Raptor Liner on Bulkhead & Other Work | Roundtail Restoration

Moving right along with progress, but I haven't taken care of that pesky rear wing yet. As a matter of fact, I'm made it worse before (hopefully) making it better.

First up was to get the bonnet back into epoxy primer. I had originally intended to go right to build primer, but I was outside of my 7-day window and also had some exposed filler that I wanted to get covered, so back into epoxy. I also experienced some epoxy adhesion problems pulling the tape off from doing the Raptor Liner in the wheel arches. Guess I didn't clean / scuff the existing paint well enough.

Spots where the epoxy lifted off. This was taken after scuffing it back up with 180-grit.

After prepping the bonnet and taping off the wheel arches to prevent overspray, I switched over to the driver's side rear wing. This ended up not going so hot. I didn't do a great repair in the first place and it was coming back to haunt me. I tried with the stud welder to pull the lows out and it started out okay.

The deepest low area. Studs already pulled out and cut off.

Areas ground flush.

As I continued to work it, however, it became obvious that it was getting worse. My poor welding along with a lap joint were going to cause more problems than they were worth and, in the end, I cut the whole seam out.

A tear in the thin metal from my intial repair.

After beginning to cut out the bad area, shown from inside teh bonnet.

The offending area removed. Time for a patch.

By the time I came through that, it was getting late and I wanted to get the bonnet and bulkhead into epoxy before I left. I switched over to the bulkhead and scuffed it up with 180-grit sandpaper and a red scuff pad (for the hard to reach areas).

Inside of the bonnet ready to shoot. I focused only on the areas that I worked.

The bulkhead area prepped and ready.

With prep work done and the metal cleaned with wax and grease remover, I got them both back into two wet coats of epoxy.

Bonnet. You can see some low areas if you look closely.

Closeup of nose where the filler was applied.

I was happy with how it all turned out, but the bonnet needed build primer. It was obvious where I had taken it down to bare metal as opposed to just scuffing the existing paint. That would have to wait for the next visit.

Bulkhead.

I was happy with the bulkhead. There was still some evidence of pitting, but I never intended to get it totally smooth and I was happy with the end result. With the smell of epoxy in the air, I called it a night.

Next visit, my goals were to continue work on the rear wing and to get the inside of the bonnet in build primer and the bulkhead in Raptor Liner. Two out of three ain't bad.

The build primer on the bonnet was first. It didn't fill all of it, but I decided to call it good for now in the interest of concentrating on the body. I'll probably come back to it later, however. I couldn't get any pictures that really showed the post-build primer result, but the video catches some of it. That done, I got the bonnet off the stand and on its end and covered.

Until we meet again...

Then it was on to Raptor Liner. Did I mention that this stuff is just awesome? Very forgiving, very easy to apply. I also got the brackets for the pivot tubes for the bonnet that go in the wheel arches done.

Brackets.

Bulkhead. Oooooo, ahhhhh.

Then it was on to the rear wing. I didn't get very far, but I think I'll be able to make it work. When I first put it in, I realized that it had to be under a bit of tension to get it to bow out to the correct shape (I found the same thing for the rear valance). When I cut the big hunk out of it, some of that tension was released and it flattened back out.

I used my contour gage and compared the passenger's and driver's sides and was able to get a very small patch tacked in, under tension, that came pretty close to getting the angle correct. We'll see if it continues on that way, but for now, I'm optimistic. Again, the video does a better job of showing this.

Cute little patch.

That was about it. My goal for the next round of visits is to get that patch done and then move on to body work on the body itself. Still a good amount to do there, but I can see that dim light at the end of the tunnel, I think!