-----Original Message-----
From: Lbc302@aol.com [mailto:Lbc302@aol.com]
Subject: Cracked fiberglass body
>Also my green bricklin was originally green from the factory, then
>it was painted green,but by the time I got the car all the body
>panel were either cracked, had spider wed style cracks or were split
>in two, my point is that I sanded down the cracked areas, or split
>areas, then fiberglassed the bad areas, then resin coated the
>complete body,then waited about three weeks,then Gel-Coated the
>complete body white,now I am in the process of sanding the complete
>body to a fine finish,the body looks excellent,with NOT one visible
>crack on the complete car, again has anybody done this process,
>because I want to know the long term effects.
Does the car still have the green acrylic plastic it had from the factory?
>From your description of the cracks, I'd guess it does. I'm also very
interested in the long-term effects of this kind of fix, since I'm in the
midst of something a bit more dramatic - stripping all of the plastic off
the OEM panels.
I've wondered myself if a good gelcoat finish would protect against further
cracking, but it seems to me that it's still a potential problem. The
reason that the cracking happens in the first place is because the glass and
plastic have different rates of heat expansion, so if you heat a panel or
cool it, it acts like a bi-metal spring and the resulting mechanical forces
cause it to deform or crack.
My concern is that even if care was taken to give it a nice crack-resistant
finish with gelcoat or epoxy, the plastic buried in there would still cause
the same kind of trouble that it causes when it's on the surface, and you'd
end up with cracks or warping.
Still, it's an awfully appealing idea, if it works OK. How long has it been
since you've had it done? How would you feel about driving it through Death
Valley then chilling it with ice to gather some data for the rest of us? ;)
Anyone else have any ideas about this?
--
Phil Martin pmartin@isgtec.com
"Art disappoints me when it is too little like life,
Life disappoints me when it is too much like art.
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