904-090
July 11, 2004

The headlight bucket is now fit inside the fender. Cleko clamps hold the bucket to the fender while the lamination takes place. The clamps keep the index.

Now that the bucket is glassed to the housing, I use any means I can to keep the assembly mated to the remaining body panels.

In this case, when the headlight housing was made, it had a little warp on the ceiling edge (hood).
The boards keep it straight.

The assembly is glassed in with cabosil and a few layers of mat. Now I am preparing the complete fender for a skin coat of filler. Although hard to see, there are a few areas in the surface of the glass that are de-laminated or just filled with air pockets.

You have to open these areas up because when the sun heats the surface, those air pockets blister. This is not cool when you have a beautiful finish. You must grind all the areas until you reach solid material.

Once these areas are opened, you can fill them with cabosil or with fiberglass mat. Even the smallest blister will show up on a good hot day. The object is to get rid of all these areas.

When that is done, you can give the fender a skin coat of filler. Remember to smear the filler in all directions with applied pressure. This will insure that you have gotten all the air pockets out of all the pin holes.

Most 904s have a crest (a peak) on the top of the fender running the length from the headlight to the door edge. This matches the peak on the door. It is very subtle but it's there. The headlight cover also has the same peak. It is important that this area is kept in its original form during all the body work process.

Note the arrows pointing to the de-laminated areas (undoubtedly caused by a crash). They were just covered with filler when the car was originally repaired. I will grind these areas, however deep they go, and then fill them with cabosil and mat.

When the bodywork is completed, three good layers of duratech are applied.

The duratech is a great media for block sanding. In the picture on the left, you can see the shadow that follows the peak of the fender. Next, the door will be installed and mated to the fender. The next and last repair work will be the structure between each fender on the leading edge of the trunk. This part sustained damage on the right side and needs to be cut off, repaired and replaced.

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