Merging fiberglass and sheetmetal

[Class 11 streeter]

Hey all

Here is a pic of the hood of my project 65 'looker. As you can see she is wearing an empi style hood. It's not a real empi hood, it's a later replica. The fit is not what I want, there is a gap on both sides that the hood is centered between and there was no mounts for hinges, so the PO installed it with dzues fasteners.



The deal is I want to remove this hood and install a steel 65 hood, and in the process get hinges and a hood locking mechanism back. However, I also want to cut the styled depressions out of the 'glass hood and install them in the steel hood. My bodyman says this is do-able, but I want to understand the process so I know what needs to take place.

How do you merge steel and fiberglass? Will resin hold it or do I need rivits?

On a side note, the pic is misleading, the paint looks good from 20 feet (or on a phone camera) but I am hardly cutting on a "clean" car, there will be a respray after everything is done.

[MNAirHead]

Couple of thoughts.

1-Why not repair your existing hood? Commonly they'll get tweeked if the're sitting next to a wall etc. Fiberglass is slightly easier to message than steel

Meshing the 2 fiberglass steel.
These are instructions that came to me from a drag racing supply shop.

-Completely strip your steel pieces.
-cratch the steel with sand paper and give it some bite
-bond the fiberglass to the bottom side of your steel hood... give it some working/feathering room.
-glass both the top and bottom of the hood
-Use resin for your initial feathering filler
-high quality body filler

The key is to get the pieces to bond strongly together... too much material may exaggerate the expansion/contraction issues.

T.

Question.. would cutting holes to create a "mesh" through the metal hood help bonding?.. or am I over engineering this step?

[Tuffluck]

I did something close a few years ago. I molded a scoop on a blazer. This is what I would do. Strip the metal bare. Carefully remove the glass panels, measure the thickness. Trace the pattern out on the new bonnet, make sure it is even and straight. Cut the area with a high speed die grinder on the long straights and a jigsaw in the curves. Take your time..make sure the glass scoops and the opening has a nice over-lap. Once everything is cut and fits nice and slick use a flanger to set the inside radias of the cut-out steel. Do the flatest areas 1st and then heat the flanger with a torch and bend it slightly to match the panel. It will reduce the amount of glassing, filler you have to use. Set the scops in the holes and tape them in place. Use a counter-sink bit and drill holes about every 2 inchs. Once you have drilled the perimiter, rivet a spot on the top and the bottom so the piece won't shift. Then work your way around. I think I used 1/8 inch rivets for mine, but I can't rememeber, just make sure they reach all the way thru. Once they are in I used a 36 grit pad on an angle grinder to even the glass panel with the steel and to give the steel some bite. Smooth it out and get it as level as possible, but keep it moving, it will heat the metal if you keep it one spot too long. If you can run your hand across both and feel little to no edge then you are on your way. For a gap filler I would say use tigers hair. Its a bondo-glass blend. Theres a trick to it. It fills high, but can leave pockets if not careful. I use slightly less hardener and do small areas at a time with it. This allows more time to move it and gives you more control. Make sure you use it at the proper ambient temp and on a dry day. When you have the gap filled all the way around I would leave it alone for no less than 24 hrs. Smooth it down with 36 or 40 on a grinder to rough it in. After that you can do the finish with a quaility filler and primer. The rivets help hold it down and reduce viberation and the tigers hair keeps you from filling it full of mud. Hope this has helped. Sorry for the long reply. Please let me know how it comes out.

[Class 11 streeter]

Thanks for the replys guys! I am "in work" on finding a 65-ish hood for this project now. Funny how I have Baja and 68-up hoods laying around...........

[MNAirHead]

Wanna pick up a hood in Minneapolis?