As I will be fabricating a complete GRP front end for my V8 I have the opportunity before I refit my lights etc. to my Cortina Deluxe to make GRP molds of the lamp bowls. I have never made GRP molds before, so this is another first. I hope to show you what is done to achieve this task. Let's hope it works out OK. To start with the area was thoroughly cleaned. Areas not requiring fibreglassing were masked off to protect from resin contact. Both headlight bowls were then coated with Mold Release (Cannuba wax).  Each coat was waxed on and then polished out before it dried. 30 minutes were left before applying the next coat. 5 coats were layed on before applying a coat of PVA releasing agent (blue coating).  This has to thoroughly dry before laying on the Gelcoat which is my next task.  Come back soon.

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12/11/2012 - The headlamp bowls mold have now been completed. Additional photos have been added to the gallery above. These include the matting cut out ready to lay up, a couple of rollers used to make sure all air bubbles/pockets have been eliminated, the materials used, headlamp bowl with the gelcoat applied, matting layered up (1 x 300 and 2 x 450), matting trimmed while still green.  This will be left for a week to harden before the mold can be removed.

The rear part of the car needs some work. The person who owned this before put a hole in the offside wing for the fuel cap. This has been plated in and filler applied, yet to be smoothed over. Each rear lower quarter panel needed some fresh metalwork. The offside was hard work due to the different curves but it came out sort of ok. Some of the rear boot lid channel has had some new metalwork.

Why a section on the rear doors? Well, I always like a challenge, so I am going to attempt to make fibreglass rear doors. This will make it lighter and they serve no purpose so will be located using some sort of fasteners. The doors will have no handles and have a one piece window. All I know is it will not be glass but what material; e.g. perspex, polycarbonate, lexan etc. is not known at this time.

So far the handle recess has had a steel plate welded in place and smoothed over with some filler.  This has not been completed yet. The side window has been removed and a template made from cardboard. The template was transferred to plywood as this will need to be fixed into place as the doors will be made into a plug/mold for the fibreglass.

Front valance work begins so we can start putting the front end together.

The front valance was donated by another Cortina Enthusiast. The edges had to tidied up by removing parts of the front wing.

A small dent is present which will require my new learned bodywork skills!!! New dollies and hammers and a good book, how else.

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