How to Build up shut lines

[Neville B]

Hello
looking for some advice\ideas please,
for example some of the edges on my doors where they meet the body are about 3/4mm thick the gap is too big between the door edge and the body, I cant build out the body it needs to be the door

whats the best way of building out a thin edge, I dont think fibreglass will work, the edge its self needs to extend about another 5 to 10mm

Thanks

 

[Howard Jones]

Others are better body people so my way may not be the best way. In any case, here's what I did on my GT40.

I needed to add about 3/16 of an inch to the door's length in order to close up the gap and make it uniform. I ground back the edge (inside so the outside surface was left unmolested) so that it had a very low angle. Instead of 90 degrees, it was now about 30 degrees. This left me with a nice wide area to add fiberglass to so that it would bond much more to the door's inside surface than the end edge of the door. Then I added a few layers of continuous strand mat to the surface and back onto the parent door surface area about an inch wide and a 1/4 thicker than the original door thickness at the edge. This will anchor the added material on the edge much better than simply adding length to the edge. Now being careful to maintain the new edge where I wanted it I hand-sanded back the area until I had a nice new edge that extended 3/16 inch longer and a bit thicker back away from the edge so it looks good from the outside but in sort of a wedge shape. This made the edge pretty strong and no less durable than the original fiberglass edge.

I finished the newly finished inside surface with Bondo to just make it smooth. Don't add bondo to the edge (end of the door), it won't survive because it is not hard enough.

My door edges have lasted more than 20 years and have not broken off or anything so I guess this worked. That's my story and I'm sticken to it.

Continuous Strand Mat

1.5 oz/sq ft, 50 Wide, 0.060 Thick Continuous Strand Mat is frequently used for rapid build-up of parts and molds, whether used alone or with other fiberglass fabrics. It wets out easily, is highly conformable, and is easily controlled for thickness, when uniformity is a factor. When used with...

www.fibreglast.com

 

[Neville B]

thank you

 

[Randy V]

3M HSRF is some pretty tough stuff.. I’ve used it a number of times. Just make sure that you chew up your edges a bit with something like a 36 grit paper to give it a good grip.

 

[Neville B]

thank you