Hard top damage

[Pinerog]

So my daughter hits the house with the YJ and cracked the hard top on the right side at the air vent. I have never done any fiberglass work or even had a shop do any for me. So can it be repaired? Can I replace the back half? Any ideas. . . About the top, I'll take care of my daughter!!!

[Murfman]

i drilled small holes and used safety wire to keep the crack still. Stop drill the end of the crack so it does not expand and then lay your fiber glass on top of the wire "stitches" and sand smooth.

[Pinerog]

Thanks I might give that a try, I'm going to stop by a local body shop just for fun and see how much $$$ they might want.

[KiGrind]

Fiberglass isn't all that hard to mess with after a few goes at it. If its not a massive crack you can use fiberglass bondo, but I use it anyways with the sheets to help smooth it out. Sanding is great with fiberglass, wear your safty gear.

[tomass15]

There are a few tricks I have learned with fiberglass. I buy a box of the disposable rubber gloves, a box of the disposable small paint brushes, cheap pair of fabric scissors.

When you first try fiberglass work, it can be messy. Sand the area and feather out the crack with 60 grit sand paper, feather it out a ways to give good rough suface for the new fiberglass. clean well. I try to cut and fit the mat dry, then brush on the resin, then lay the mat, then brush it down until it is soaked with resin, then do the next layer. I try to make each layer of mat wider than the pervious layer, if you have a crack and a 3" feather out, first layer 1", 2nd 2", 3rd, 3". do this with the dry may to see what you will need, you don't want 3 3" layers. With the resin, only use what you need to soak the mat, don't flood it on, the strength is in the mat.

When mixing your resin, be careful with the hardner, if you add to much, the resin will be brittle, not enough, will take a long time to dry.

Before sanding, give time for the layers to dry, sucks when you sand into tacky resin on a lower layer.

It's not rocket science, but can make a real mess.

I wouldn't do any frankinstiching.

I have repaired many jet skis with many cracks, you take the time to prep it right, the repairs go well.

Good luck, if at first you don't succeed, disc sand it out and try again.

[RedDonkey]

I have done a repair on my hard top and found the fiberglass was easy to do myself but the textureing was hard to get to match the factory.

[KiGrind]

I have done a repair on my hard top and found the fiberglass was easy to do myself but the textureing was hard to get to match the factory.

RattleCan paintjob time dude! :smokin: