To our benevolent mods, feel free to move this thread elsewhere if deemed necessary...

Looking at doing some fiberglass "patch" work to rusted out areas on son's Merc...

anyone have any experiences, suggestions, sources for education you can share?

appreciate all help offered!

Mark

"God Bless Texas"location: Houston,TX

Sorry for the dumb question but why not just weld in some sheet metal? When I got my car the rear floors were toast so I just bought a lincon 110v welder and some sheetmetal and went to work. Mind you I never welded before it was a learning exprerience. I've seen some of these fiberglass patch job and they usually crack over time.

58 Ford Custom 300 - San Pedro, CA (So-Cal)

agreed... that would be best... but we're on a fairly strict budget at the moment, so we're shooting for the cheapest way to do some temp repair so Daniel can get some windshield time in...

who knows... there may be a welder in our future!

"God Bless Texas"location: Houston,TX

Are these repairs that absolutely have to be made to get windshield time? If they are related to safety, then it is a viable short term fix but then if it's so rotted that it's a safety issue, then a fiberglass repair probably isn't the answer and if you're not experienced with fiberglass then I'd absolutely not recommend it. If it's not safety related, let him drive it and save the money and time for the real fix. My truck has all kinds of holes and leaks in it but they don't make it unsafe so I don't worry about it too much - it has to do with comfort more than anything else.


Lawrenceville, GA

yep... more good sense; no real safety issues with the present condition... just the usual rust in variour fender areas, rocker panels, quarter panels and in the interior floor pans...

also presently trying to make some deals on seats and original 14 inch Ford wheels, various bits and pieces... he wants as much original as possible, so we're looking for a matching gas pedal, glove box light... stuff like that.

I'm contemplaing some minor body repair just to keep the rain water out!

Mark

"God Bless Texas"location: Houston,TX

The floor pans need to be steel not fiberglass for safety. As do the rocker panels. You are going to have to replace them at some point in time and fiberglassing over them is just a waste of time and will make the job harder when you come o make the repair. The fenders and quarters you could get away with fiberglass. Aesthetically it will look better and depending on what weather the car is exposed to could last for a few years. Just make sure that you fix the fiberglass to good clean bare metal that you have treated with rust converter.

Do the work at your pace and enjoy.

Regards

Rick - West Australia
Do Y Blocks Downunder run upside down? Gravity Sucks!!

If you have fairly large holes you want to fiberglass over, try to get to clean sheet metal around the hole with abrasive disks and a die grinder or sanding disk. If you don't have major holes, just thin, flaking sheetmetal or pinholes, check out the POR-15 products like POR Patch or even just POR-15 for rust. I've used these products and they are easy to use, work really well and are VERY tough.

Rono

  Ron Lane,  Meridian, ID

thanks for all the suggestions... will advise of our trial and error/progress as warranted.

Mark

"God Bless Texas"location: Houston,TX

Fiberglass and fudgeing holes in can be much more expensive than patching with metal when you figure the cost of materials these days. a metal patch and skim coat of filler, with the savings in material you might find a cheap welder in your local paper somebody doesn't need, craigslist etc.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

When I bought my Galaxie, about 12 years ago, she had a tiny hole on the rear passenger floor area, passenger side. Every time it rained, the carpeting would get wet, and it was already rotted by the water. Well, I found a complete original carpeting for sale, I went happy to fix that hole with fiberglass (it was tiny after all) and have the new carpeting intalled. Once I removed the seats, and the old carpeting, and started to grind the area to remove the rust, what was my surprise, when a big part of the floor board just came off. It has already being repaired with fiberglass, and the rust just kept going inder it. Fortunately that was the only rust the car had on floor pans, and it was caused by the lack of a big part of the rear door rubber seal, that alowed water in. I had to cut a floor pan out of my parts car, and weld it to my car, as I started hating figerglass repair.

For my surprise, I was able to rent a welder, and do the whole job for less than I had already spent buying glass fibre, resin, brushes, solvent, etc.

This was my first and last time even considering fiberglass.


Túlio Lazzaroni "FORD", Florianópolis SC Brasil.

'74 Ford Galaxie 500 292 V8

'82 Ford Galaxie Landau 302 V8

'98 Chevrolet S10 4.3 V6

'01 Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec