Replacement panels or can you remould fibreglass?
Discussion
Following our minor accident last year, we had a new service bonnet fitted on our Tuscan. At the time of collection, the general fit and shutlines were pretty good and certainly acceptable for a hand built car. I believe the service bonnet came from Fibreon.
Roll forwards a year and the fit looks pretty poor almost as if the bonnet itself has changed shape. The mid point on the drivers side now sticks out proud of the main body, and on both sides when looking towards the front of the car, the shutlines widen considerably as you follow the service bonnet upwards and then narrow again at the top.
So, is there any way of fixing this? Can we apply some heat and pressure to pull the side sections downwards?
We've changed insurance companies now so I doubt it's worth pursuing with the original insurers, and it was definitely fine when we collected the car and signed off the work.
If we can't remould it, then who's the best supplier of replacements?
Before we even consider paying ourselves I'd like to understand if they can guarantee their panel won't warp so we don't end up with a similar problem down the line.
In the first pic below, this is the lowest it will go, even with the upper corner of the service bonnet sitting some 1cm below the level of th main body.
Roll forwards a year and the fit looks pretty poor almost as if the bonnet itself has changed shape. The mid point on the drivers side now sticks out proud of the main body, and on both sides when looking towards the front of the car, the shutlines widen considerably as you follow the service bonnet upwards and then narrow again at the top.
So, is there any way of fixing this? Can we apply some heat and pressure to pull the side sections downwards?
We've changed insurance companies now so I doubt it's worth pursuing with the original insurers, and it was definitely fine when we collected the car and signed off the work.
If we can't remould it, then who's the best supplier of replacements?
Before we even consider paying ourselves I'd like to understand if they can guarantee their panel won't warp so we don't end up with a similar problem down the line.
In the first pic below, this is the lowest it will go, even with the upper corner of the service bonnet sitting some 1cm below the level of th main body.
Edited by MrChips on Wednesday 18th March 00:32
I repair my own fibre glass on my race car not the same quality I know as your road car. Fibre glass can be heated and bent to some degree and I would say yours is doable. I strengthen my bonnet panel with nylon string which would look naff on your bonnet but there are other fibre glass cloths on the market designed for this job. Plasticman on here would be worth talking to I guess or post up on the TVR racing forum as I am not the only one who does there own repairs as you can imagine.
My limited experience with fibreon is, that the parts are of good quality, but not always a perfect fit. You have to fit them to your car really. Since TVRs were hand built, there is no straight GRP panel swap in my experience.
I've seen my bonnet bent significantly during a hot summer day after opening it for some hours as part of a car display at some car show because of the one sided bonnet stay. After some time it reverted back.
So I would presume, that you can apply some heat and bend it to some degree. But don't expect wonders. I would expect it to spring back after some time, which probably happened to your bonnet also.
Technically I would expect, that the glass fibres, which add stability and are moulded into the plastic prevent a major deformation of GRP parts. Also if the epoxy is a thermoset (not 100% sure), it cannot really be hot formed per definition. So if you are too harsh on it you get cracks.
So, I wouldn't attempt to do this myself honestly but ask a specialist instead.
I've seen my bonnet bent significantly during a hot summer day after opening it for some hours as part of a car display at some car show because of the one sided bonnet stay. After some time it reverted back.
So I would presume, that you can apply some heat and bend it to some degree. But don't expect wonders. I would expect it to spring back after some time, which probably happened to your bonnet also.
Technically I would expect, that the glass fibres, which add stability and are moulded into the plastic prevent a major deformation of GRP parts. Also if the epoxy is a thermoset (not 100% sure), it cannot really be hot formed per definition. So if you are too harsh on it you get cracks.
So, I wouldn't attempt to do this myself honestly but ask a specialist instead.
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