The rain has been fairly sporadic over here actually - at least in my area. So once its cured do you cut the edges down - wait dont worry im an idiot it's right there in your post 

Haha, all good 👍.
When I worked at Velo racing seats making the shells, I knew at what minute to start to knife the shell excess around the mold before it set to hard , I'm not that keen to care about that these days but it did save 15 min on the grinder and suiting up with shield/mask etc, still ended up full of itchy white dust !

Nice one Marty, out of interest have you ever done an RS nosecone? I saw them years ago and if I was doing another car I'd probably look into one, it'd be a lot easier to be able to fit, fill and sand for a perfect result and I'd say the paint would stick alot better and not be prone to cracking and crazing like the original poly ones. 

Hey Drewdog
Yes when I was working at Velo/Quickco , apart from making seat shells and time allowing I would make fglass parts and panels for Escorts etc. Stuff like xpack kits for RS, and if the car wasn't a RS we could convert it over. So a short answer to have I made the RS nose cone? Yes, I think over the 15yrs I was there I only made 4 or 5 of them and I hated making every one , as they take a lot of concentration and a full day to make !
I made one for Mick Monterosso for his sport sedan RS 6000 v8 , his complaint was I made it to heavy so made another at nearly half weight, he was happy-er !
You can try to contact Velo and ask nicely they might make you one, you'll need a bonnet to match and maybe guards but flat nose guards can be cut and welded.
With painting and filler etc, treat fibreglass in the same way as a metal panel, no special softeners in the paint for flex which is great 👍

Dang fail !
Cracked the mold from the panel,
Got heaps of worms in the gelcoat like this..

Just means I'll need to mix a resin and talc combo and a bunch of sanding to bring it up smooth.

Going thru some panels I found this nice 4dr front guard, I could not find any difference apart from the closing panel at the door opening, it was well in the way so I cut it away for clearance.


Trying to know if they are different than 2dr on the outer skin, I can't see any shape change apart from that closing panel.. this guard is in better condition than what the car came with , I am planning on doing guard molds, these will be converted to twink guards , as being marked for chopping .

The template is from a previous mk1 that I did the twink arches to about 20yrs ago. The method I used to join the fglass arch to the steel guard has been proven to be strong and won't crack at the joint... I will show the full and correct way to connect these arches, it works for bubble arches and tarmac arches etc

This video just came up the other day and Thort to share.
With some of the best known drivers in rallying in the business at the time and possibly the best car for the job , this vid is a nice insight to its rise to fame and history books . Ok I'm a little biased towards the mk1 Focus 3dr as I own a silver zetec like in the front vid....
https://youtu.be/CxrAK6_Nc54?si=t6fT9nDp2_9n-P9H

Well I survived Xmas once again tho not without over eating... At my age it gets hard to lose weight due to the care factor of the world around us.

I got the front doors back from GBT in Wingfield, they did a awesome job as expected on removing gallons of paint n filler, the main reason I got them grit blasted is the doors were slightly cooked from fire and I wanted all rot and rust halted plus it exposes other strange goings on like the crease on the drivers side skin as seen in the pics.

This warp will be interesting to remove..

Looks like I've got those Dave's Garage style dents happening here.. I did buy a spot weld dent pull tool but not the one he was half promoting on his recent vid

This door is in ok cond and is only held on with long bolts for now to line up the guard

Looks good, Merry Xmas and all that - one step closer to laying paint on!

Good work Marty. Yes if the panels survive the blasting/removal process then its definitely a preferable option.
Lines look good from the pic.
 
You (we all) should keep a log of hours we spend on these projects, not sure if it would be depressing? Definitely puts time spent going fishing into perspective

I think I need to tweak the body hinge forward a few mm as the back gap is rather tight , last time I did this I used a pipe wrench and pipe for leverage !
Yeah the doors are quite solid, just the usual wear n tear of door life, minimal rust considering the thickness of filler that came off . I did test a door from another mk1 when these were getting blasted..and it was not liking the car at all ..

Marty Pro tip here : use new Holden Commodore VT- VZ door roll pins , they are better than Ford Escort ones and have a flare to ease removal.

Fishing, argh lol ain't done that since teenage years, nothing against it but I rather be constructive elsewhere..
Counting hrs up on the car, if I say only 1hr a day on average over 3yrs it's well over 1000hrs so far, but I do halt for the obligatory beer break for a think session as this car is doing my head in !!