Down here in Sunny Paignton, the weather of late has been hot . . .

In fact its been bloody hot . . .

And whilst I should be really pleased about 30 degrees of perfect Beach Buggy Weather, my Buggy has decided to go all rebellious on me and complain

I am absolutely gutted about what I have spotted across my bonnet 



I always knew that 32 coats of painted metalflake was an experiment, and that at some point it could have gone drastically wrong - but what I had not envisaged was that the thickness of the paint didn`t quite expand as quickly as the fiberglass underneath it, and it has split wide open several years later.

I will deal with it properly at some point in the future though - I had planned to do some body mods to the bonnet at some point and add a scoop around the number plate, which would mean getting it repainted at some point - I just hadn`t planned on this right now.

I need to seal it up asap though to prevent any more dirt or water ingress getting under the rest of the paint in the meantime, so will do a temporary fix and let you know

That is not good but not an uncommon problem with painted fibreglass, could you use your clear protective film to stop water getting in. 

I was thinking about maybe throwing some lacquer and flake in the hole for now and then redoing it properly when I have more time   

See what tomorrow brings

I feel for you Dave and I guess its little consolation but like splitting your trousers at least the under wear is the right colour not to be noticed at a distance.

I'd have thought there were many lacquers available that could quickly seal it and stop ingress. Just want one that may allow the cooling fibre glass to close up the gap if it's minded to shrink in the same way ? Perhaps too much to hope for...

Really sorry for you. Taken time and effort for you. What about  cutting out an appropriate shape from some some clear protective pvc sheeting. Will do as a temporary repair plus you can monitor expansion or hopefully shrinkage.
Just a thought 
Paul

No point feeling sorry for myself, might as well crack on with it.

If you remember my "Madness with Metalflake" thread, I had some pretty good results so I thought I would try and tackle this in an unconventional way.
Its only temporary, and if it goes wrong, I will have to paint the bonnet anyway - so with nothing to lose, here goes . . . .

I cleaned out the crap that had got in there with a scalpel and applied a thin layer of Mazda Green from a touch up pen I had.





Next I mixed a little 2 pack lacquer with some flake in it





And then carefully applied some with a paintbrush. I knew that I must not get any on the clear sides of the split, otherwise I may go through the flakes when polishing which would give me a silver stripe which would look even worse.





The problem here was that I put far too much flake in, and it looked very dark. You couldn't see the base colour through it at all. I know that the flake is not going to be as flat and well suspended in the lacquer as the rest of it, and that when the light catches it in certain directions it is going to look rough.





But this just didn't work for me, so I cleaned it all out and started again. This time I put a far lighter coating of flake in, and it does look much better.





Time to seal it up - which was the initial task when I went into the garage an hour ago. I knew that the 2 pack lacquer took several months to dry and cure when it was initially painted, and I didn't hold out much hope of it doing this in time for me going out for a drive (probably in the rain) 48 hours later. So I decided to use some of the modelling Gel Coat that I messed about with previously.





I mixed the Gel Coat fairly strong, so that it would cure quickly under the strong sunshine in the yard this afternoon. Then it was time to tackle it with some 240 grit to get the big lumps  down a bit. Always nerve wrecking this bit. Those with eagle eyes will notice that I am actually tackling multiple splits here - yep - that bonnet really did go with a vengeance.





Then some 800 grit, 1500 grit and some polishing compound





It certainly is not the prettiest of repairs, and if the sunlight catches it wrong, then it does look like a dirty great stripe across the bonnet





And by the same token, if the sunlight catches it right, from some angles its actually quite hard to see.





This does give me a bit of hope - If this is what I can achieve with a couple of hours rushing about, I wonder what results I could get if I took my time over a few days?
This is still only meant to be a temporary fix to seal up the hole, so just bear that in mind when you see it next.

Looks pretty good to me . Wish I could sort the osomis on my bonnet as well.
Don't think I'm paranoid, honest 
You've to be a certain age
Paul

dave have you thought of useing a syringe to back fill the metal flake, (the type without the needle) maybe try a practice on something at another time, 1 steady bead with the flake and another thicker bead of laqure covering then cut it back.

I feel for you Dave, but must sat your chouce of words made me laugh...  "No point feeling sorry for myself, might as well crack on with it."
Crack, really! 

This does give me a bit of hope - If this is what I can achieve with a couple of hours rushing about,

Dave... This is what it`s all about... The "Smart" repair guys do exactly the same... building up with paint then polishing flat.  I never found a way to "repair" the first of the metallic paints so that it was totally invisible. It was, as you say, all to do with the amount, the lie of the flakes and the direction of light. The main issue is that "you know the crack is there". Your eyes are always drawn to it and so you notice it every time. 

Take care because very soon you will be hooked and out there buying a compressor, a spray gun etc, etc   

That's pretty good Dave
I see the crack originated at a washer nozzle. Maybe worth opening out the holes slightly to allow for expansion.

Might prevent another crack

That is a pretty impressive repair for a crack on and see what I can do.

Adding to Daves washer jet have you got a bolt in one? Perhaps the nut is a fraction tight and pinching it as the area gets hot and expands.

Dave another demonstration of your skill set and resolve.

Hope you can find some shade to park in till the mini heat wave has passed on.

Thanks for the comments guys 

Most of the cracks do indeed seem to originate from where the washer jets are, but these are bonded in, not bolted, so there is precious little squashing there, although one of the cracks looks like it started mid bonnet and ended up at the jet a few hours later which was my thoughts about one medium stretching faster than the other - which is going to be interesting to see how Gel Coat moves alongside the Lacquer in the sunshine.

Will it stay bonded? or will it split and open up another split with different materials next to each other? - that's going to be an interesting one to watch.

Never thought of using a syringe though? Thats quite a challenge for me anyway as I have only just overcome  being "Needlephobic" in the last few years (what with Liz spending so much time in hospital) and I can now at least pick up a syringe, but never thought about using it in that way. I might just try that one anyway as a bit of familiarization though.

Bonded in may be the problem as assuming it is metal it will expand and contract fast in sun putting stress on the hole.

I would bolt in with a rubber or fibre washer each side, a slightly oversized hole and a touch of thread lock so you don't over tighten