct 01, 2004 5:34 am

There are as many ways to repair fiberglass as there are people who repair fiberglass.

Sources... I don't have specific sites to recomend, but I'd check out Kit car sources/sites (like KITCAR mag), Vette restoration pages (Ecklers comes to mind), & boat places. Honestly the best place is your local library - I know that Ecklers sells 4 or 5 different books on fiberglass repair & you can get/read those books for free from the library ~ and that's not mentioning the 100's of others about fiberglass you could find there.

One thing I learned about crack repair - you have to "fix" both sides of the crack or in time it WILL return to haunt you (probably not tomarrow, more then likely it'll be the week after you finally put paint on it). The other thing that comes to mind is to check out the "sort of" new products available like the Plastifix system ~ no longer do you have to futz with resin, catalyst, matt and/or cloth, wondering if you mixed it up right for the cold temp, or having it go off in the can, then dicking with the air bubbles in the cloth and all the finish work and glass fibers floating everywhere. Things like Platifix are neat, clean, temp. ignorant, fast & permenant! Neat stuff - check it out, it'd be "perfect" for your bolt hole cracks. Other materials ~ IMO matt is matt & cloth is cloth, get the right weight for what you're doing & there's not much diff in who made it ~BUT resin is not resin! Get good resin. Get the catalyst from the same place/mfg of the resin - make sure that catalyst is for the type/kind of resin you bought. Make sure the catalyst hasn't expired (it does have an expireation date on it) I'd recomend buying your resin & catalyst from someplace that specializes in fiberglass (Ecklers comes to mind again - expensive, but good products, you can probably find it at a auto body/paint supply shop if you don't want to mail order) Along that line I'd say to stay away (far-far away) from the little "Bondo" brand fiberglass repair kit you find at your local parts house (Kragens, Pepboys, Autozone, etc)

Good luck & have fun! If you get into it, you can amaze your friends and wow the babes with all the neat little custom crap you can make outta 'glass.

Fri Oct 01, 2004 8:42 am

not to mention that the smell of fiberglass is AWESOME 8)

Fri Oct 01, 2004 9:24 am

Thanks for the info Descalzo. I'm kinda smackin myself in the head for not thinking to check the library. After all, who needs the library when you've go the internet, right? :oops: BTW, anyone need stock fenders, hood, aprons, or a deck lid since I'm cutting up my car? :twisted:

Fri Oct 01, 2004 10:54 am

Note: make sure you are in a well ventilated area and wear some type of mouth/nose guard/filter unit. I don't care how hardcore you think you are or what you "think" you can handle. You start sanding fiberglass and breathing and your throat/sinuses will be so dry and the fiberglass particle buildup in your lungs is less than a stellar experience!