i need to do some work on my firewall. the paint has come off and the fiberglass is coming apart in some spots. anybody know what kind of fiberglass or gelcoat to use for this repair. ecklers sells some stuff but said its only for certain years.

 

Hi Phill, you got a big problem here, you'll have to look a a book or see a preffesional, I'm not sure where the firberglass is seamed, or how. What do you mean "for your year"? Is there a differant fiberglass for your year?

 

ecklers has the gel coat and the resin but it states that its not for 73 and later models. guess ill have to give them a call. they have great tech support.

 

I've done a considerable amount of fiberglass repair. It's not that hard to do, especially on your fire wall. Ther is no gelcoat involved there. You want to buy "EVERCOAT" fiberglas mat & resin. Can find it at Car Quest, Napa or any reputable parts house. Grind down around the cracked area and reglas it.

 

You need to know what type of resin it was originally built with Vettes are molded with filled resin. you can achieve a mild mechanical bond with most any resin. You can not put fresh polyester on top of cured vinylester but fresh vinyl easter can be put over cured pollyester. epoxy will not bond to either. At this point you are only capable of achieving a mechanical bond. So as justC3s says....grind it clean..... than wash area with acetone and apply desired amount of glass and resin one layer at a time. roll or squigee all of the air out let it cure and sand it to desired finish and paint it. eventually it will delaminate as none will give the needed molecular/chemical bond to achieve longevity.

 

Well its been almost a year but the firewall is done. not to hard to do i guess all those years of boating did come in handy. hardest part was the transmission,seats, carpetand all therelated parts that had to be removed to get to the damaged area. thanks for thetips, ill try to post some before and after pics. again thanks to all for the great information shared on this forum.

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[:@]dont drive your car until its fixed or you will risk cracking it more[:@]