Dr.J's74

well I knew it wasnt pretty when i got him, I thought the body was in one peice, and low and behold a crack in the L.H. floorboard that runs diag from corner of where the pan goes flat closest to the door to the tunnel for the tranny. Im not a body guy and Im not a total purist but how srewed am I? I want to do a nice car but if the foundation is fubar?I cant be the first guy with this situation.

crvtownr

some pics might help to assess the problem. Since its all fiberglass, just depends on whether you want to do it yourself or lighten your wallet and let someone else do it. I had never done fiberglass before, and with the help of searches and questions posted to others, I have been able to make my own repairs.

Dr.J's74

well i guess anything is fixable

rcrchsr16

I have a 73 that had fiberglass damage all over it and I'm using resin and fiberglass mat to fix it. I had pieces hanging off of it where the rocker panel mounts and glassed it on both sides and it's as rigid as one could want. I filled holes where there was bad repair work done and it's pretty well back to original.
I'm no expert by any means, but I believe it's better to repair from both sides instead of just one side. I think it's mandatory that the damaged area be scuffed down to the fiberglass layers, taking any gelcoat or plain dirt off it before thinking of mixing the resin. I used 80 grit paper to get a 'bite'.
I bought Evercoat resin and fiberglass mat- don't use cloth, hold out for mat- from Pivco in Illinois. I'm using Evercoat Vette Panel Adhesive/ Filler to finish off the repairs where needed. Fiberglass mat needs to be saturated with resin, but I've found it still leaves a rough finish that needs the Vette Panel Adhesive/Filler to smooth the surface to get to the primer/ gel coat/paint. You wont need this if it's a floorboard.
I'm using epoxy primer to get to paint stage but many, many people insist on gelcoating before painting.
I'm sure there will be differences of opinion on what I wrote here and I'm open to suggestion on all of it- as I said I'm no expert, just a guy working out of a 3 car garage! Hope it helps you!

7T1vette

If that crack is limited to the driver's floorboard, just do a good job of repairing it w/glass/resin. It should be fine. Make certain any metal reinforcing members are in place while you're at it.

71coupe454

I have been making my go with fiberglass in my engine compartment, cracked fenderwells ect. Its not hard to work with just a little messy. I think scuffing it down good and clean is the most important thing.

riggs 74

As a side question what year did they start putting metal
floor pans in. Sorry for my ignorance.

Fiberglass repair should not be to bad if you grind the repair
area back far enough and do the same on both sides.
Check out some of stingers restoration work, he really simplifies
fiberglass work.



Riggs.

Artsvette73

[QUOTE=riggs 74;1571898020]As a side question what year did they start putting metal
floor pans in. Sorry for my ignorance.

1975 the year of the cat

MyRed69

Good info in this thread... http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...-question.html I'm just about finished with the repair and will post some pix soon (got sent out of town again, typing this from the hotel room.) I put some layers on the outside too, mixed a little black pigment into the resin to help match the underside color. It didn't come out too bad for my first attempt (it'll look much better once the carpet and splash shield get put in . I probably overdid it a little as there is a huge difference in the flex of the pans between the passenger and driver's side. The driver's side is solid to the knuckle rap and the pax side has that thin hollow sound. I might add a layer or two over there just for good measure. this project has given me the confidence to fill in the rear valance exhaust holes as i'm adding side exhaust. I'll get some pix of that project up soon too.

redman76

I beleive '76. I have the steel pans in mine. They need to be replaced one of these days. Both were rusted and a PO used fiberglass to repair one of them. I guess the car sat outside with leaky windows too long.