ERA FIA spare tire well

[Tongue Pirate]

As a few of you know I am doing the bodywork on my car right now. Underneath the car the spare tire well is bare fiberglass. What is the proper finish on this? Do I leave it fiberglass? Or should it be painted a certain color?

The doors now....Anyone (Cobrajeff??)have pictures of the inside top lip of the a door?

Thanks in advance & everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

[SSSnake]

We used black rubberized undercoating in a spray can and just sprayed two good coats on it. The finish is flat black, but it looks right.

Glenn

[Chaplin]

TP-
I was going to suggest the same thing that SSsnake suggested. I used the rubberized coating in my wheel wells and various
other underparts of the body and when it dries it looks good. And besides, it's not like you're going to be looking at it all the time anyway, it's underneath the car.

You are a brave man for tackling the body work. I applaud your efforts. Me, I know my limitations well, and bodywork is certainly one of them.

[Tongue Pirate]

Thanks guys!

I can do bodywork though usually I would prefer not to. The funny thing is that I'm really kind of enjoying it this time around.

[Greg Kulp]

Herculiner bedliner works great too. I coated my wheel wells, spare tire well, and the inside of my foot boxes with the stuff. It rolls on with a very nice texture.

[SSSnake]

We did all the bodywork ourselves too. The two biggest pains were the fender lips and the oil cooler scoop. The scoop was actually tilted in relation to the body, so my grandfather went crazy on it with a file and some tiger hair.....a couple days later and its perfectly straight. The fender lips were inconsistent from corner to corner. It's not that they looked bad, but we just wanted them all the same. I still believe that ERA has the best product out there. In the end, i would rather put 100 of them together than do the bodywork on one.

G

[Jim Holden]

TP:

The inside of the fiberglass wheel well in the FIA should be left gell coat white. Certainly you can paint it white but then may require even more maintenance. As far as I know the original (original-originals) were simply white fiberglass.

Jim

PS: ERA 427sc's are different with a carpeted trunk and fiberglass inner panels and wheel wells.

[Tongue Pirate]

Thanks Jim, I wasn't going to mess with that area cause' I have seen many that were left that way.

SSSnake, I agree 100%. The oil cooler scoop was a little tough. Most due to the fact that I had to lay on my back to work on it

[cobrajeff]

Hyde -

Not sure what area of the door you were looking for, but here are a couple shots of the top lip of the door on my car:



The first one shows the rolled edge of the door, before I applied paint to the inner panel. I ended up spraying the inside with aluminum silver paint - I had contemplated riveting or bonding a small sheet of aluminum there, but decided paint would work for the effect I was looking for.

The next shot shows the opening and profile of the roll on the edge (and the silver paint):



I hope these help. If you need other angles or shots, send me an e-mail, and I will send them to you.

regards,

cobrajeff

[Tongue Pirate]

Thanks Jeff, that does help.

BTW, isn't it tight in there with that extra bar next to the door?

[cobrajeff]

Hyde -

No, the bar doesn't seem to intrude or make it feel "tight". It actually provides a good "arm rest" inside the car. It also is very helpful for climbing in and out of the car - makes it much easier to "lift" myself out of the racing bucket seat (couple more helpings of turkey and apple pie, and I'll need a pry bar to get me back out of that seat ).

The extra piece of mind I feel as a curious on-looker on the highway drifts (unconsciously) closer to me trying to get a better look at the car...well...that's PRICELESS!

regards,

Jeff