Marcos Maniacs

Hi Maniacs,
I have always thought that pictures of projects in progress were more 
interesting than the finished pictures.  After all, most of our cars 
look basically the same other than color.  So in this spirit of 
sharing projects I will post on this site some pictures of a repair I 
am doing to the rear end of my 1966 Marcos 1800.  The pictures will be 
removed after a week or so and hopefully replaced by a new set of 
progress pictures.  The first picture is of the rear end minus the 
tail lights and license plate.  You can see the spider cracks in the 
right hand side. (actually there are spider cracks on both sides but 
the ones on the right are easier to see). Also visible are the repairs 
that I originally started to make to the lower panel.  The previous 
owner had an "E" Jag type exhaust with the attaching brackets 
connected directly to the fiberglass.  Over time, the heavy exhaust 
managed to pull the bolt and fender washer through the fiberglass on 
one side and created spider cracks on the other side. The second 
picture is a close up of the same spider cracks.  The third picture is 
of the rear end "gap".  The rear panel should be straight across the 
back. This picture is an attempt to show that mine has a gap of about 
3/16 of an inch on both sides.  This type of problem is not that 
uncommon on things made with polyester resin since polyester resin 
will continue to shrink over time.  The fourth picture is the rear end 
stripped of paint. Look closely on the right side and you can see a 
previous repair (well done) that might account for the heavy spider 
cracks on that side.  It is not uncommon for spider cracks to appear 
some time after the actual "accident". The fifth picture is of the 
inside of the truck (boot) stripped of paint and showing the spider 
cracks from the inside.  The sunlight makes the spider cracks easier 
to see on the inside than on the outside.  If you look closely you 
will notice that some of the spider cracks are darker than the others.  
These are spider cracks that were repaired previously by the former 
owner.  These previous repairs were actually done quite well with only 
part of one re-cracking in the former spot. So I have several problems 
to fix, the spider cracks and the "flatness" issue.  I will now try to 
post the pictures and will keep everyone updated on my progress since 
this is a fairly common problem and typical repair on fiberglass cars.
Mike Denman
1966 Marcos 1800
Chassis #4079