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How to Repair Damaged Bolt Hole Locations
We know it’s frustrating. You buy a body kit, line up and drill the holes or align the existing holes and the bolt is too close to the edge. Not enough material here will result in a weak bolt location and cracks. Building tabs will permanently fix this situation.
We will be providing tips here as they come to us.
We smelled a lot of paint growing up so my memory is not what it used to be, te he...
Building Tabs On Broken Body Kits
To put it more simple; fixing a body kit bolt hole that is too close to the edge and will or may have already cracked.
Sometimes when body kit makers trim the fiberglass parts after they are removed from the molds, the area you need to bolt to was trimmed too close to the edge and now there is not enough material to bolt to.
Below we will be explaining how to add material to this area quickly and easily and is a permanent fix to the problem.
Assuming you have gathered
- At least two 4 inch spreaders
- Fiber Tech Material
- Kneaded Hardener
- Mixing Board
- Razor Blade
- Patients
Step 1 (prepping the area that needs a tab or repairing a tab)
A) Prep the area that needs attention with 80 grit sand paper by hand. Scuff the inside about 2 inches in diameter and the outside of the panel about a ¼ inch and clean area well to remove sanding dust.
B) Mix up up your Fiber Tech, in about a 3 inch blob (that’s a scientific term BTW) using the appropriate amount of hardener.
Make sure the harder is Kneaded (squeeze the tube to mix what's inside) well, if you get that liquid separation when mixing, the Fiber Tech will not fully cure and it wont be rigid enough for a tab.
As soon as you get the material uniform in color, apply about a golf ball sized glob to your spreader, place the glob on the inside of the body kit area that’s getting the tab, now pinch the glob with a new spreader on the top, press the two together sandwiching the kit in the middle until the Fiber Tech starts to flatten. You want about a ¼ of an inch of fiber tech after pinching. Hold the two spreaders together until the material starts to set. After it starts to set you can let go but don't try to remove them yet.
C) After the material begins to get rigid, typically its warm at this point. Carefully remove the spreaders. The material should be starting to cure but is still a little flexible (figure 2). It’s in this state you can trim the tab to the shape you need fusing the razor blade. Trimming it while it’s still a little flexible is as easy as butter. If you wait to long its more difficult.
D) After the material cures, you can shape as needed, drill you hole and enjoy the strong repair (Figure 3).
Now you can refit, mark and re-drill your hole with more then enough material for a strong body kit mounting point.
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Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
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