Some pics of my 95 SLE (5/18 Update)

[Sirius]

Back in my AF days when I was pounding rivets in aircraft, I recall there's a minimum distance from the edge of a repair panel and a min/max spacing of the rivets. It's been so long I don't recall the specs, but it was based on rivet diameter. I know this isn't an aircraft you're working on, but the point is that more rivets are usually needed than what you may think. 1" spacing may be overkill, but not by much.

[95naSTA]

Ahh got ya. This has to fall under the overkill category. There are a few unusual variables though that would probably make it difficult to apply normal practice to (besides being on a Bonneville). Metal to plastic/urethane, type of epoxy I can't remember I used between the 2 parts where they touch and there was an air gap between the middle row of rivets that's been back filled with panel bond.

I have a buddy that does sheet metal for helicopters at Boeing. I probably shouldn't show him these pics..

[Sirius]

Yeah, your sheet metal buddy might cringe if he saw your handiwork, but it's all going to be covered so no worries.

Off topic, but interesting, helicopters have extremely thin skins compared to heavy-lift fixed wing aircraft. At least the H-3s and H-53s I worked on did. And those were large choppers, especially the H-53. (Your comment about your friend from Boeing had me reminiscing).

[95naSTA]

I mean, that makes sense to me from the shape and altitude. With a (potentially) pressurized cabin and lever arms 4 directions from center, I would think the sheet metal on a fixed wing would be thicker.

The fenders went back on today after work. Everything is lined up and torqued back down, ready for more bodywork re-doing.

[Sirius]

It will be nice to know that your body work will stay put this time!

I agree stresses are different on a helicopter than a fixed wing. Between that, cabin pressurization, and weight reduction it seemed like the helos were wrapped in paper compared to the C-130s.

[95naSTA]

Welp. A few more hours went in today.

On the driver's side, I re-did a couple more rivets near the top forward corner (note: re-did, didn't add!) and swiped the upper area with kitty hair. When I looked close I could see some flaws in the attachment, otherwise I would have left it. On the passenger side, I did similar and replaced a couple rivets but not go as far since the bodywork was in good shape in the top forward corner. That got swiped with kitty hair as well. At this point I probably should have continued on, stuffing the rest of the fender with kitty hair but I might want to use actual fiberglass mat over the area.. I was also itching to get some filler on the hood. So, I swiped the driver's side hood into the fender to blend that area. I ran out of daylight but the hood is like 90% there. The fender obviously need some more work. Some time down the line I'll need to strip the hood and block the bare metal into the front too.

What's nice about not having to do this again from scratch is I can leave the outer ridge or lines of the existing body work and use it as a guide when I go to knock it down again. That takes a lot of the guess work out of the fender repair. Usually I cringe a little when I see filler over paint but in this case, the goal is to end up with the filler sanded down so any painted surface is showing again.

[95naSTA]

Some more hours today.

I decided to lay fiberglass mat and resin across the lower horizontal riveted areas. There's 2-3 layers across the whole area with more near the rear attachment. This was the area that failed most noticeably. So in addition to everything else I felt this will add more rigidity at the surface of the attachments. Kitty hair will go over this after it's knocked down a little, then bondo.

The driver's side fender got knocked down a little more and I knocked down the kitty hair on the top of the passenger side fender.

[Sirius]

Progress!!

[95naSTA]

I put some expiring comp time to use today.

I got the passenger side of the hood pretty close with bondo. The passenger fender got swiped up top at the same time but I only did the initial knock down with the pneumatic straight line sander. It still needs to get blocked. I also need to do some minor repair on the upper front corner of the fender.

On the driver's side I roughed up the resin, swiped kitty hair and knocked that down. It's ready for bondo for the most part. Both fenders need to come back off at some point for work at the bumper mating surfaces and where the under-headlight trim hooks in.

[Sirius]

That's some pretty good work. I'm impressed with what you (and Matt) can accomplish in such a short time. I've been doing some badly needed paint correction on my SSEi for a few weeks now in preparation of testing a DIY ceramic coating kit. At the rate I'm getting this done you guys will have your project cars on the road before I get my car polished!

[95naSTA]

Thank you but I still feel like I'm working at a snail's pace. A real body guy could probably re-do the whole front end in a few days. The biggest time suck is I can't do something the same way twice and this is the 3rd version of this headlight conversion. It has to be better every time and that adds time to something I'm already not proficient in. The whole car is kind of like that. Everything else I work on goes by very quick in comparison.

I'm interested in the DIY ceramic coating project. Is that for parts on the 210?

[Sirius]

I'm interested in the DIY ceramic coating project. Is that for parts on the 210?

The 57 is on perma-hold - I have a backyard I'm trying to get landscaped to keep my wife happy. Currently putting in a cobblestone patio with a gas fire pit. It's a slow process as I'm still (luckily) working 9 hours a day.

The ceramic coating I'm talking about is merely an expensive car polish not a coating for, say, headers. They make claims of this stuff lasting up to 5 years (yeah, right) but if it can remain hydrophobic through the summer I'll call it a success.

[95naSTA]

That sounds awesome and looks like a rabbit hole of reading I'll have to head down at some point. Keep us posted.

Since it's going to rain tomorrow I snuck in a couple hours today after work.

The passenger fender resin got roughed up and kitty haired. I blocked the bondo up top and swiped some repair areas needing repair where the hood meets the fender.

[Sirius]

That's really starting to take shape. Nobody will ever know there's 4 1/2 boxes of rivets under there.

[95naSTA]

Lol. What rivets? I don't see any..

[95naSTA]

I brought the passenger side up to speed with the driver's by knocking down the filler in the last post.



There are a couple small issues with the fenders that need to be addressed before the bondo gets swiped on the lower part of the fenders. I'm going to pick up some lightweight bondo and some high build primer to finish up the hood and fenders. The hood needs to come off to clean up underneath at the front and I also need to re-do the filler on the bumper where it meets the front of the fender. I'm thinking of using primarily urethane for that. Bit by bit..

[Sirius]

What urethane are you going to use on the bumper cover?

[95naSTA]

I'm trying to decide if I want to get it close enough with plastic welding to where I can use bumper bite or some other flexible glaze. Those have a limit of 1/8" thick. The worry with plastic welding is potentially warping the bumper plastic in an effort to fully bond new and old plastic. Structural tab type repairs and light cosmetic stuff that doesn't see flex are much easier to deal with than this. Or I might use a 2K (2 pt) urethane structural panel bonding adhesive like something from Lord/Fusor. Then I might have to worry about it off gassing.. I really just need to do more research.

[Sirius]

I've not had great success plastic welding. I'm probably doing it wrong.

[95naSTA]

So, after a bunch of reading and probably re-learning stuff I'm going to fill in the bumper as needed with polyurethane plastic welding rod then try to get as close as I can to a >=3mm max thickness of Evercoat Polyflex over that.

The 92-95 Bonneville fenders and I'm pretty sure bumpers are thermoset urethane that cannot be melted for repair. (Wish I knew/remembered that before I fixed the fender mounting tab by the rocker) You can only prep areas and apply filler rod but you can't melt the parent material.

I also picking up some light weight Evercoat body filler for the hood and fenders, some SEM acrylic high build primer and some SEM flexible primer. I was shooting for a polyester primer but it seems like it's more work than it's worth. Everything is advertised to bond to where it'll be applied too, so that's one less thing to worry about.