Door Pocket Repair with Fiberglass

[Seattle911]

I am in the process of repairing the driver's door pocket on my 79SC. I have steamed and wetted down the pocket. It is now drying in wood clamps and ought to be straight once again. I thought I saw some references to fiberglassing the inside of the pocket to provide greater strength. Has anyone done this? How were your results? Any other ideas?

Thanks, in advance,

Bill

[tevake]

Yes I am wondering about this also. The place where the fasteners go thru the flange on the bottom of my otherwise nice pockets are broken making it difficult to mount.
Anyone done a fix on this kind of problem?

Thanks Richard

[Seattle911]

The mounting holes in my pockets were ripped out in a coupe of places so I rebuilt them with fiberglass and they seem to be fine. The fiberboard or whatever it is that the pockets are made out of soaks up the fiberglass resin pretty well, so the entire area seems stronger.

[RSTarga]

the best ones are made out of ABS like the newer 964's. I got some already covered from a guy in Florida who does mainly lincoln interiors. I think he advertised in Pano for awhile.

[RSTarga]

https://sites.google.com/site/911porschedoorpockets/home

[PorscheGAL]

I repaired my door pockets with fiberglass on my 86 targa. I'm no fiberglass expert and it wasn't pretty at first. With new carpeting, the door panels look good to me and hold well.

[5495bb]

I've used fiberglass to repair inside panels for British cars as well as Porsche and the repairs worked out well. I suggest you use 6 ounce fiberglass cloth (as opposed to the fiberglass matt) on both sides of the panel. If you want to reinforce the area around screw holes use thin washers. Stick them to the board before covering it with the cloth and resin. I like to use West System resin. It's a bit pricey but great quality and easy to use. You should be able to get all this at a local boat supply house. Good luck.

[Seattle911]

Many thanks. Great info and advice. Got my bearings and I'm ready to give it a try.

Bill

[salukijac]

Originally Posted by RSTarga

https://sites.google.com/site/911porschedoorpockets/home

I just repaired mine with these brackets after seeing this thread. Good fit and pretty easy to do. You have to be careful when you peel back the carpet. In my case I was going to recover the pockets anyway.

A good fix for ~$83.

[Quickstep192]

I repaired mine using West Epoxy also. West offers a variety of hardeners that can give extra time to work. Mine had holes cut for speakers which I replaced with pieces of masonite, just epoxied into the space. West also makes additives that let you turn epoxy into filler and fairing compounds. Even some carbon fiber tapes and stuff like that. I don't have a vested interest in West Systems, but I do like the strength and predictability of epoxy.

One note: Be careful mixing up large batches of epoxy. It generates heat when the epoxy and hardener react; the heat makes it cure faster which in turn generates more heat. I've read that large batches can actually catch fire. Also, once it starts to get hot, the cure accelerates and you're left with an unusable glob of goo. Spreading it out on a large surface after mixing helps.

[nineball]

Originally Posted by 5495bb

I suggest you use 6 ounce fiberglass cloth (as opposed to the fiberglass matt) on both sides of the panel.

6oz cloth or mat may be too much for a beginner to work with. it takes some skill to get it right and 1.5oz is much easier to wet out. i usually tell people to start with a little 0.75oz to learn the techniques and gradually move up to heavier glass but no more than 1.5oz to start.