The New Project: Part Deux!

[njsteve]

I brought the hood to the Tuesday evening Votech class and had some fun. I used the Bondo Fiberglass Resin Gel repair compound which is a fiberglass resin mixed with fiberglass powder in it.

I made a tracing of my good hood on the car, locating the template at the last molded alignment bumper about 5 inches from the back of the hood. This way I could align the tracing with the damaged hood in the same spot.

The repair compound works great. I ground down the leading edge of the break by an inch or so so there would be a longer mating seam for the compound. I taped some cardboard underneath to hold the goop and applied it "liberally." I also used a small piece of fiberglass mat and mushed it into the mixture for added strength.





I then did like Michelangelo did with his sculpture of David: When asked how he could sculpt something so realistic, he said &quot;I simply remove everything that isn't my subject.&quot; So I followed his guidance and I carved away everything that wasn't the hood. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

Here's is the preliminary view with the stencil underneath. Still have a ways to go.





After getting to this stage I then used a Dremel tool and ground grooves across the seam area and reapplied the firberglass gel. I will also do this from the top as well so it gives two sepearate layers of &quot;finger joints&quot; above and below the seam, strengthening the bond so it is not just a flat surface to surface bond, but a sandwich of several bonds overlaying each other.