D Pollard

This should be the last day of working on the inside of the clam.  With all the other splits joined and cured,  the clam’s shape was pretty symetrical.   Just to be sure though,  the final two repairs were lined up at the same time  with a straight piece of wood – and fixed simultaniously, keeping the gape of the front of the car in shape.

After the initial patches had dried,  the wooden brace was removed and further strengthening applied along the top surface of the inner clam.  Unfortunately,  I couldn’t add  much more material in this location as it would foul the crash structure when fitting back onto the car.

Lets be clear about this -  I’m doing this not only because of some shoddy car parks in France,  but also because some stupid bitch in a 4×4  reversed over the front of my car,  then pissed off quick without leaving any details.  Witness saw it,  but the Police won’t persue a partial number plate. So -  what the photo is showing here is ¼ of the internal damage she caused. The remaining fibreglass is “mushed” and it’s in a very unaccessable place,  with the most complex of curves to sand around.

Thankfully after a bit positioning and a few more bungee cables suspending the clam from the roof,  I managed to sand it all down and get loads of new layers of fibreglass built up behind all the damage.   With the structure now sound,  I’ll be able to finish up strengthing the inside tomorrow and start to work on the aesthetics next week.

Patches have been applied inside and out on the biggest splits on the underside of the clam. As soon as it had dried, there was a reassuring regidity (is that even a word?)  about the underside.  Resin had clearly flowed and been drawn into the splits,  as each flaw in the fibreglass shows through as a dark line in the translucent new fibreglass on top.  A quick note to myself to dremel out any fixing holes before I get too far down the line.

Getting the clam off the car reminded me just how flexible the whole thing is.  Now that it’s up resting on my trailer, it may not actually be the same shape as it rests on the car !!  To ensure that it will fit again afterwards,  I need to ensure that the cracks are closed and strengthened individually – moving the clam after each one to make sure that they all line up with themselves.

Before I move onto the the repairs that will be visible,   I start with adding strength to the places where the clam has split completely.  In these locations,  I clamp the clam into place so that the splits are completely closed and lined up with themselves -  then I add a few layers of matting and resin to ensure that they will hold.   I’ll be able to sand these down later -  but for now it’s about ensuring the splits are closed and the clam is secure to be moved around without me having to re-align it every time.

Well, with the clam hosted up on a trailer and with bungees fixing it against the roof, it’s time to start strengthening up all that damage.   Job number one is sanding and rubbing down to the existing fibreglass.   Where access is possible,  it was down to my trusty orbital sander and a 80 grit disk to make short work of the thin layers of paint.   Given that we are wanting a fairly rough surface to adhere to,  there is no point sanding down with finer grades.

Where access isn’t possible,  I used a wire brush attachment to my powerdrill,  or even the Dremel where access was really tight.   Being honest, the wire brush left a better ‘roughened’ surface – so the Fibreglass should be really tight  in those complex curves.

As the photo shows, sanding down past the paint layers highlights the way that the fibreglass cracks away under the surface. Cracks visible in the paint go a whole lot further in the clam. Drilling out the end of each spiders leg using a sharp drill bit should prevent the cracks from travelling further.