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Last Friday night, ‘round 9:30, was driving 60 mph on the frontage road of the
highway when a possum came up out of a drainage ditch and decided to commit suicide.
Had no time to swerve because of traffic and hit the big sucker square head on.
I felt the thud and saw the possum doing pirouettes across the road. Pulled over the first chance I had and saw the center of my spoiler bent almost straight down. Almost just tore the piece off, but luckily decided to get some duct tape out and tape it up so I could make it home.
Had numerous thoughts of what to do, including just purchasing a new spoiler.
Decided to do a little research on fiberglass and bondo on youtube, and decided
to try the $50 fix, figured it was worth the try. Never used fiberglass or bondo before.. but the videos made it look doable. Took a good 8 hours to remove spoiler, fiberglass, bondo, and sand. Luckily the fiberglass and bondo dry very fast..
Think it came out very acceptable.. won’t be able to prime and paint ‘til the weekend because of rain expected for the next couple of days.
The fiberglass made the breakage very strong and durable.. less flex than the original piece.
(AP) After possum: Pic after hit, supported with duct tape .
What the fiberglass looked like while drying.
Finished sanding.. ready for primer.
Red lines show where orig. cracks were. Blue circled area shows where about half of the original openings were closed off with fiberglass to strengthen area.
Last edited by agapsdiver; 07-13-2017 at 11:28 PM.
Nice work. Also a strong argument for the non-cf splitters. I don't think there is anyway you'd have been able to make a non-noticeable repair on exposed cf splitter.
Nice work. Also a strong argument for the non-cf splitters. I don't think there is anyway you'd have been able to make a non-noticeable repair on exposed cf splitter.
Yeh.. I think for a do-it-yourselfer, the only thing you could do with a CF spoiler is repair it, then paint it. No more CF showing.
Last Friday night, ‘round 9:30, was driving 60 mph on the frontage road of the
highway when a possum came up out of a drainage ditch and decided to commit suicide.
Had no time to swerve because of traffic and hit the big sucker square head on.
I felt the thud and saw the possum doing pirouettes across the road. Pulled over the first chance I had and saw the center of my spoiler bent almost straight down. Almost just tore the piece off, but luckily decided to get some duct tape out and tape it up so I could make it home.
Had numerous thoughts of what to do, including just purchasing a new spoiler.
Decided to do a little research on fiberglass and bondo on youtube, and decided
to try the $50 fix, figured it was worth the try. Never used fiberglass or bondo before.. but the videos made it look doable. Took a good 8 hours to remove spoiler, fiberglass, bondo, and sand. Luckily the fiberglass and bondo dry very fast..
Think it came out very acceptable.. won’t be able to prime and paint ‘til the weekend because of rain expected for the next couple of days.
The fiberglass made the breakage very strong and durable.. less flex than the original piece.
(BP) Before possum:
(AP) After possum: Pic after hit, supported with duct tape .
What the fiberglass looked like while drying.
Finished sanding.. ready for primer.
Red lines show where orig. cracks were. Blue circled area shows where about half of the original openings were closed off with fiberglass to strengthen area.
Being from Louisiana, the story hits home... That said, inquiring minds want to know: How'd ya cook the possum? Sauce piquante, possum stew with a roux on or did ya bar-b-que it like those Texacans across the Sabine River?
Just wanted to say that an awesome looking c7 op! Really nice what you've done with it and sorry it got hit. But I see the silver lining that you learned a new skill and it turned out well.
Beautiful car. I love the yellow trim on the spoiler.... The biggest question I have is: Did you run over the critter or did the big rat bounce off the front and out the side of the car... isn't that what the "fangs" designed to do?
Beautiful car. I love the yellow trim on the spoiler.... The biggest question I have is: Did you run over the critter or did the big rat bounce off the front and out the side of the car... isn't that what the "fangs" designed to do?
Nope, didn't run over him...he slide to the side and watched him get hit by another car.
The yellow trim is Plastidip... but may go ahead and replace it with paint now. Some people don't like it.. but I'm a Nascar fan and kind of like the look...plus it highlights the form of the black splitter.
All the pics of my preparing the splitter for bondo and fiberglass
were out of focus due to low batteries.
This one pic almost came out.. showing the sanding of the area, including the deburring and enlargement of one crack to prepare for the bondo.
You can also see the fiberglass thru one of the openings that I closed off half way to provide additional strength to the lower area.
Last edited by agapsdiver; 07-13-2017 at 11:30 PM.
05-12-2014, 08:06 PM
Spoiler vs. possum, both lose.
