As some of you might know I'm having to repair my car that was in a pretty hefty crash. I'm considering my options, some of which are f/g panels. I know that most require a bit of 'remodeling' to make work but mostly they bolt on and you do your customising work after this.

What I'm wondering about is the rear 1/4 panel like the one in the pic. As you can see the cuttoff point for the C pillar is pretty low. So I'm having to consider how to fit this with the damage to my car in that region? Assuming that under normal circumstances you cut the metal C pillar down just a bit lower than the f/g one and bring the f/g one back to fit the metal. Then bondo, bog, sand and paint. Looks like the dent starts right near the line that I'd need to join up with the f/g panel. So what would happen here, would they make some sort of bridging panel if needed? We do have a stock panel that we could either use if we stay with metal or perhaps as a bit of bridging if needed also.

Lastly, what about combining f/g with f/g? That is, what about using the GT2 style bolt on flares on top of an f/g 1/4 panel up front ? Can you bolt f/g to f/g?

 

Patrick, that is the panel that is currently my car. I removed all steel. replaced with that panel. As for the C pillar.. you do NOT cut it down or off. You sand the fiberglass piece at an angle. To say it another way.. into a sharp wedge shape. sand it thin where it meets the car. I used a panel adhesive. A true panel adhesive. then we used fiberglass over top.. then blended. It looks seamless.

on another note. they are not straight and not easy to install. no fiberglass panels are.

 

Bruce, is yours the one from GT Racing? Wonder if it's the same as this one from Rennsport?
http://www.rennspd.com/P_Detail.asp?PID=614&Task=STD

Wonder how different they are from this Red car. Think it might be Broadfoot. In fact I wonder if they're all from the same mold or each one different. Guess they'll all present a challenge to fit but people get it done.

 

OUCH!

What happened?

(EDIT... saw the video in the other thread. That looked painful. Sorry)

 

Yup. Trying to figure out what the next option is.

 

Patrick, mine are from GT racing. If you look in the first pic, you can see the back side actually start to wrap around to the rear panel. This is what mine looked like. Many people will use that piece and cut it to just a bolt on looking piece like that of the broadfoot. It might be the same piece, just cut out so it can be bolted on easier. I'm pretty sure the Dr. Pepper colored one is GT racing. See how the panels stick out from the doors. This is one of the issues we had trying to get it to look "flush"

In addition, after having done all the work to fit it in there right and flush it in, it would have devastated my car to have had the same crash as you. I highly suggest going the bolt on look.

 

Get the the rear quarters from AIR. They are 3" wider vs the GT racing that are only 2" wider.

TonyG

 

Oh... and btw, if you remove all the steel under the glass quarter, make sure you use a metal fender liner. If you don't and you get a flat, the tire will rip the quarter off, and most likely take out the mirror and possibly damage the door as well.

TonyG

 

Patrick, I know you're talking about quarter panels, but my front fenders were AIR pieces, and they were relatively close to the factory originals for fiberglass panels, but still managed not to look particularly authentic. Better on a black or white car, probably, but my silver car made it pretty obvious so I swapped for steel panels.

 

I have front AIR, which are 1" wider than stock... and they look very factory in terms of replicating the factory lines.

However.. while the rear AIR's are the quarters to have... it's the GT fronts that are the fenders to have as they are 2" wider vs the AIR 1" wider.

TonyG

 

What about the concern of putting greater strain on the wheel bearings by going super wide?
I’d either have to put on big spacers or get the wheels modified to go wider. I’m on the edge as to which way to go. I know the GT2 ones work with my current setup so that’s an easy and cheaper fix.

 

To answer your question yes you can bolt or glass FG to FG. You will find most glass panels you buy will need a lot of tinkering I would think, especially with the knock you took, but this is not an issue.

On my track car my doors, bonnet, front bumper, front fenders, rear bumper, rear hatch, and side skirts are fibreglass

 

NZ951 your rear hatch is f/g?! You must have the proprietary see-thru hatch. :-) j/k just giving you crap.

Patrick, it does look like you may need to extend the c-pillar in order to get the panel to fit. Rather than creating a f/g 'bridge', I would make it out of steel and weld it to the c-pillar.

As Bruce mentioned, you have to be cognizant of how you bond the f/g to the metal, primarily due to the vastly different heat capacities and thermal expansion coefficients. It can be done though; I can't recall the adhesive I've used in the past but one trick I did learn was to try and get as much overlap between metal and composite as possible. This helps distribute heat and reduces the likelihood of delam/warping at the bond.


That's also a good tip Tony mentioned. Wouldn't have thought o that meself.

 

haha im talking about my AE86 track car

 

Ohhh now that makes more sense. I had a buddy with one of those. Quite the fun car with quite the cult like following.