Originally Posted by 95avblm3 (Post 6981248)

For some reason I had trim screws and non-structural fasteners on the mind when I voted for stainless. I have to say that I agree here ^^^ on the structural stuff. If you know of a shop that does good anodize work, they will often zinc-plate. I have been pondering attempting my own zinc plating when the time comes... it looks relatively simple in process but one hurdle that I can see needing to overcome is handling and proper disposal of the chemicals. That may be an issue.

Originally Posted by Daves911L (Post 6981110)

Kristoph,
That is the problem with virtually all fibreglass parts; some modification required. But FG is remarkably easy to work with (though messy and irritating, and Anna won't let you in the house for a couple days because of the smell) .

I think 95avblm3 has it right, and you are going to have to cut the old brackets off and glass on new ones in the correct location. If I remember though, some of these I have used in the past used the brackets from the stock bumper bolted into a plate glassed into the new bumper. Give it some engineering thought and see what you can dream up. Class project?

I vote against stainless. Your original fasteners are, well, original! The correct length and strength for each application. Plus the nice head markings. If you go stainless, who knows what you'll get. Having bought a bunch of stainless hardware (for Langemann gate projects) I can tell you that unless you spring for mil-spec ($$$$), its a complete crap shoot. Virtually all SS today is coming out of China, and QC is apparently non-existent. We've put some stainless in the water that actually corroded faster than mild steel! Gerald Robinson has had some similar experiences and could tell you more. With quality all over the map, I'd expect strength/failure issues too.

Better to stick with that old quality German steel. Lay everything out on the garage floor next to the carefully labeled baggies you have. Take a bunch of pictures. Then toss it all unceremoniously in a 5 gallon bucket. Take bucket down to the plating shop and have it all yellow zinced. Or cad if you can find it. Or some other pretty color if you prefer. In the process they will clean and de-rust the fasteners and get them back to you in pretty decent shape. Then you dump the bucket out and spend a couple days sorting back into your carefully marked baggies. Your slave child, oops, I mean Paduan apprenctice, would probably be useful for this. It will cost less to do this than buying all those SS chinese fasteners of dubious quality. A dab of grease or "never-seez" on fasteners during re-assembly is always a nice touch.

DG

Originally Posted by kkinzli (Post 6982091)

Jeremy,

What shop is that? I did a brief search for Fort Myers/Bonita Springs and was not able to turn up much. Can you give me some contact information?

Originally Posted by kkinzli (Post 6982126)

;)

Hi David,

Thanks for the great advice. I will stay away from stainless for any structural stuff and only use it for the rocker trim and bumper endcaps. Hopefully, Jeremy can hook me up with a plating shop in Tampa and then I can use the Padawan to sort out bolts;). In terms of fitting the bumper I had a great idea this evening. I decided to line the old and the new bumper up side by side and use the old bumper as sort of a jig to bend the tabs on the FG into the correct alignment. I am planning on cutting the tabs on the FG bumper with a dremel tool, aligning them to the old brackets and then glassing them into place with plenty of reinforcement. I did a bit of reading on fiberglass today and getting the resin and the mat will entail a trip to Autozone down the street:). There appears to be a gel type resin and a normal resin. Any ideas on which one is better? Based on my research I am leaning towards the gel type as it seems to run less. I might try to tackle this on Thursday after teaching!

Cheers,
Kristoph

Originally Posted by porwolf (Post 6982550)

I have done FG wor with regular Auto Parts Supply Store, Hardware Store, or Home Depot type fiberglass kits. I would use the cloth and regular resin because it penetrated the cloth better. You can brush it on and keeping the surface you are working on kind of leveled helps. I would to the job into individual parts. You can mix the resin in readily available small plastic mixing cups. Of course you need a new brush for every single resin mix. Get the cheapest brushes you can find. All together the work should not take too long because the resin sets in 10 to 15 minutes. Cleanup can be done with acetone if the resin has not hardened.

Originally Posted by 95avblm3 (Post 6989291)

Kristoph,

Have you found a plating house yet? Did you see my reply? It's really coming together well now! I look forward to pics of it painted :)

Originally Posted by Fishcop (Post 6990157)

That's not silica sand you're using to blast with is it? Please don't, it's up there with asbestos when fine particles are inhaled! Google "silicosis". There's better alternatives such as garnet.

Originally Posted by RWebb (Post 6990024)

you need an oven in your lab - under the hood

BTW - the steel overriders on the FG bumper are giving me cognitive dissonance...

here is what I did:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/273740-yet-another-boring-hot-rod-rgruppe-car-part-v-exterior-paint.html