I don't have final shots yet because of the mess we were involved in. Time is a premium when dealing with large sections of glass, and picking up a camera in-process is the last thing you want to do! Basically the last step was to take rough cloth and cut large sections to shape into the contours of the entire flip. I made the pieces as large as possible to give good structural stability, and cut into the cloth where necessary to meet contours. The cloth itself has some give to allow it to contour (more than the fine cloth, to be sure!), but the fibers get sparse the more it has to contour. We ended up with bubbles in some places, and I'll grind those out and replace them with more rough cloth and resin. I kept the ends that meet with the A-panel together with some wire, duct-taped to the out-sides of the flip. This kept the panels from flexing outward while curing. The final work will be cosmetic to grind out any of the oil/dirt in any jagged edges and back fill with glass and resin. Fiberglass reinforced body filler will smooth off any irregularities. Final finish will be a gel-coat, and then paint. For the inside of the flip, I'll glass in some brackets that will hold the tabs that the air rams will attach to, as well as the bonnet latch, and tabs to mound the bumper to the front (something flips tend to lack). I'm pretty happy with the results so far!
A final few words of advice to anyone
wanting to tackle fiberglass:
1) Buy a box of vinyl gloves. You will
go through TONS of gloves throughout the process. The resin gets everywhere,
and being able to strip off gloves and put on a new set before the resin cures
is a blessing. NOTE: acetone eats the gloves, so have some chemical resistant
ones handy for cleaning.
2) Buy lots of cheap paint brushes (Harbor Freight sells a pack of 36 for
$12.99 or less). They are great for spreading resin. But they will
be one-use-only, and that's why I recommend a lot.
3) Put down a thin layer of resin with the brush, lay the glass into it,
then brush a small amount of resin over the top of that. Work from the
inside of the patch to the outer edges, spreading resin quickly as you go.
This will minimize air bubbles. You want just enough resin to coat the
glass, no more, if possible. The strength of fiberglass is not in the
resin, but in the glass. Too much resin will actually weaken the
fiberglass matrix.
4) Have someone else there to help! There is
just not enough time to mix the resin, place patches, add resin to the patch,
smooth it out, and do other patches. Having another set of hands willing to get
in there is a must.
5) Wear a good particulate mask when grinding the
glass! Wear gloves. Wear eye protection. Wear hearing protection. And do
yourself a favor and either wear long sleeves, or run duct tape along the
underside of your arms. Few things are as annoying as bits of glass irritating
the tender undersides of your arms...