z-28john

Hi guys and gals,
I recently bought a 1998 Civic EX with the LSV conversion in it. I have been trying to make the necessary changes to it, to make it a fast, reliable and relatively nice looking DD.
I have about finished with the wiring and lights, and am now moving forward on the exterior and (for now) touch-up paint.
I already replaced the factory headlights with black/crystal JDMs, and the aftermarket rear-bumper cover hit the curb, in favor of a factory unit. I am looking for some decent 17" wheels, and deciding whether to keep or can the TALL rear spoiler.
But my question here is: since the front bumper is an aftermarket unit, that is fiberglass and in fairly rough shape, does anyone here have any experience in repairing fiberglass?
There are a few stress-cracks, like near the headlight corners, and a couple of small areas where the bumper has been chipped away, leaving the white fiberglass exposed, in the hole.
Can I simply add fiberglass resin/hardener to the small cracks, and expect it to fill them, leaving a workable surface for sanding/priming and painting? Or do I need to get behind the cracks and matte the area around them?
Also, in the couple of areas where the fiberglass is chipped away, do I need to do anything special, or just apply some mesh and resin/hardener, then prep and paint?
I would like to send it to a body-shop and let them do the whole body, since it has some hail-damage too, but financially, it's going to have to be repairs that I can make myself, for now.
I am open to any information/advice on making hail-dents go away, too, if anyone on here has had success at that before!
Thanks in advance for any help!

gorillafart

iTrader: (1)

you'll want to get a angle grinder/sander something like this to bevel the edges around the cracks or holes.


then you lay the mesh and epoxy. you do needa get behind the crack but you dont needa matte the back area. just put some masking tape or something behind the holes or crack. this simply stops the fiberglass matt and resin from sinking in thrugh the holes and cracks so you can lay the fiberglass and epoxy resin down. let it harden. take off the masking tape because you no longer need it. then grind the fiberglass repair smooth. lay bodyfiller then primer etc etc

if you have small pitting and chips, and if your cracks dont even go through the bumper, i'd just grind it down and featheredge without going thru the bumper, and just lay kittyhair (fiberglass re-inforced bodyfilly) and just do a regular repair like you would if you had a body dent.

z-28john

Thanks for the tips gorilla!

VKSninja

Its very important that when you lay the fibreglass down on the resin make sure to not leave any air pockets behind. Use a small metal roller

Hidenplanvew

metal roller? Just push the mat down when installing it, but bevel the back side, tape the front apply mat going from smaller cut out patches of mat to larger. I forgot you need to sand all the areas your going to install resin and mat over.

VKSninja

google image fibreglass roller

z-28john

I like that! It makes sense that the smaller section of the repair would be in the bottom of it. Thanks for the tip!