Why waste all your time doing all kinds of exotic, unproven things to save
the cracked acrylics? If it is cracked that severly, by the time you strip
the acrylic and build it back up to the original thickness or grind the
cracks, fill them, gel coat them, wouldn't it be easier, faster, cheaper to
just install fiberglass and be done with it? That way if it gets hurt you
can easily repair it and be on your way. If the things that are being
attempted work, great, but I sure would be upset if I put countless hours
into doing unproven fixes and they cracked and/or fell apart in 6 months or
a year! It's fun to work on your car, but I would rather work smart,be done
with it ,and DRIVE AND ENJOY it. How long do you think you will be enthused
about your car if you put all that time, money and effort into it and it
goes awry? The prices that Tanner and Hoffman charge for fiberglass are not
that bad and all you have to do is fit and attatch them, paint them and go.
Seems like the easier and saner thing to do to me. I have yet to see severly
cracked acrylics hold up to any repairs for a very long time. Just something
to ponder.
George.
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Monfort <wingracer@email.msn.com>
To: Bricklin <bricklin@autox.team.net>
Date: Sunday, August 16, 1998 10:10 PM
Subject: Fw: Cracked fiberglass body
>
>>
>>I've wondered myself if a good gelcoat finish would protect against
>further
>>cracking,
>========
>An epoxy gelcoat bonded to a suitably roughed up substrate will be
>stable assuming the gelcoat is as thick as the base material. Check
>out a quality Cobra replica body. They don't stress crack (assuming
>they're properly mounted), but look how thick they are. Hard to
>achieve this kind of thickness / surface integrity outside the mold.
>They weigh more than an equivalent steel body. Who will be the first
>to fabricate a steel, or better, an aluminum, or best, a carbon
>fiber Bricklin body?
>========
>
> 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.
>========
>Correct. Witness the Bricklin's hood or light covers during
>temperature changes. The best idea I've heard so far is whoever was
>going to try laminating carbon fiber to the stripped panels. A
>daunting task.
>
>GM
>
>>Phil Martin
>
>
>
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