best way to attach a duck tail wing on ae86 hatch

[aaron]

Ok im not saying that this is “the way” to go about it as there are numerous and different methods, however this approach worked well for us (my panel beater and i).

I started with a trd replica ducktail wing.

Firstly we removed the hatch from the car and the window from the hatch.
Then we cut into the wing, taking off a section shown below which was about 1.5-2” wide across the length of the window (explained why later), leaving the raised ends of the wing untouched.


We then went over the wing and sanded the many sharp edges and rough patches smooth, however leaving the previous cut edge untouched as a sharp 90deg edge.
Now we went about attaching the wing. We used industrial grade epoxy resin which is significantly stronger than the stuff typically available at bunnings etc (im sure most panel shops could get you some). We mixed up the epoxy and then applied a thickness to the underside of the wing and to the contact area on the hatch. We ensured that it was enough to fill all gaps between the two surfaces and not leave air pockets potentially formed by imperfections in the wing (which there were plenty of in my case).
We then evenly placed down the wing on to the hatch and used a number of clamps to hold it firmly in position (be careful not to damage or dent the fibreglass! We used wood in between the clamps and the fibreglass). Wipe away the excess resin which has squeezed out from between the two surfaces.
Now we used epoxy to smoothly flow the wing into the windows bottom edge. We came off the sharp cut wing edge and used a scraper to smoothly flow and connect the wing to the body with an even gradient along the length of the wing. We got it as close to perfect as we could and left bits to be sanded off later.
Next was just a matter of going around the rest of the perimeter making the join line hidden and ramping the raised wing ends in to the body smoothly (make sure the entire thing is sealed ie. water tight).
We also removed the wiper mechanism and covered over the hole over along with the key hole.
We left it to dry for over 24 hrs until the epoxy was nice and hard to touch, mind you we did have it in the spray booth with the heaters on for a number of hours.
Then it was just a matter of sanding where needed to get final accuracies, repainting the hatch and refitting the window and thats it.

Just for reference the epoxy becomes harder to work with the longer you leave it sitting and also if you ever wanted to remove the wing it would have to be smashed off.

[Rice86]

check out the pictures of mine

i used all the works, rivets, fibreglass and nicki...

its as easy as painting a kindagarden rainbow, seriously, if ur mold is above average its pretty much like a bolt on job with a few work out with the biceps, pm me if u want more pics and details on putting it on, make sure u take off the glass on the hatch to, makes it easier to work with =]

[.ady]

anyone in melbourne done this before?