So I was able to remove my cluster hood without it breaking into a million pieces but feel like I got lucky and its only a matter of time before the bomb goes off. While I have it out I was thinking of running a layer of fiberglass cloth on the inside of the hood followed by some resin to reinforce it. Has anyone thought of doing this or has this been done before? Are there any contraindications to doing this?

-groovin

 

Not sure how much it would help. Better to not keep removing and installing it. It won't break just sitting there. The problem is how much force it takes to get the fragile plastic on and off. And, the trick is to to install remove it without tweaking and torquing it.

Better idea is to pinch the clips a little bit, so they're not so strong. Maybe put a little wd40 or graphite etc on them so they slide in/out easier. Build a little good karma on the big day. Let someone merge in traffic.

 

lol on the karma suggestion. Lubricating the retention clips is a great idea. I'll grease them up when I reinstall it. I really think the fiberglass cloth and resin will help tremendously. Upon inspecting the hood I could not see any fitment issues that may arise from the added thickness. I'm going to move forward with this unless someone tells me otherwise. I'll keep you guys posted.

-groovin

 

If the hood can't flex as much due to the resin, you might end up breaking off the pieces you're intending to save

 

I feel you would normally be right when the plastic is still healthy but being an 20+ year car the plastic has likely lost its flexibility is more brittle than anything else. A thin layer of fiberglass resin and fiber glass cloth is actually very flexible and because of the multilayered fibers strength and resilience is significantly better compared to thin instrument cluster plastic.

-groovin

 

If you do fiberglass it, make sure you sand the inside surface with lots of scratches, so the resin can really stick and not peel of a smooth surface.

 

Yup, will do.

-groovin

 

Looking forward to hearing about this. I was thinking about doing something similar on the door panels with fiberglass cloth and Sunflash uv activated resin. Please post pics of your results!

 

 

Its already out as I'm trying to clean up the wiring and gauge fitment that was done by the previous owner. My plan is a coarse sand, apply metallic body mesh with adhesive backing, sand again, singly layer fiber cloth, and as minimal amount of resin I can feel confident will work. Posts/studs will be reinforced with jb weld and clips will be depressed a bit followed by a nice greasing when reinstalled. I do plan to wrap it but that will be any another time. Glad to hear it worked for you. Makes me feel I won't have any regrets pursing this task. Thanks for chiming in.

-groovin

 

This is what I've done so far. Scratched the surface, placed the metal mesh, JB welded the posts for reinforcement, crimped the retention clips a tad bit more, cut to size and laid down the fiber glass cloth. I'm going to wait for the jb weld to cure then going to lay down the resin.

 

Resin laid down. I'll lay a second layer around the edges and the posts otherwise it turned out well. I tried to take a picture of the how much thickness was added and its its barely millimeters. This hood is definitely going to be tough and at worse should only crack but never shatter into pieces.




-groovin

 

I like it. I'm a big fiberglass fan. Figures since my Lotus is glass.

I took it further than you. My gauge hood was broken when I bought the car. I found all 10 pieces, glued them and waxed the whole thing up to use as a plug for a mold. I covered it in thick matt and resin. After it cured I pried the oem hood out of the glass and I had a nice mold for making hoods.

Unfortunately the first hood I molded stuck to the mold pretty bad. Despite using release wax AND release spray, I had to sacrifice the mold.

I had to build up glass on the interior to mount the clips. Trial and error. But it holds. And with a matte black wrap, it looks good.

​​​​​​​Shame on you Mazda. I doubt anyone would have objected to a couple of discrete securing screws in the gauge hood near the windshield. That goes for every other FD plastic panel with hidden clip fasteners. Nothing but trouble.