The reason you see blue tape in the layers along the edge of the wheel arch is because the fiberglass wouldn’t stay in place over the rolled edge due to the orientation of the fender since I have molded it while it’s mounted instead of on top of a table/bench…so I used the tape to hold the layers in place while they cure. I haven’t pulled the mold off yet, probably won’t have time to get it off until tomorrow morning.
This still no telling whether or not I’ll finish by SiF, but I may just come down with the metal fenders mounted (still in primer) missing rub strips and stuff like that if I can’t get all of that situated.
yeah, I put small dents into the nearly priceless driver fender trying to get the mold to release. which is why I was so quattro-krant that night and wanted to throw in the towel on the entire project. I’ve calmed down, and I can easily fix the dings with hammer and dolly, I just was hoping to avoid all of that sorta thing. I might just make the molds, but keep/paint/use the metal fenders myself…but later on make a demo-set of fiberglass ones and swap them on for demonstration/fitment purposes along with fiberglass bumpers so that I can show potential buyers the quality/fitment. I was planning to charge just about the same amount of money for the fiberglass fenders as I paid for the metal ones, so I may as well paint them and keep them so that I can enjoy my own fucking car. I think I deserve it lol. This way would be a win-win…I can finish my car probably way sooner, and I can have the molds done and take a break for a month or so before trying to make the replicas while enjoying my FINISHED car in the process.
popped the mold off the passenger fender last night…overall this one went WAY better than the driver side…couple small touch-ups necessary, but nothing major at all.
will be pulling both fenders later this week to make the mold-flange for the inner mounting flanges of both fenders where they bolt to the inner fender and up by the A-piller in the doorjam.
Then I just have to prep/paint:
-fenders
-rub strips
-door handles
-wing
And then all that’s left for the car to be “done”
-change wiring pigtails for euro singnals (bumper AND fender)
-install newly painted parts
-make shaved hatch trim/grab handle and paint/install
-wire rear fog lights
-wetsand and buff/polish the entire car.
Looks like I MAY get it done in time for Spring into Focus afterall…
beyond that, I do want to remove and repaint the passenger door because I chipped the leading edge of it with the previous fiberglass abortions of fenders, and I’m still waiting for my RS sideskirts to get shipped over from the UK so I can repair/mold them…those will be the last aesthetic bits the car will get…but those are less important than the list for SiF.
I got most of the bottom half of the mold for the rear wing “tooled” (read: fixed the areas where it molded the wrinkles created by the paint de-laminating from the wing during molding)
Then Checko gave me a hand laying up the top half of the mold.
Then I got right to work on repairing all of the busted studs (all 5 broke, I fixed 4) on my hatch trim/grab handle…used a kneading epoxy (think JB-Stick, but in a bodyshop quality brand) to put some bolts in after I drilled out the remainder of the old studs…and popped some holes through the strip and countersunk the outside of those holes so the epoxy would push through and create a rivet-type bond (can’t pull through).
productive night to say the least. Going do a major suspension and brake overhaul tomorrow at my buddies shop (so I can use the lift, shop press, and hunter alignment machine fo FREE), then sunday going to try to get the fenders, door rub strips, wing, and hatch trim all ready for paint (And paint if time permits). ALMOST THERE!!!
Firstly, major shoutout to “pirite” for being a MAJOR help today. spent nearly 10hrs today completely overhauling my suspension and brakes, and he put it on the Hunter and did my alignment for me.
Secondly, my g/f has been getting super pissed at me for spending all of my time on the car.
Swapped out front brakes, front lower control arms, replaced the heims in my Focus-Central rear control arms and toe arms, installed adjustable camber arms, and did a lot of swearing in the process.
probably going to try to prep and paint my fenders, rub strips, and wing either monday or tuesday, hopefully can get it all done and the car back together by thursday evening to head down to Ohio Friday afternoon for the weekend to hit up Spring into Focus
