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Old 07-18-2014, 07:38 PM   #1
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Reglueing the front hood hinge for the second time

One of the front hood hinges on my 2004 Meridian has broken loose for the second time. The first time i tried to leave everything except the actual hood attached to the hinge as I glued the hindge in place so hopefully it would all be aligned as new when I replaced the hood.
This time I'm planning on removing everything from the bracket that attaches in behind the front cap to take as much pressure off it while the J-B Quick Weld sets up, and I'll have more room to work without all the hinge mechanism in the way.

Since the original glue that Winny used is still attached to the front cap I'm hoping I can get the bracket in place without all the other stuff attached, which this way I think I can spred the J-B more evenenly.

Has anyone done it this way and still managed to have the hinge and hood line up fairly well after the glueing sets up?
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Old 07-18-2014, 07:58 PM   #2
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When the mounting hinges for my front generator hood on my Vectra started to come off the body (not the hood itself) I put several stainless steel carriage bolts through the fiberglass and hinges to make a permanent solution. The bolt heads are completely covered by the hood flange when it is closed.
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Old 07-18-2014, 10:46 PM   #3
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Hi Chris,

Your idea sounds good but any bolts through my brackets would be very visible out front on the front cap. The flange along the generator opening that is covered by the hood is only probably about 1/2-3/4 inches wide. Much more of this frustrating occurance and I may do the chrome bolts through the front cap anyway. Winnebago should have to correct their sorry glueing even on a 20 year old RV. If they had any kind of real engineers they would have bolted this stuff together instead of using glue.
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Old 07-19-2014, 06:13 AM   #4
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I used stainless steel bolts ...

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Old 07-19-2014, 10:41 AM   #5
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When the mounting hinges for my front generator hood on my Vectra started to come off the body (not the hood itself) I put several stainless steel carriage bolts through the fiberglass and hinges to make a permanent solution. The bolt heads are completely covered by the hood flange when it is closed.
Correction: They were regular hex-headed bolts, not carriage bolts. OK since they are not visible with the generate hood/hatch closed.
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Old 07-19-2014, 10:55 AM   #6
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Here's a picture of the bolts I added on my Vectra:

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Old 07-19-2014, 11:34 AM   #7
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Is there a trick to drilling through the fiberglas front to keep the paint and fiberglas from chipping or cracking out farther than the washers might cover? And do you drill from the outside or from under the hood, which i can see might be really a fun job? And if you drill from the outside how did you mark where you needed to come through on the brackets?

Looks simple but with Murphy looking over my shoulder I'm sure it won't be. Thanks for your time and information.
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Old 07-19-2014, 11:40 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by wagonmaster2 View Post
Is there a trick to drilling through the fiberglas front to keep the paint and fiberglas from chipping or cracking out farther than the washers might cover? And do you drill from the outside or from under the hood, which i can see might be really a fun job? And if you drill from the outside how did you mark where you needed to come through on the brackets?

Looks simple but with Murphy looking over my shoulder I'm sure it won't be. Thanks for your time and information.

I was going to ask exactly the same question. Have reglued some of mine twice now, about ready to think about bolts.
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Old 07-19-2014, 12:26 PM   #9
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I've had to reglue both the front hood and rear engine compartment hood. The trick is that when using JB Weld to bond the two surfaces is, you have got to sand or grind off the powder coating paint on the metal surface down to bare metal. Without sanding you will still be bonding to the super smooth metal and the JB Weld WILL fail again.

Here's a picture of my front hood that I rebonded also using pop rivets. When drilling the fiberglass, put some masking tape where you want to drill and then start drilling with a small drill bit and then go up in size.

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Old 07-19-2014, 12:36 PM   #10
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I guess most of us have been lucky that the hinges didn't break loose going down a rough road and completely lose the front hood. Can't imagine what it would take to replace one of those.

I have always ground off any of the paint down to bare metal where I had to re-glue but being so hard to reach/see at the same time and appling pressure till the J-B sets up good has always been my trouble.

The last time I used J-B Quick Weld, it says sets up in 6 minutes but I think it's faster than that and may have already skinned over before I could get things in place, but this time I think I'll try the regular Weld if I can figure out how to get a clamp on the bracket. The label on the regular Weld says "It's our strongest".
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Old 07-19-2014, 12:52 PM   #11
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Yep!!! The regular JB Weld is the best way to go. It gives you more time to clamp or wedge the part your bonding in place. Just keep in mind, the JB stays runny for several hours until it starts to harden so cover anything you don,t want it to drip on.

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Old 07-19-2014, 07:11 PM   #12
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You need to reconsider the type of adhesive you're using. I used SEM 39537 Weld Bond Adhesive to reattach the hood hinges and the right side headlight bucket in our 2001 Adventurer.

This adhesive is used by body shops to attach fiberglass and plastic panels to a steel substrate. It can be found at almost any body shop supply house. It's more expensive than JB weld and other consumer products, but lasts far longer.

I did the repairs on our 2001 Adventurer with about 30,000 miles on the odometer. When we traded it off with over 100,000 miles on the odometer everything was still holding together fine. The key is to remove ALL the old adhesive and get clean, BARE metal to bond against CLEAN fiberglass. If you are careful, take your time, and follow the directions to the letter it's a 1 time repair.

As a side note the SEM adhesive has an open time of 20 minutes. It fully cures in 24 hours.
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Old 07-19-2014, 08:32 PM   #13
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Got that bugger glued and clamped in place just before supper so we'll see how solid it is by noon tomorrow. Last time I tried spreading the glue on the bracket then getting it in place real fast. This time I tried spreading it where Winny had originally done it and that was fun since I couldn't see very well where I was putting it. Had tried setting the bracket in place dry just by feel and that worked good but didn't really want to get J-B all over my hands once I started with that stuff. Hopefully I didn't make too big a mess behind the front cap. Using a mirror it looks like I got a good spread ozing out around the bracket
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