Hood Preparation

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Major System Category: Body (Hood/Shell)
Task: Clean up all issues on hood through primer
Parts: Primer (6 - 8 cans), Primer Sealer ( 4 cans)
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs: 150 - $190
Time Requirement: 70 - 90 hours
Date Started: July  10, 2013

Date Completed:  July 27, 2013

There are no short cuts here. If you don't want to do this part of the build, then farm it out.

This is close to the final version of the hood. It is basically how I spent my summer vacation. I used steel wool as a final stage prior to sealing the primer. This smooths it down close to a glass like surface.  It has been a long journey to this point, but I found I kind of liked the body work and I'm glad I didn't panic and farm it out.

The body work is the area that most intimidates me (not that I'm not intimidated about dropping in an engine and hooking up a seven speed transaxle). The hood presents many challenges:

1. Seams
2. Fender Louvers
3. Headlight/foglights
4. Grille Area
5. Hood Latch area
6. DRLs

If you peruse the Factory Five Forums, you start hearing that the car vanishes for weeks and months before it come back finally painted and finished. There is a princely sum associated with the work, and if it comes in under $15,000, it probably is a bargain. There is a ton of work that needs to be performed to get the car ready for paint.

This is an early photo from 9/27/2012. I just brought the hood back from my neighbor's garage. This looks deceptively easy. The surface is smooth. At this point, I didn't know the grille opening is not centered or that the hood is off by 3/4" or that the Factory Five hood louvers are really sub standard and that I would end up purchasing the Vraptor hood louvers. Ignorance is bliss.

The seams and the fender louvers present the greatest challenge. You can't simply grind down the excess material on the seams and say good enough. There are the following issues:

I spent more time getting the fender louvers right than anything else on the hood.  This is the louver before I did anything to it. I expected the left and right louvers to be identical. They are not. I expected them to line up nicely. They did not.  I am happy I have them, but they are very labor intensive. I spent man weeks getting these right.

• The pieces connected by the seam are uneven, so grinding everything down to a even plane removes too much material.
• The seam needs to have a fiber glass strip to strengthen the area, and this just takes time.
• The hood has seams running from edges closest to the cockpit to forward the wheel wells, then down. There is another seam that runs across the front of the car over the grill.
• Fender louver add a further complication, because they need to be feathered into the rest of the hood, and there are cuts required to make them functional. 

 

This another early photo (9/29/2012) with the Factory Five hood louvers and fender louvers taped in place. I used a cross hatch laser level to figure things. It is sitting at the bottom center on a small tripod. The best way to describe mounting the hood is that there are 100 ways to put the hood on and I settled on the 101st way. Someone who came by to see the car, asked if I intended to take the hood off when I painted the car. I popped open the hood and showed them how it was mounted, then explained, "It is never coming off again."

If you add DRLs, then these need to be custom cut and smoothed out.

Another non-standard mod are my DRLs. I had to cut into the hood just below the grille. These took some time, but eventually I got them mounted properly. It was only later that I realized I had to make them pretty. I might have to do some more work here before everything is perfect.

I think it is easier to do this work with the hood connected to the car, and the car on a lift. This configuration provides a stable platform for the sanding process (and you will do beaucoup sanding).

This is several months later (6/27/2013). The seams are pretty rough at this point. Someone asked me on the Factory Five forum why I bothered fiber glassing the seams, because other builders just ground them down. Yes, you need to get rid of the extra bonding material, but remember we are talking about the strength of the body here on a high performance car. I applied Bondo, fiber glass, more Bondo and sanded and more Bondo and more sanding... Well you get the idea. I have to say that when the front seam blended into the rest of the body I was amazed. At that point, I knew the only standing between myself and a completed car was me.

I use the following products to get the hood prepped:

This product is phenomenal. The can has two chambers: 1 for primer, 1 for fixer. You shake it up for 2 minutes, then pop a button on the bottom of the car. This opens the barrier between the primer and the fixer. Then you shake it for 2 more minutes. Now you have the perfect mix (every time) withe professional fan spray nozzle.

• SprayMax 2K Rapid Primer Filler.
• Dupli-Color Primer Sealer
• Dura-Block autobody kit

A friend commented that there was a lot of nasty Bondo to sand down. He wasn't wrong. I bonded the fender louver to the body using 3M's 8115 panel bond. I then fiber glassed the edges of the louver to the hood. I then spent many evenings feathering the louver into the hood. My bride asked me if I had bitten off more than I could handle. I admitted that might be true. I certainly wondered if this would ever look right.

Once I was satisfied with the primed surface, I went over it with steel wool to eliminate any "pebbly" surface distortions, then I sealed the hood. This stuff is pretty caustic, so get a respirator and face shield.

This is the louver 1 month later.

Seam Glassing

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Major System Category: Body (Hood/Shell)
Task: Smooth out seams on fiberglass shell
Parts: Bondo, fiberglass
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs: $30
Time Requirement: 40 -50 hours
Date Started: June  20, 2013
Date Completed:  July 9, 2013

When the body arrives on the truck, it appears to be a single body. Reality is much different. There are five main body parts:

• Hood,
• Rear body shell,
• Left and right doors
• Hatch

Main hood seam. I have the fiber glass cloth just taped in place.

The hood and body shell are delivered as single pieces, but part of the manufacture process involves bonding   different parts together. There is a seam along these joints where the bonding compound has been squeezed and forms an uneven ridge. Also the mated pieces are uneven (i.e. the mated pieces are higher or lower than the other side).

Driver's side seam  that has been sanded down. The fiber glass strip is gut and sitting above the seam.

The hood seams run over the top of the wheel wells, down to the grill and across the front. If your build includes fender louvers, then handle those first. The fender louvers will cover a good chunk of the top seam over the wheel wells. Some people choose to rivet the fender louvers in place, I used 3M's 8115 panel bond to attached the louvers. Then I feathered the ridge created by the louvers to blend into the hood (this is a lot more work).

Passenger side A pillar seam. This looks pretty rough here. I haven't sanded anything, just have the bondo and fiber glass applied.

The seams are uneven ridges along the body. If you are working with a GTM or some other Factory Five model you will notice these ridges. This is part of the body work necessary to complete the car. Most guys that can afford to build a GTM farm this out, but some of us either decide not to or don't have the money to spare. Fiber glassing the seam basically hides and smooths out these areas It isn't that hard to do and after a while you might even get good at it.

Major amount of work. The front hood seam is fully sanded. The entire hood has been sanded once using the orbital sander and secondly using the Dura Block kit. The hood louvers are easy as they are bonded from inside the hood. The fender louvers are a major time investment.

Recommended tools:

1. Orbital sander
2. Dura-Block sanding kit
3. Bondo and fiberglass material.
4. Spreaders.
5. Glazing compound.



I didn't think these were as good as they are. If you plan to work on the body and sanding yourself, then this is a must must buy!

The first thing you need to do is even out the ridge. Some of these ridges are hard and brittle, others can be a little soft. You can use a hand block or a mechanical tool, you just want to be careful about gouging the hood and body shell. Any gouges will need to be repaired. You won't be able to totally eliminate the ridge, because most likely the two pieces that were bonded are an uneven join. Just do the best you can. When you finish no one will see them anyway.

This is the seam that runs the length of the body shell. This is on  the passenger side. This car also has a roof scoop, so you can see some of that work running parallel to the body seam.

Cut a strip of fiber glass cloth for the seam you plan to work on. I would start out short and between 3/4 to 1 inch wide.

This is the passenger side rear quarter panel. The seam runs down and under the car. It is one of those awkward spots to work. It also a little loose, because I have the transaxle bracket currently removed from the frame. This bracket provides much needed bracing to the rear body shell.

Mix up some bondo (this stuff can harden up pretty fast, so get ready). For this I sometimes wore a disposable plastic glove and/or a spreader. I found my finger worked pretty well for some areas where it was awkward to use a spreader. I applied the bondo, evened it out as much as possible then, layered the fiber glass strip over it.

Rear quarter panel on the passenger side. It has bondo and fiberglass applied and still requires sanding in this photo. The body work takes a long long time to do.

I let this set up. Usually, 45 to 60 minutes, then I apply a second layer of bondo over the fiber glass strip.

This is the hardest set of seams to work on. They are curved and in a very enclosed area. This is the big brake vent just behind the drivers side door. I saved this for last.

Once this is hardened up, I go to work with the sanding tools. I use the orbital sander to get rid of the excess, then go to work with a block sander by hand. I work on it until it is fairly smooth. I am using 220 grit, although, I understand you can get away with 180 grit.

To get an idea of the success/failure of my body efforts, I test primed the front seam. For the most part this worked. I still have issues around the fender louvers and the area where the seam goes over the front flare. However, this was a big boost to my efforts, because it showed me that I could get the car to a point where the seams are smooth enough for paint. 

I keep working the seam until I'm satisfied. This gets to be pretty messy.

I ordered 2 kinds of primer for my seam test. I only applied the rapid primer filler. The other one is an epoxy primer that I will test once I am happy with the seams. I got these at 66 Auto color. This is pretty caustic stuff, so you need a rudimentary paint booth or real good ventilation and a respirator.

I wipe down everything using a microfiber cloth and water to remove the main layer of dust. Then I inspect for deep gouges or holes, and use the glazing compound to sculpt in fixes. I keep going over this until I'm satisfied. I keep working it until it is smooth to the finger test.

The fender louvers continue to cause me issues, but I am confident I came make these blend into the car.

The body work can be pretty intimidating, but wow, a little success can be a real confidence builder. I now see nothing that can prevent me from completing this project.