Louie928

Adam,
Can you use the piece of fender that was cut out and bond that to the existing cap? That's the way I did it on a test fender to see if it could be done. The bottom hinge attach has to be spaced out a bit, and the perimeter of the original cap cut down.

atb

I wish. It wasn't cut out as a single piece. How hard (easy?) would it be to make a small patch section for that purpose?

Louie928

I think it would be easiest to do a layup on a section of the mold. Although just laying up about 3 layers on top of another fender would work too. The molds are at the composite fab shop and those guys usually disappear in January and go to Baja to surf. Is Ken's fender still intact in the fuel door area so you could pull a piece from that?

dr bob

Adam--

Can you add a shim/spacer between the hinge and the original metal? That would move the door out so you could have full-open clearance. Justathought.

atb

Louie, yup Ken's is still intact. (fuel cell). What would it take to make a fiberglass patch. I guess more succinctly, how would I prevent the patch from bonding to Ken's fender?

Hey Dr. Bob, actually I did exactly as you stated. I didn't use a spacer but I did get some 2" long bolts that were the same thread as stock, and then used two nuts on each, one to hold the hinge against the bolt head and the second further down the stud to lock against the panel.
The clearance issue is going to happen when the lower front corner has the "flare" put on it. It will then hang out wide of the hinge. When I go to open the gas door, that front lower corner will may contact the fender area in front of the gas door opening before the door is open for enough to fully access the filler neck. We'll see.

Stromius

Hey Adam - (dumb question..) are you going to make cut outs for the marker lights?

atb

Not dumb at all, but marker light delete is part of the look I'm going for. I have Euro fenders for the front so front marker will be moved to behind the front wheel. Should look cool when it's all done. I have the AIR front spoiler as well.

Tom. M

I think Adam is going for the real "euro" conversion look. He's heading over to Home Depot to get some marker lights from a John Deer tractor to just screw right on the the panel... Give's it a real "federalized 928" look

atb

Does this mean I have to return the rear bumper "Safety Triangle" reflector I got last week?

dr bob

Adam, adjust the lower bolt out more so the hinge sits at the same angle/parallel to the front corners of the cover. Wedged shims or the bolt trick will do it.

Stromius

Schweet! Can't wait to see someday!

atb

Tough to do since it is a single hinge and we're dealing with two different angles. That may be the answer though, using two separation hinges, one above the other so that they can be on different planes.

Afterthought: Or just the smaller hinge on top set at an angle to swing the lower corner away as the door opens.

Louie928

Adam,
Go to a composite supply store. Get some mold release wax and some stuff called PVA (PolyVinyl Alcohol). Get some light weight glass fiber cloth with a fine weave that'll be easy to fill. Use either polyester or vinylester resin and catalyst. Get some mixing cups, stirring sticks, and 1" or 1.5" wide cheap paint brushes .

Put on at least 5 layers of mold release wax over the area where you need the layup and below it. Mostly, put the wax on anywhere you might spill resin. That'll probably be the whole of the rear fender. Put on a layer of wax just like you'd wax a car. Buff it shiny. Then do it over again until you have done about 5 layers. Then spray on the PVA. PVA is water soluble, but use it as it comes from the bottle. Water for gun cleanup. Use a touch up gun for the small area you will need. Use about 60 psi to get a fine mist. The first coat is fogged on. The second coat can be a bit heavier, but not much because it'll run on a vertical surface. The PVA will provide a thin barrier layer on top of the wax. It will easily peel off after you are finished. Sort of like a thin layer of Saran wrap. Let the PVA dry for a few hours. Cut 3 or 4 sheets of glass cloth to the size you want and lay them aside. Prepare a cheap paint brush 1" or 1.5" wide by cutting off about 1/3 of the bristle length. Mix some resin and catalyst. Probably 8 oz is enough to start with at his point. The mix ratio is a guess depending on shop temp so make a WAG to start with. Probably about 2% catalyst will be ok for the shop temp around 70F. More if it is colder.

Brush on some resin over the area you want the layup. No need to make it smooth or use much pressure on the brush. Next, carefully take a piece of cloth and lay it over the area where you put the resin. Take your brush and "stipple" the area to push the cloth down into the resin that is on the panel. Stipple is using the brush in vertical jabs, not dragging it across the cloth. Dragging the brush across the cloth will probably dislodge the fibers near the edge and make a mess. Once you have one layer on, you can dab some more resin on and then put another layer of dry cloth over and stipple it down into the resin. Somewhere in this process, you'll probably need to mix up more resin and by seeing how quickly the first batch began to get stiff you can judge how much catalyst to use in the second batch. Put on 3 or 4 layers depending on the weight of the cloth. Use the minimum amount of resin. Just enough to wet the cloth through.

Depending on how quickly the resin cures, the whole mess might want to slide right down off the fender because it's vertical. To prevent this from happening, cut your pieces of cloth big enough to have a few inches of extra cloth above the area where you'll put the resin. That extra couple inches of cloth will stay dry. Use some masking tape to secure the dry cloth on top to the fender above. This will keep the slippery, slimy, resin coated cloth from slipping down. Use the tape on each layer of cloth. When you are finished, let it be until it's fully cured. Probably the next day. Then you should be able to grab a corner and pull it away from the fender underneath. If it is reluctant, blow some shop air between the layup and the fender and that should help it pop right off. Wash off any PVA residue with water. The mold release wax can be removed with solvent.

You might want to make a couple of these pieces just in case you goof on one. You can clean off the old PVA, put on new PVA and do another layup. The resin used for the layup will continue to shrink long after it appears to be cured. That means don't fill the weave and finish paint it for at least 3 months, or keep the temp elevated to around 100 - 120F for a few days. You can fill the weave immediately, but don't do the final finish until the resin has fully shrunk.

You've noticed that there is going to be interference at the front when the door is opened due to the stock hinge line and the compound curvature. Spacing the hinge attach out helps and the bottom has to be spaced out more than the top. I think the front of the door and the rear of the cutout will have to be relieved some to get the door opened fully.

If you see my urethane adhesive gun laying around, could you send it to me? I'll be needing it within a few weeks to put another set on.
2485 Dry Creek Rd.
Mosier, OR 97040

Thanks

Louie928

How about tossing the stock front hinge altogether and use a piano hinge along the bottom edge. Then a magnetic latch at the top to hold the door closed.

atb

I was thinking about this after Dr. Bob's last post.
I was thinking of maybe an angled hinge in the upper front corner which would allow the door to open like a batwing.
Lots of options.