Casting Begins

The first step in re-creating the nose was to place mixed, fiberglass-reinforced Bondo into a sandwich bag to allow the bondo to release from the "form" without sticking.

Pressed Fit

Next, I pressed the Bondo against the nose of the borrowed hood until it set up. I held it in place until I could no longer push my finger into it (through the bag). However, I pulled it off before it got too hot (the cross-polymerization of Bondo is VERY exothermic!)

Voila!

And here we have a casting of the nose! The next step was to measure down the hood and mark the Bondo for reference against the fiberglass hood (20" in this case to the edge of the Bondo) and then run a line down the bondo following the line of the metal hood to help with alignment on the flip.

Back-up Plan

I was told by a certain individual who shall not be named, that my transfer casting technique would not work, so as a back-up, I made a positive casting which I figured I could grind down to size, and afix with more Bondo. Here, I first laid down cling wrap to act as a release agent.

Fill and Fold

I filled the approximate space of the nose line I needed, and folded the cling wrap over to allow me to mash it down into the groove for a good casting.

The Nose

Here is the offensive area, sans nose piece (if you look really close, you'll notice the flat spot at the end of the hood line).

Pressing the Nose

Again, using cling wrap as a release agent, I filled my mold with Bondo, and aligned the end of the mold with the 20" measure point, and the line drawn on the mold piece with a line I'd drawn on the nose that extended the nose ridge down the front. This kept me close, left-to-right.

Not Bad!

And look at that! It actually looks like I'd intended it to look! I now had the proper Mini nose shape in place of that ground off spot...

Removal

In the previous pic, there was a lot of excess Bondo that would create problems once I'd laid glass down. So, while it was still pliable, I used the sharp edge of a plastic spreader and removed all but the nose piece.

Almost There

This is what was left after removal of the excess Bondo.

Shaping

Using 100 grit sand paper attached to a soft sponge block, I smoothed down the edges, and removed a small layer off the top to allow room for fiberglass without causing an unsightly bulge.

Looking Up

Looking close, and up the nose line, everything still looks to be aligned properly.

Glassed

The vertical crack at the bottom of the picture was ground out using a flap sander on my grinder (a great tool for shaping and removing excess fiberglass!), creating a shallow trough. This trough was spanned with a layer of glass, and then another layer was put over the nose and the large exposed sections you see.

Mostly Done

It got dark out, so I moved the operation inside. Wearing a respirator, as anyone working with fiberglass should, I toiled on, into the night...

Cosmetic Reconstruction

Really, this corner is more structural reconstruction than cosmetic. This corner (as seen in previous fiberglass efforts) was badly damaged. Even though it was re-inforced from the inside, it needed a lot of rebuilding on the outside. Several layers were built up to try to bring the shape back close to the original. Body filler will take care of the rest.

New Primer

This is my first time using the new self-etching primer from POR-15. They are pretty excited about the product, and it sounds like it may do a better job of adhering to their rust preventative paint than their original Tie-Coat Primer. I like it for its ease of use!

Front Sub

I had a few minutes to kill, so I sprayed the front and rear sub-frames with the new primer. Because of the nature of this stuff, I shouldn't need to coat the metal any more than what you see here. That should be enough of an interface for the POR-15 Hard Nose Paint to stick to.

Rear Sub

And here is the rear. Since I have a finished garage, and thus nothing to hang the subframes from safely, I used my step ladder, with a motorcycle ramp spanning over to the wooden crate in which I have all of my glass. Kind of rigged, but it worked!