Knucklehead of the Week Award

[fern]

And the "Knucklehead of the Week Award" goes to Fern, for forgetting to close the liftgate before leaving the garage. I guess I will become a fiberglass repair expert this weekend!! Fern..

[Paul72]

DOH!!!

Don't feel too bad - I had my hood pop up on my way to work one morning . Thankfully I was only going about 25 at the time.

Still need to adjust the hinges again.

[Yukon Jack]

Whoops!

[bouncytruck]

OUCH! That sucks big time. My wife did something similar with my bike on the roof of the car going into the garage.

[71swb4x4]

fern - that made me cringe. Let us know how the repairing goes, I have a crack I need to fix.
bouncytruck - I would have loved to have seen that in person. I hope it didn't mess things up to bad.

[fern]

I'd rather be adjusting hinges, Never done fiberglass repair, so this will be a new experience. Anyone have any tips?

[MikeS]

Ouch

I've been working on repairing the cracks in my hatch. I thinks it's coming out pretty good. I'm a novice at this fiberglass repair stuff too but this is what I've learned so far.

For the big cracks (like you've got) you need to really grind down the fiberglass pretty far before placing your patch in. Grind it down so that you bevel both sides of the crack for about a half inch. I've been using a Dremel with a coarse sanding wheel on it. This is a little unnerving because you end up making it look worse before it looks better. Also you'll need to get down to the bare fiberglass (it's grey) about an inch or two around the crack.

The best way to build up the repair is in a couple of steps. Start with a narrow strip of fiberglass mat just slightly wider than the crack. After that has set up add a second strip a little wider than the first. Once this is all sanded smooth it should be at least as strong as the original.

As for the materials I'm using, I've found that the fiberglass mat works really well. This stuff is thicker than the typical fiberglass cloth and really soaks up alot of resin. As for the resin, I really like stuff from West System much better than the usual polyester resin that you can buy at the local autoparts store. West System is used by most people in the boat business and it is really excellent stuff. I ran out of the hardener for it and in a pinch used some of the stuff from NAPA and I just don't like it as much. The big disadvantage to the West System stuff is that it take 6-8 hrs to fully cure.

I found some info on how to do some of this over on CK5 by doing a search.

Like I said, I'm new to this fiberglass stuff too but so far the cracks I fixed seem to look really sturdy. Now I have to figure out how to texture the thing before painting. If anybody has good ideas for that let ua know.

Good luck.
Mike

[bouncytruck]

Originally Posted by 71swb4x4

bouncytruck - I would have loved to have seen that in person. I hope it didn't mess things up to bad.

Yeah, it wasn't so funny at the time, but I can laugh about it now. Snapped the dropouts off my fork, tweeked my carbon-fiber handle bars & bent the heck out of the roof of the car. The only thing not damaged was the roof rack.

[crispy]

i don't want to hijack this board but it looks like people are sending in stories of their screwups to try to console Fern and i got a good one...
a month or two ago, i decided to drive my newly bought '71 K5 to Lake Tahoe for the weekend which is a 4 hour trip from my house. i knew that the tranny was slipping a little and i had a slow leak in the rear passenger side tire but i figured i'd bring extra tranny fluid and my tools and take the drive easy and i'd be alright... so, long story short, i blew out the tire, blew the th350 tranny, and fried a battery cable. the trip that should have taken about 4 hours ended up stranding me sleeping in a parking lot covered in grease all night and driving home in the morning. at one point in the night, i'm only doing 40 in the slow lane on the freeway because the tranny wouldn't shift into third, and my headlights/tailights are out because of the fried cable. cars were passing me by honking and flashing their lights as if i liked being a sitting duck on the interstate!... anyways i hope this makes you guys laugh

[fern]

That's some crazy stuff Crispy! Thanks. After that I don't feel to bad about my liftgate.

MikeS, thanks for the tips!! I will definitley be printing off your recommendations.

[MikeS]

Fern,

I like that aluminum (?) strip that you've got along the top of your tailgate. I want one! Where'd you get it?

Mike

[DruBlazer]

Fern,
Bummer! Take some pics. I have 4 cracks to fix and I also need to rebuild 2 gutters and I haven't a clue about fiberglass.

Crispy,
Been there. That sucks. Next time look me up. I live right on 80. Maybe then you could have slept greasy in my shop instead of in a parking lot.

Good luck on the fixes guys!!

[fern]

Mike,

To be honest, I bought the truck with it already in place so I'm not sure where the previous owner got it from. He left me a box of catalogs and notes, I'll dig around to see if I can find out where he got it.

Thanks again for the tips!!

[LUV2XCLR8]

THAT SUCKS

[fern]

Anyone have any tips on taking the liftgate off?

[MikeS]

Hey Fern,

The hinges are each attached with 3 bolts hidden under the metal plates on both the top and the hatch. It doesn't really matter if you take off the hatch side or the top side. The top side might be a bit easier to work with.

The support arms are pretty obvious...they are held on with 2 philips head screws on each end. They can be a real pain in the a$$ to get off. One of mine would not give it up with a screwdriver so I ended up welding a 1/4" bolt to it and used a socket wrench to get it off.

From the looks of things, you are going to need to take the window out to fix it properly. I haven't gotten to the point of putting mine back in yet. If I get to it before you, I'll pass along what I figure out.

One more tip on fiberglassing....wear gloves, long sleeves, and a dust mask when working with the stuff. You'll get awful itchy if you don't

Mike

[Big Block]

Well I'm ashamed to tell this on myself. I had the rear seat of my 71 jimmy unbolted and had just installed a HEI because the original distributor was worn out. The engine would backfire at high rpm.Well sense the jimmy had a 4 spd what better way to test it. Take the engine up to 5000 rpm and dump the clutch. Woohoo the jimmy going sideway and I burning rubber. About that time I hear a loud thud. Yep you guessed it. The rear seat had slid back and crack both corners of the lift gate! Thank you, thank you very much. B.B.

[JayDubBlazer]

Ouch, that the pits man

[HatGuy]

Well I'm right there with you. I left my liftgate up in the
parking garage across from my store. At the end of the
day I hopped in backed out of my space and started
heading to the exit. This parking building hat real low
concrete cellings next thing I know BAM and I had
sheared my Impossisable to replace pefect T handle
So now I have a Home Depot Handle.
I have been looking for an origlinal one for about a year.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

The fiberglass repair is pretty easy I had never done it before and since I could not find a hatch that was nice enough I figured I couldnt screw it up anymore than it already was... Just be sure to wear the proper saftey stuff or it will suck..