B18C1Crusader

Let me begin by stating that I have no experience whatsoever using fiberglass and bondo. This is the first time I have ever touched the stuff, as you can tell by the end product. I am posting this just to show that you can make the doors look good with a little bit of time and effort, no skill needed.

That being said, I can tell you that this doesn’t have a difficulty level above the average persons head.

I started by heating my doors and slamming them like a lot of folks do with this dash swap….the **** looks ugly as hell and I couldn’t stand it. I figured my doors were already trashed; I may as well cut em up and try something different. I used litterbox’s write-up as my only source of instructions for the dash swap, so kudos to him for that. I also got this idea from another member who did something similar, don’t remember who it was though, somebody with a white hatch in litterbox’s how to……

Using this method, you will need 2 integra door panels, doesn’t matter the model, as long as they are from a 94-01, and the stock civic panels.

I bought the fiberglass mat ($6), resin ($24), AND bondo ($24) from Lowes.

I used the following to complete this project: fiberglass resin, fiberglass mat, two 2” paint brushes (you will ruin these), lacquer thinner, scissors, disposable containers for mixing (plastic cups work great) , disposable shop towels, measuring cups, bondo, putty spreaders?, dremel with reinforced cutting wheels, along with 60 and 180 grit sandpaper

I started by pulling the vinyl off of the stock civic panels (just to the tweeters and lower speaker grills). I then installed them, and marked where the dash hit them. I then cut out the portion I marked with a dremel. By the way, the reinforced dremel wheels are the ****….not one broke on me and they last a long time.



I ripped the vinyl off of the integra panels and cut out the section that the dash indents on.



You can tell I fudged up the passenger door a little…the driver side came out a lot closer.



I used masking tape, and taped the integra sections into the civic sections, then test fitted them on the car, closing the doors and marking the positions they needed to be in (peep the sharpie marks)



Once the positions were marked, I re-taped the sections in the proper locations and put the door panels face down on the ground.

Now, messing with fiberglass you will need to do some measuring. I used measuring cups to pour water into the plastic cups, then mark levels with a sharpie…this way I didn’t ruin the measuring cups. The fiberglass resin will only last about 10 minutes after you put the hardener in. I suggest you cut your fiberglass mat into a bunch of strips prior to mixing the resin, and don’t mix a huge amount of resin.

You start by mixing the resin and the hardener, then brushing resin over the areas that you want to fiberglass, i.e. over the edge of the civic panel and the integra cutout. Then lay down the fiberglass strips over the areas you resinated , brush the strips with resin, lay more strips, brush with resin, etc etc. I put down about 4 layers and it looks like this.



Here you can see the big gap on the passenger door cutout.



Once the back layers are done, leave the doors to dry and harden. I suggest hitting up youporn.com or redtube.com…you can waste quite some time on those sites. Anyway, once the back is hardened to the point you can’t [freak] it up on accident, turn the doors over and lay one layer over the top like so, and don't forget to scrape off the foam first.





You are now done with the fiberglass work. Let these hoes dry before you start with the bondo. I let mine sit overnight and the next day they were just as hard as the original doors.

I would like to say that bondo is some cool ****, seriously. My doors would have looked like *** without it.

Mix your bondo up….again, it’s similar to fiberglass and you have a limited time to use it, so don’t mix a huge amount up. Just slop that **** on the doors and smooth it as you go using the spreader things. Here are mine before sanding.





I sanded the bondo down after it dried, and it dries quickly so you don’t have much time to hit those previous sites up. I added more bondo because I suck and the doors still looked like ****. After all was said and done, they look like this.





The doors aren’t perfect! They don’t match perfectly, there are some imperfections, but they look a [freak]ton better than heating and hulksmashing. Here is the fitment.





My passenger side of the dash is missing some plastic, but you get the point. It’s not perfect, but they look better imo.

Dash pic


Gratuitous engine shot


I will be trying to vinyl these things and will probably have to take them to a shop, but that won’t be for a while. I will post the pics in this thread when I get it done though (next 6 months or so)

If you have done something similar post up, if you are a body expert post some tips. Any and all feedback is welcome.

Modified by B18C1Crusader at 7:36 AM 3/19/2008


Modified by B18C1Crusader at 7:41 AM 3/19/2008


Modified by B18C1Crusader at 4:14 PM 3/19/2008

BlueIntegraBoy

iTrader: (5)

Wow, great writeup. LOL at the time wasting sites.

crz1o13o4

damn looks great bro, way better than the heating the panels and slamming the doors, great write-up

newby_j

Good work, but I am going to tell you now before the mods do that you need to take out the links.

B18C1Crusader

Thanks for the props guys! I took out the www's, that should suffice

RedneckRicer

good stuff did you ever get your panels rewrapped? if so how much did it cost.

burnykawizzle

this is the type of thread i have been searching and searching for... i will try to attempt something like this since i dont have my civic panels anymore and the integra panels have been modded to fit on the door but it actually wont close because it is higher so all this fiberglass your talking about gave me an idea about cutting the door panel shorter in height to see if my theory will work and i will let yall know about how it goes since i have worked with fiberglass a few times in the past i will attempt to give this a try.. thank you so much b18c1crusader for your guide!!!!!

jdmdomo

iTrader: (1)

damn ,, looks really nice ... sick ..