81 Flex-fiber rear section

GT6Steve

GT6Steve

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 13, 2008
Messages
751
Location
Las Vegas Nevada
Hey guys,

I received the ACI Flex-glass or Flex-fiber rear bumper bit yesterday and have been looking at fitting it this AM.

It fits well and seems a nice piece but the left rear of my car has been damaged and sorta repaired in the past. You may remember my thread of chasing a six inch crack up the fender.

After playing around and looking at the work I'll have to redo to fix some major gaps in the fitment I'm thinking why not just glue it on solid and then fill the join for a smooth rear deck?

I know it's been done plenty but what are the drawbacks? More difficult repairs in the future or immediate cracks from body flex? Is the SMC adhesive that I have appropriate for this or just stick it with resin?

Bear in mind that the internal structural plate for the fender is gone here and this bodge may help that? I don't even know how to replace the busted up plate in the inner fender...

Any expert thoughts for an amatuer?:kissass:
 
OK, cutting and fitting the attachment strips, license plate brackets and Tailights. My Gawd, the taillights are a trial:sweat:

One is laid out with the abilty to hollow it out as original. Not yet committed to that much cutting as I don't see the advantage. I'll lay out the other three and see how I feel. It looks like the only difference will be 1/8" of taillight depth.

Right now I'm leaning towards NOT grafting the rear section in just because it is original. I'll start glassing in the deficient area soon....
 
My Gawd, that does look good!!

I'll email him for advice but at the moment B2B seems to have increased my sandpaper costs!:flash:
 
GT6Steve said:
OK, cutting and fitting the attachment strips, license plate brackets and Tailights. My Gawd, the taillights are a trial:sweat:

One is laid out with the abilty to hollow it out as original. Not yet committed to that much cutting as I don't see the advantage. I'll lay out the other three and see how I feel. It looks like the only difference will be 1/8" of taillight depth.

Right now I'm leaning towards NOT grafting the rear section in just because it is original. I'll start glassing in the deficient area soon....
Click to expand...

It took me 1 week of fitting,removing,grinding and cutting to get it all to fit up like that.
What problems are you running into and i can tell you what i did to over come them. It's not hard,just a little fab work and time. The taillights were a challenge.

Kevin
 
Thanx for your time Kevin,

I've not run into any issues yet as it's just bodywork just now. OK, Bodywork in a new to me medium and a badly restored crash in tghe past. But still sanding, repeat as necessary....

I was just concerned whether this mod would be an aggravation in the future. Is this ACI Flex-Glass the same as regular fiberglass? Is the SMC adhesive the correct stuff?

Once I screw and glue the bits in place and then start treating it as an ordinary GRP repair will I get surprises?

I've got the new rear piece cut for all the hardware and it's hanging on the car with one top screw. The intent is to hang it in position with the screws and accurately mark the holes for the side strips.

I've never done this type of work before so any advice is welcomed....:friends:
 
Give me a holler if you need some help. I've gotten pretty fair (but by no means good) at fiberglassing over the last few years.
 
GT6Steve said:
Thanx for your time Kevin,

I've not run into any issues yet as it's just bodywork just now. OK, Bodywork in a new to me medium and a badly restored crash in tghe past. But still sanding, repeat as necessary....

I was just concerned whether this mod would be an aggravation in the future. Is this ACI Flex-Glass the same as regular fiberglass? Is the SMC adhesive the correct stuff?

Once I screw and glue the bits in place and then start treating it as an ordinary GRP repair will I get surprises?

I've got the new rear piece cut for all the hardware and it's hanging on the car with one top screw. The intent is to hang it in position with the screws and accurately mark the holes for the side strips.

I've never done this type of work before so any advice is welcomed....:friends:
Click to expand...

when i got the bumper ready for final installation i used SMC in between the body and the bumper and then screwed all the fasteners down as fast as possible. So far it has worked out well. To mark the mounting holes, i hung the bumper and used some clamps to hold it in place and then went around with a sharpie marker and marked all the holes.
 
The weekend was good with the rear bolted up solid at the sides.

The fit sux but that's entirely from the bodge on the drivers side rear fender. One more argument for glassing it into one piece. The ACI rear section is very good and my complaints are not with them!!

Next step will be to fight in all the top screws and see how it looks and then take it off and start over. If the fit is good, I'll glue it on and then start a big Vee notch for filling.

On some of the pics, KWPlots probably, I see a shallow green strip layed across the join. Surely that's not the only joint fill reqired? Or is it adequate if the bumper is well bonded to the body?
 
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