I love the wide body, one of the best jobs I've seen. Nice work.

Wow. Looks killer.

AMAZING!!! Been great seeing this come together!

That looks GREAT! Love it!

Fantastic, John. Congrats on getting her back on the ground.

I'm facing the same issue with my headers. I think I'm going to raise the floor just a little as well when I put the new pans in. I wish I had done the drive line angle correct the first time so I could have built my headers correctly, too. Oh well, live and learn.

Keep up the great work.

Amazing craftsmanship! Build looks great.

Great looking car, defiantly an inspiring build!

Thanks guys! Appreciate the ride with you! Hope I can give back all of what I've learned from this group!

So many pictures of your build have ended up in my screen saver folder and the last two of the car are the latest.

Man I love this car


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Awe man!! This sure does look mean...

Thank you!!

Back on the rotisserie so I can finish the welding on the underside and laminate the fiberglass inners.
Attachment 67154

Finished widening the rear inners.
Attachment 67155
Attachment 67156

Starting to get cold here so I took a detour from welding so I could laminate the fiberglass front inners while it's still relatively warm.
You can sort of see the green PVA mold release on the mold. I left some of the edges of mold run a little long so I can decide later how to trim the inners, especially where they will tie into the front spoiler/splitter.
Attachment 67157

White Gel Coat on the mold. I will laminate in a day or so. For sure, this is stretching how you should properly build a mold/part but it will work and allowed me to build the mold and do live tests with the wheel/tire on the car and at full suspension compression. The inner is only 1/8" away from the fender flare.....pretty frick'n tight...needed to be to keep the tire clearance. Will use some Kevlar for strength especially in front of the oil tank.
Attachment 67158

As usual -- superb work !!


So sorry it's getting cold there!! LOL Moving to Scottsdale cured that problem for me this winter!! I miss Sun Valley -- but don't really miss the -10* mornings.

That's exactly how I'm going to have to do my front inners as well. Have any more pictures of the process to help cut my learning curve down?

Idaho's loss!!

I modified Anvil deep tub front inner wheel wells but I think I might not have clearance. Save those molds , I might buy them from you or perhaps you could make me a set. Nice work

Absolutely. Give me a couple days and I will detail.

Unfortunately these molds were made on the car, literally glued in place. So, they're only good for one use. Glad to send you some pics on how I built them.

The other thing you could do is cut off the part of the Anvil's that don't fit, mount inners into the fender and form a mold for the area to replace what you cut out. Then just laminate in the new section.

Hi AJ. Looks like from your build, you have some great composite skills, this inner fender project will be a breeze for you. I source my glass supplies from US Composites. Great prices, shipping and knowledgeable staff….and they will have everything you need. Sort of wrote this for someone who has never done glass before.

To be clear….I did the following with the conscious decision that the surface of the final part would not be perfect. I choose to do it this way in an effort to save money/time and because cleaning up a well laminated part with a good coat of gel coat is much easier than making a perfect mold…especially a complex shape like an inner fender and more so when the tolerances to the tire are so tight. Absolutely, if you spend more time/money on the mold, the part will be smoother but the method below will give you a strong, lightweight part.

Also, not sure that you could do these fiberglass inner fenders unless the car was upside down on a rotisserie…..while welding upside down might sort of suck, laminating fiberglass upside down would be impossible.

If you look back a few pages in my build, you’ll see the best pics I have for building the mold, unfortunately I didn’t take any up-close pics here. I used some Home Depot parts for this; underfloor layment and drywall putty and went into my wife’s craft room for the hot glue gun. I built the lip that surrounds the upper A-arms with some pine. Advice: I made this way to tight up to the A-arm….I wanted the look of the inner-fender wrapping the A-arm closely but it made laminating the glass a pain in the @ss and frankly I knew better…..you don’t have time to mess around in tight spots when resin is kicking off on such a large part. For sure, building a mold with these materials isn’t normal but it’s an inexpensive quick way to build this one-time-use mold and the beauty of the drywall putty is that it sands real easy on all the complex concave curves. In those earlier pics, you can see that I scabbed in pieces of the floor layment to help fill in the gaps and get a pleasing shape, glue them in place with the hot glue gun. And then just sweep in the drywall mud, sand and repeat. I left the mold extra long in the front where it will attach to the front air dam, will cut it later. After you get the shape done and smooth, paint it with enamel paint which will give you a hard’ish surface for you to laminate up to.….remember, anything that is on the mold will print through onto the part, so get it as smooth as you can. That said, doing a mold and part this way will definitely leave some sanding/body filler work, so don’t stress that it’s body-work straight/flat. Choose a contrasting enamel color to the gelcoat color you pick.

Materials for the part, in order of lamination: Gelcoat (about 60-70mils..get a gauge for this), 3/4 ounce mat, and 2 layers of 1½ ounce mat. Typically you would use fiberglass cloth as a final layer as it creates a nice finished look and provides a good bit of extra strength. If you choose that look, you could eliminate one of the 1½ ounce layers. I am going to spray bed liner, so I didn’t really care about the finish texture of the glass without the mat. I also used a small piece of Kevlar to provide some extra protection in front of the dry sump tank. I kept my part as thin as possible because my tire clearances were so tight. Still very strong.

US Composites website will guide you through any questions.
Gelcoat, pick a color, that’s about it. You won’t need more than a quart to do both inners.
Resin: I like the 700 Vinyl Ester Resin.
¾ Ounce and 1 ½ Ounce Chopped Strand Mat. When ordering your fiberglass, make sure you choose the “rolled” instead of “folded” shipping method. Folding damages the glass strands.
Kevlar: I used 5oz Kevlar.
Mold Release: Get a small can of Partall Paste Wax and a ½ gallon of Partall PVA.
Get a handful of their resin mixing cups, a good supply of single use paint brushes – large, medium and small and get a few part-releasing-wedges for prying the part out of the mold, USE a BINKS respirator – you will be breathing this for the better part of an hour and be right up close to it in order to see the air bubbles. I don’t use gloves cause they are a pain but a respirator is a must. As you know, Acetone is a must for clean up. Eye protection is also a must.

Step 1: Before you prep the mold, get a piece of cloth or an old sheet and cut it into the shape of the inner fender, let it overhang a few inches and cut it so that it lays flat in the mold. Then use that piece as a template to cut out the glass from the rolls. Put these cut individual layers of glass into the mold, one at a time and “tear” it so that it lays flat. Do this now, you won’t have time when you are laminating. And tearing glass that is wet with resin is not good. Tear it, don’t cut it with scissors, this keeps the part flatter and stronger. It’s OK if you do this in a “patchwork” instead of one full-size piece as long as you let the “torn” edges overlap. Just do all of this up front before mixing the resin and have the pieces set aside in an organized fashion so you know exactly what goes where and in what order. Time is not your friend after you mix the resin. It’s lame but I do a rehearsal before mixing the resin, always seem to find something that saves time.

Step 2: Mold Prep:
Wax on…wax off. Do this 5 times, no less. Then put on the PVA. You can spray PVA…best…., but I put it on with a brush because I didn’t care about the brush lines, just easier. PVA is water soluble and will either just peel off or you can wash it off after laminating. Put down multiple layers, basically until you get a nice “green haze”. About 3 or 4 or so. No magic here. Let it dry between coats and dry thoroughly before the gelcoat step.

Mixing Gelcoat and Resin. It always cracks me up that the instructions use different measuring units from the ones on the mixing cups. I included a table I created for 1% and 1.5%. Use 1% if it’s warm out and 1.5% if it’s cold. Try to do this with ambient air above 65, if not…put a heat lamp on the area after you are done to help it cure. If it’s too cold the vinyl ester resin just won’t kick off. Careful it doesn’t get too hot.

Step 3: Gelcoat: Lay down about 65-70 mils thick. If you can spray it, you will certainly get a more consistent layer and you can put it down all at once which is better/easier/safer. I didn’t want the mess of spraying it in my shop so I brushed it on. If you are careful about putting down 2 layers, brushing is fine. This is a little tricky as you have to let the first coat dry enough but not get super hard. If it doesn’t dry enough, the second coat will eat the first and you will get “alligators” in your finish gelcoat. Not the end of the world if this happens as you can fix it with filler. Probably a few hours’ish between coats. Again if you spray it, just get it all down at one time. Let this dry overnight.

Remember I said it’s lame to rehearse…. Be lame and rehearse. These are pretty big parts and if you f’up, you might be building these molds again. Not a party.

Step 4: Set in the ¾ ounce mat into the mold sort of in its place. Then mix up about 20-24 ounces of resin. Wet out the glass by brushing the resin on and then using the brush to “squeegee” the resin while driving out the air bubbles. I know you know how to do this but for others: this is kind of a dabbing while dragging process with the brush. Takes a little practice but you will see a good layer of resin but not too much. I recommend starting from one end working towards the center (bottom of the mold if the car is upside down) and then go to the other side and work back towards the center (bottom). This will let you control the amount of resin so that it doesn’t pool at the bottom of this U-shaped mold. Assuming you are on a rotisserie and the car is upside down.

After you get the ¾ ounce layer wetted out and the air out (do this quickly but thoroughly), then set in the first layer of 1 ½ ounce mat and do the same process wetting it out and pushing out the air bubbles. You should have a little of the resin left, just use it up quickly as it’s likely going off by now. Go mix 24 ounces more and get going on the first layer of 1 ½. Then do the same on the last layer of 1 ½. Only mix up 24 oz of resin at a time, and 20-24 will cover each layer. Again, try to only use just enough resin to wet out the glass, you’ll know if you have too much because it will be a darker brown area. If you are going to use cloth, use a rubber squeegee to get out the air and excess resin. If you are adding any Kevlar, you could do it between the 1 ½ ounce layers or do it last, doesn’t really matter. Move quickly. Have some acetone in a bowl ( I use disposable aluminum 3 inch deep, baking pans from the supermarket. Wash your hands off of the resin between layers so the curing resin doesn’t burn your hands and to help them not be as sticky. Again, rehearse each step before mixing the resin…my humble advice.

Open all the doors or do this outdoors cause as the styrene comes out in the curing process, it’s gonna smell bad. If it’s cold, put a heat lamp on it but watch it that it doesn’t get to hot. The styrene will come out for a couple of days. Some people will say to let the resin cure overnight between layers, I don’t like this because it opens a chance for delamination…in my opinion.

Let it cure for a couple days before taking out of the molds. I broke the mold up to get the part out which is necessary as this shape doesn’t really allow for proper mold reliefs.

Let me know if you have questions.

Here is some of the supplies
Attachment 67177

Here is the cloth template
Attachment 67178

The part all laminated up. Some people will use a razor knife to trim the excess fiberglass off as the part is curing. I don't like doing this because it adds some risk that you will accidentally delaminate some of the part. I prefer to just cut/grind it off after it cures, it's safer.
Attachment 67179

Here is the beginning of breaking out the mold.
Attachment 67180

Busted up mold.
Attachment 67181
Attachment 67182

Here is the part right after removing from the mold. The green is the PVA, you can peel off most of it, then just wash the rest off with water and a little scrubbing.
Attachment 67183

Ready for finishing.
Attachment 67184
Attachment 67185

Very nice , I will try to post pics of my modified Anvil fenders. I like to use epoxy resin and cloth , it is more expensive however it doesn’t out gas or smell whatsoever, one characteristic of it that can be an advantage or disadvantage depending on application is the long cure time

Ah perfect write up, thank you. I'm also not worried about the texture on the inside, the outside where visible is my concern, which is easy to take care of. I'll fore sure flip the car over to build the tubs if I can. I think the trick will be to get it mounted up with the front fenders mounted to the car.

I like the idea of using drywall joint compound, that will for sure speed sanding along. My goal is to build these out of carbon, so I'll just be able to lay it up and vacuum bag it.

Looking forward to seeing them! Good point! Wish someone would invent resin that smells like race gas!! Instant millionaire!

I think if you build some type of extended flange on the mold, you could easily vacuum bag it. I almost talked myself into that. Honestly the glass ones are pretty frickin' light...not carbon light...but pretty light. That said, the carbon on the inside would look trick. Steve Lenning's look awesome!

Here is the rotisserie mounts that I built for the front. Auto Twirler does sell some but I couldn't tell if they would clear the lower valence and , as you know, that piece needs to be on to anchor the fender in place. I was a little nervous rolling it over given that I hadn't welded in the roll bars from the fire wall to the frame yet. I wanted too but having the inner's done first so I could get the bars down close to them seemed the better idea. The filler on the molds did stress crack a little when I settled the car on the rotisserie but none of the fender gaps changed at all, zero thousandths...according to the dial calipers. So, feel pretty good about nothing moved. That said, I would've felt a lot better if those bars were in place first, was a risk.

I could build plates like that and go through the grille opening when I get to the point again. That will keep everything out of my way too.

I'll keep that in mind about the joint compound cracking. My goal is to have visible carbon in the engine bay and I'll back it up with glass/kevlar since it doesn't matter whats on the back side.

Amazing write up! Thanks. They looks great, always amazing work.

Not a bad idea!

Great idea! I run into this issue when lifting my TA for the exact reasons you mentioned.

Nice

I love the jack stand idea.


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[QUOTE=syborg tt;686373]I love the jack stand idea.


Thanks guys. I did add some bracing that "sorta" connected the front jack stand points to the roll cage. The area I welded this to is basically the front connection point for the subframe and I added an additional 1/8" plate to distribute the load so it was carrying the load as close to being connected to the subframe/roll bar as possible. I didn't take great pictures of this process but essentially I cut through the floor to expose the backside of the subframe mounting plate (there is a hollow area here). My 1/8" plate is welded directly on top of that mounting plate. I then hand fabbed some 3/16" steel into a box and welded it to the plate, the floor and then finally to the roll bar. The stronger approach would have been to run a roll bar directly from the front roll cage bar straight down to this point but it would have not allowed for any room for my left foot next to the clutch and I think that would have been very uncomfortable while driving. Compromise but I think I reinforced this area enough that it should be more than strong enough to support the car on stands/lift.
Attachment 67417
Attachment 67418
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Attachment 67420
The rear point is essentially directly connected to the rear frame through the lower 4 link connection point. I believe this should be very strong and easily support the rear while on stands/lift. I have put it back on the lift using these points, albeit just the body, and all worked great.

All of this is a bit of added weight but less than 10lbs total and I think the added functionality is worth it.

I cant even imagine the amount of time that has gone into this amazing build so far. This wil be one bass ass car when its done. 👍

Engine bay bars welded in, will put the top tube in later.
Attachment 67521
Attachment 67522
Silly detail here but this stamped cowl support flexes quite a bit at the bottom because the factory didn't leave enough of a lip. I added a few small pieces of metal and then just a little fun with the dimple die.
Attachment 67523 Attachment 67524
Attachment 67527 Attachment 67528
Installed the hood latches.
Attachment 67525
Lots of work ahead of me to get the gaps tightened up.
Attachment 67526

Geez louiz!!! "The foundation in this one runs deep young skywalker".

Soo good. Thanx for posting...

Nice

Good fix.