Thread: 41 Willys Gasser project

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Thanks Charlie.

Now now Steve,that is hog wash,there is absolutely nothing simple about you my friend.Heck I wish I had a fraction of your ability to take some bare piece of steel and turn it into a master piece. I so enjoy following along on your projects so again thankyou for taking the time to post friend.

Sweet talking will get you everywhere Whip

Someone asked about using glass fibre (can't remember who) so heres how i sorted the dash ends, I'm no master laminator but this is how i do it and nothing has fallen off any of my cars yet.

The dash isn't quite right at the ends and we didn't have one to mould from so we borrowed another glass dash and moulded from that but its not quite right at the ends, I think maybe its a 39 dash but not sure.

I had previously made the framework to bolt the dash too at the bottom. The discrepancy is with the ends, It don't look to bad in the pic but the end is actually about 3/4" shy of lining up with the body line.









First job was to cut a piece out and get it into the correct position, Next i cut a filler spreader into strips and screwed them in place to hold it altogether.








Next some body filler was mixed up with extra hardener to make it go off quicker, this was spread on quickly and once hard (about 1 minute) would hold it all in place for glassing the rear up.








Once on the bench the surface was given a good key with a grinder and the edges feathered to a knife edge, you need to remove all the semi shiny coating on the old glass.

Then some resin was mixed and small strips of mat stipled with resin, you just need it wetted not dripping as to much resin will weaken the joint.

The strips were applied in 3 layers and allowed to dry.








Once the rear was cured the dash was flipped over and the same done to the front but only 2 layers this time. The curve inaccurancy was cured by adding chopped mat & resin until level with the body line.

Then its all sanded to give a key for a skim of body filler.

Instead of using filler where the two braces are,could you use duck tape as that would be strong enough to hold until the fibreglass has cure?

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Instead of using filler where the two braces are,could you use duck tape as that would be strong enough to hold until the fibreglass has cure?

I do the same with my repairs..I have a couple of boxes of scrap panel steel,aluminum,and fiberglass that I screw together,to hold it all together,,but I just use a bit of duct tape over the gaps..Same theory,different methods..Still works..
Lookin good Steve..Can you PM or e mail me with a price for your Willys body kit??Ta,mate..

Dash fit looks a whole lot better Steve, nice work!!!! Fiberglass is easy to work with, sometimes I think I prefer a 'glass body to a steel body just because it's so much less labor intensive when things are modified or repaired.....

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Dash fit looks a whole lot better Steve, nice work!!!! Fiberglass is easy to work with, sometimes I think I prefer a 'glass body to a steel body just because it's so much less labor intensive when things are modified or repaired.....

You got that right,Dave..

I guess you could Whip, to be honest i use whatever method suits the application at the time, I didn't want this to move so body filler was spot on for the job, I think duct tape wouldn't hold it so solidly.

Will do Robin, I have been approached by a guy in OZ about supplying bodys.

Thanks Dave, I think you have to look at it from 2 different ways, Yes its easy to repair but when your building a glass body you have no returns or things like window channels etc etc, all this has to be made and glassed in place which is often a chore. In my opinion building a steel car is a fair bit easier but they both have disadvantages

Steve once again thanks for posting this thread. I've always wondered how to fix stuff like that on a glass car. Once I see how you do something, I think wow, that was a lot simpler than I would what I would have dreamed up, but it's work 100%. This thread is very useful for those of us who've dreamed about building a glass car, but wouldn't know where to start. I had a friend in the Florida Keys who bought one of those late 80's high end conversion kits with a fiber glass body that fit some other production car frame. His buddy told him it was a great investment all he had to do was supply the cash and he would double the money for them. You know what happened, a half build project that got sold for a quarter of the cost of the kit. His friend had no idea how to work with glass, or how to fix all these small issues in a timely manner!
Since then I've never bitten on a fiberglass project(other than boats) which I have experience repairing. You just make it easy looking with your skill and knowledge and quick fixes I'd spend a month dreaming up. I've always wanted to do a track style T project, and just might after watching this thread thanks!

Originally Posted by roadster32

Someone asked about using glass fibre (can't remember who) so heres how i sorted the dash ends, I'm no master laminator but this is how i do it and nothing has fallen off any of my cars yet.

The dash isn't quite right at the ends and we didn't have one to mould from so we borrowed another glass dash and moulded from that but its not quite right at the ends, I think maybe its a 39 dash but not sure.

I had previously made the framework to bolt the dash too at the bottom. The discrepancy is with the ends, It don't look to bad in the pic but the end is actually about 3/4" shy of lining up with the body line.








First job was to cut a piece out and get it into the correct position, Next i cut a filler spreader into strips and screwed them in place to hold it altogether.








Next some body filler was mixed up with extra hardener to make it go off quicker, this was spread on quickly and once hard (about 1 minute) would hold it all in place for glassing the rear up.






Once on the bench the surface was given a good key with a grinder and the edges feathered to a knife edge, you need to remove all the semi shiny coating on the old glass.

Then some resin was mixed and small strips of mat stipled with resin, you just need it wetted not dripping as to much resin will weaken the joint.

The strips were applied in 3 layers and allowed to dry.







Once the rear was cured the dash was flipped over and the same done to the front but only 2 layers this time. The curve inaccurancy was cured by adding chopped mat & resin until level with the body line.

Then its all sanded to give a key for a skim of body filler.

Steve working with fibreglass is pretty straight forward as long as you follow the rules, Its an amazing product that is very adaptable and stronger than a lot of people think.

I had a pm from someone asking for my address as they had something that would look nice on my Willys

Anyway a box turned up with a Moon half sweep tach in it so i just wanted to say a huge thankyou to this guy, he wouldn't accept payment either but said i could help him out at a later date.



Anyway i got it fitted, It was a column mount but i didn't want to look down so i modified the mount to bolt to the top of the dash where i can see it easily.

The tach is an awsome touch and I like the mount