Cracks HELP

[HVACMAN]

So, I set the body back on after go carting, started fitting the body to firewall, and set the 45.5 inch cockpit dimension. I set the trunk aluminum in and the first thing I found was my tail pipes were too high. I had to drop those down almost 1.5 inches. The second thing I noticed is two cracks in the body near the firewall on the driver side. At first I thought they were scratches but you can rub your finger across them and feel the difference in elevation. I have no experience with fiberglass repair. Should I drill a hole on each end to stop the crack from expanding? Then
grind them out and fill with mat and resin? Then gel coat on top?116070116071

[michael everson]

Pretty sure those aren't cracks. Looks like a second layer of gel coat.
mike

[HVACMAN]

Pretty sure those aren't cracks. Looks like a second layer of gel coat.
mike

How can I tell and do I need to do anything to repair them? I'll try to take a close up.

[michael everson]

Start by sanding the area flat and see what is looks like. The first pic is a little iffy.
Mike

[cob427sc]

I agree. Think its just the gel coat. I'm not an expert but have built a number of fiberglass kit cars and I've never seen fiberglass crack like that but have seen similar layers of gelcoat flake off.

[GoDadGo]

Steve's Stupid Question:

Who The Heck Is Laying Up These Bodies?

My friend Heath's MK-4 body was also made about the same time and it's a mess compared to my MK-4 built just a few years earlier.

[FF33rod]

What does the underside look like? if it's cracked you should see it there too.

[Michael101]

I had the same thing on mine. It's just gel-coat that's separated from the layer below it. You'll end up sanding that area down substantially anyway to make it truly flat so it'll go away.

There are several areas of the body that need to be fully probed and investigated to discover any potential separation areas such as this, particularly around the body seams. Some of the gelcoat looks to be completely in-tact but in fact is not. Discovering this after a full paint job would be disastrous.

[HVACMAN]

What does the underside look like? if it's cracked you should see it there too.

The body is on the car right now so I can't access the underside. Here are some closer pics.116155116158116161116162116163

[AJT '33]

This looks like pre-release, that's when the mold may have been freshly waxed and due to the exotherm and the typical shrinkage of the laminate while curing the Gelcoat can partially release from the mold. As suggested below I would take a closer look and you will probably see that its an edge but does not go into the gelcoat surface. If you take a razor blade and if you cant get it into the crack, if there is one, its surface. FFR could have fixed this a bit prior to shipping unless they determined if this was pre-release, however I would have at least placed something on that area saying that this is not a crack but pre-release and is cosmetic and will be taken care of during your bodywork.