'85 Carrera bought as a flip, turned into something else

[Flynt]

Fiberglass sometimes sucks.
Rear bumper flare didn't follow the contour of the body. From the top edge to the bottom it went nearly vertical, meaning it didn't wrap "under" the car like the stock stuff does. Maybe it's a function of fiberglass being built for track cars, to save the paint? The quality of this part was very good otherwise, so instead of ordering another unknown fiberglass part I decided to fix this one.

See here - tape line marks the contour I was after:



My method of fixing was - Cut a pie slice out, just behind the lip.



Sucked in at the bottom, flush with fender lip at top. But now the radius is jacked and the lip is still fatter than the body.



Once I got to that point, I cut the lip all the way down (a little more out of the top), and stuck it back together. Got the radius right and the lip was the correct thickness. Somehow didn't shoot a photo of this..

On to the front:

IROC-style for a narrow-body car. Looks just like the silver car posted earlier, but mine was 3/4" too wide.





Solution was chopping the offending 3/4 out the middle and sticking back together and reinforcing with glass mat and weave. This bumper also needed a lot of love - not nearly as nice as the rear.. bubbles in the gel coat, dimples, pressure cracks.. this took a full day. Here it is, done.

Like that Slayer song, but in reverse. #piecebypiece #birthisallisee

A post shared by vehicles / parts / apparel (@embassygarage) on Mar 28, 2017 at 1:24pm PDT

[Flynt]

Forgot to mention - I got a duckbill from Cory M here on the forum. Fit awesome, only needed blocking and finish sanding.

Now that the fiberglass was straight I turned my attention back to the body - filling holes and stuff. When you remove the rockers/skirts/whatever you want to call them on these cars, you're left with a quarter-size hole and a bunch of small screw holes in each side, and a lot of undercoating. I wanted smooth rockers with no undercoat, so I wire wheeled it all off, and filled the holes. You can see a couple dabs of bondo and the smooth rocker in these pics:

(Note factory e-coat - if you strip paint on your car, I recommend not getting too aggressive and burning through this stuff.. it is great at providing protection for the metal underneath)



I wire-wheeled, treated surface rust and blended all the nicks and scrapes in the undercoat while I was filthy. Prep for undercoat touch-up.

Same deal when you get rid of the power flag mirrors - a bunch (5 per side IIRC!) of big holes. I made plugs and welded them in, skim layer of bondo over the top.

Also got rid of most of that asphalt goo. Hot day and a dull, flathead screwdriver was my method. Maybe some wire wheel. Pain in the dick. Factory undercoat looked great underneath, though!




I also pulled the rest of the wiring, fuse box, and all the parking brake, brake lines, heater cables and boxes out.

No damage or rust up here. Awesome.




About ready for undercoat and off to paint!