Fiberglass bumper/cladding repair

[Red Ryder]

Thinking of getting our grey fiberglass bumpers and side cladding painted. Minor repairs will be needed to the fiberglass. Should I trust this to the paint shop or take it to a boat repair facility first?
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“Most everyone’s mad here. You may have noticed I am not quite all there myself.” — Cheshire Cat, Adventures of Alice in Wonderland

“Scarlett” — 1990 Vanagon Carat Wolfsburg Edition (Tornado Red)
“Nigel” — 1999 Jaguar XK8 convertible (Alpine Green Metallic)

[goubeaux]

In my mind any repair facility that does "boat work" is going to charge you way more. But then that's my cynical Coastal Southern California perspective Seems like a good auto body paint shop should be able to do a good job.

Repairing the Vanagon fiberglass bumpers and cladding is not difficult, just takes time and patience. There was a recent thread discussing it and I agree with several folks who did indicate that using West System epoxy is a great repair epoxy product. This is what I did when I repaired and painted my bumpers and cladding.

[Zeitgeist 13]

You should have them painted Tornado Red with a black impact strip. It looks really sharp
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH
'01 Weekender --> full camper
NEAT, no ICE.

[dabaron]

[dobryan]

[Zeitgeist 13]

Don't you have A/C to destroy somewhere? ^^^
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH
'01 Weekender --> full camper
NEAT, no ICE.

[dobryan]

[mikemtnbike]

Your mileage and tastes may vary, but my bumpers/cladding were showing every but of their 30-plus year life of service. Rather than get them pro-painted, repaired, I truck bed lined them with no repair or prep other than a light sanding. Just my opinion, but I think it looks great, covered most blemishes, scratches, and even light tears, and has proven to be very durable. Just an option, admittedly one that there's no walking back from.
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1991 Vanagon GL 2.1 AT Westfauxlia. "Frankie" Totaled https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=764510&highlight=carnage
1995 Eurovan Camper "Marzivan"
2020 GTI SE manual

[Red Ryder]

[mikemtnbike]

Nice looking van!

Yeah my bumpers/cladding (whole van, really) looked like the first owner used it for 20 years as the shop van for a blacksmith or something oh wait that's reality.

So different situations, I'd be trying to stay as stock as possible, look-wise, with your ride.
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1991 Vanagon GL 2.1 AT Westfauxlia. "Frankie" Totaled https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=764510&highlight=carnage
1995 Eurovan Camper "Marzivan"
2020 GTI SE manual

[dobryan]

Wow. Scarlett is gorgeous!
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[DuncanS]

You asked about repair. Show some pics of the bad areas and we can offer advice. I use epoxy for all repairs. Cloth and resin when there are cracks or missing spots and then West Epoxy low density filler to fair before priming and painting. Epoxy isn't porous like body putty and will take rattle can primer with a single coat.

Duncan

[Red Ryder]

[SyncroHead]

I've repaired some pretty extensive damage on mine with cracks so bad that one side was barely hanging on to the other. I used a fiberglass repair kit to make the structural repairs ion the inside. I applied a couple coats of new fiberglass & resin to the damaged areas, then added more across a much broader area surrounding the damage. Then added reinforcements to other areas that looked potentially weak, even though they had not cracked yet. It's pretty simple, but also pretty messy!

Fiberglass repair kit:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bondo-Fiberglass-Resin-Repair-Kit-00420-0-45-Pint/17056867

On the outside cut out any loose parts and fibers and then I used Marine-Tex epoxy to fill the voids. Then sanded and shaped the epoxy areas several times to bring them back in line with the surrounding bumper shape by adding more epoxy and re-sanding. Then sanded and primed the entire bumper and painted. Looks great.

Marine-Tex:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Marine-Tex-RM301K-Marine-Tex-Gray-2-oz/178115859

Jim Davis
_________________
"A Vanagon? It's not a car or a van. It's a hobby!"

Check out:
www.VANAVATION.com
www.SyncroSafari.org and
www.Vanagons.org

[thebaz67]

I know you mentioned keeping the stock look of the cladding and your van looks fabulous, but the body color cladding was stock for a few 1989 vans.

and I think it looks sharp.

Just to give you an idea of the look.

Baz

[Red Ryder]

[Zeitgeist 13]

That's a Whitestar^^^

Body color is really the best looking approach.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH
'01 Weekender --> full camper
NEAT, no ICE.

[do.dah]

Gawd, those are sweet looking vans! Van envy!!!

Regarding the bumpers, and this has been covered before;
Remove the cladding/trim, go to "tap plastics" and get several yards of both fiberglass matte and fiberglass cloth and a coupla gallons of epoxy resin.

Cut the material to fit inside the bumpers/trim.
Alternate layers of matte and cloth for as much as you want. I did about 6-8 layers, or about 1/2 inch or more on ever single piece.
Beef's it up a bunch, but, I believe the original bumpers are actually "bakelite", not fiberglass, since they don't burn or really melt, the resin does not adhere real well.
Saves your bumpers from getting busted up and falling on the road.

[DuncanS]

Eposy resin can not be used with fiberglass mat. There are binding resins which hold the fibers together loosely so it can be handled and shaped in the mold or over the form/buck. But these resins are designed to be desolved by polyester resin, not epoxy. So it is extremely difficult to "wet out" the mat with epoxy and the result will be a poor bond.

The fiberglass bumpers do have glass fibers in them, but the bumpers are made in a two part mold and so the slurry is extremely resin rich in order to be a able to be molded, which is why they are so week. dp-dah has a good idea, but don't use mat unless you are using polyester resin. In that case, a mix of mat and woven roving will give a very strong bumper.

[do.dah]

The "aero" style plastic bumpers are not fiberglass. They are some kind've thermoset plastic like "bakelite". I half expect the fibers you see in them are glass, but I've worked with some thermoset plastics, and the process tends to create crystalline plastic strings that resemble glass.
You can tell that it's a thermoset plastic, just put a torch to it. Stuff doesn't really burn.
As a thermoset plastic, it's nearly impossible to get good durable adhesion to the bumpers/cladding. Epoxy resin was chosen because theres a better chance of holding onto the plastic cladding of our vans vs polyester resin.
Only real downside to having that much glass around the bottom of my van,,, the fire show will be spectacular if I ever catch fire.