Quote:
Originally Posted by Mordachai
I'm pretty sure the panels you are talking about are all ABS, PU, or HDPE plastics.
They are usually thermoset(melted) through holes in the metal frame.
BMW, Mercedes, of course Saturn all have some plastic body panels.
Bodymen have a special tool that melts the plastic stub into a liquid rivet on the backside of the mounting areas. It's pretty cool.
As for placing them in your fender, find some one that has a jenny or swage roller. It'll make the l shaped flange for you. You could also use a bead roller and then flatten the inside half of the bead.
I used to be able to get a line of specialty hot glues that bonded or temp bonded different or similar materials together depending on application.
I'll see if I can get something for steel to fiberglass. If so, I could supply a few sticks with every skin. 
For the thickness around 1/4", but depends on the resin. PE or VE resin would be more like 5/16", and epoxy would be closer to 3/16". |
Sounds like you have way more knowledge than I do on the subject, but at least you understand what I want to do. With the metal frame of the fender, I would have support on three sides, top, front, and back. I plan on at least 1" flange all the way around
This body shop up in NJ was putting a Japanese pickup bed together, metal skin to metal inner bedside, and showed me the bonding process. He said no welds just the glue
I have pneumatic flanging tool, I was just going to machine the jaws to the proper thickness, if they are hardened, I'll use a surface grinder
The rivets would be used for more of alignmnet, I don't think they would have much holding power, the glue would do that, maybe it was Ferrari that was using a glue that bonded fibreglas to metal, heard it somewhere. Would you have a scrap pc. of fibreglas down there, 6"x6", that I could start experimenting with? Wait, maybe it was Corvette, with their Alum. frame (Z06)...Thanks