As with most Corvettes that are fifty years old, at one time or another they have seen a collision which will require some level of fiberglass body repair.  In the case of our Corvette, we have multiple panels that have been badly damaged at one point and had some fiberglass body repair done.  Unfortunately, the quality of the fiberglass body repair was not great, so we will be replacing multiple panels, including the whole front end.  We will show the whole process of the fiberglass body repair, starting with the removal of the fiberglass panels.

1963 Corvette Quarter Panel Removal

The rear quarter panel has been damaged and will need to be replaced.

1963 Corvette Grinding Out Bonding Strip

Using a die grinder the fiberglass is ground out at the bonding strip

1963 Corvette Checking Depth Of Cut On Bonding Strip

The fiber glass at the bonding strip is ground down just to the point of hitting the bonding strip behind the panels. A change in color of material indicates you have reached the bonding strip.

1963 Corvette Quarter Panel Removed

After grinding down the fiberglass at the bonding strips, a thin chisel is used to carefully separate the quarter panel from the bonding strips.

1963 Corvette Tail Light Panel

The rear tail light panel of our car also has some severe damage and will be replaced.

1963 Corvette Front End Damage

Here you can see one of multiple fiberglass body repairs that have been done to this car over the years.  To properly fix this the entire front end will be removed and replaced.

1963 Corvette Separating Front End Fiberglass

Here you can see where the fiberglass has been ground down and a chisel is being used to separate the bonding location.

1963 Corvette Front End Removal

Here the front end has been separated from the rest of the body.

1963 Corvette Removing Front Fiberglass From Body

After removing the front end, a few panels will be removed for use in the new front end.  The inner fenders and the front lower valence will be used on the new front end.

1963 Corvette Front End Removed

Here is the body with the front end removed.

1963 Corvette Front Fiberglass

The front end after separation from the body.

1963 Corvette Rear Fiberglass Panel Removed

The rear panel removed.

Next we will need to reinstall the body on the chassis with it’s new set of shims to prep it for the new front end.