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Repairing Mirko

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RawBurt

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Over the summer my mirko took quite the beating from the rough michigan roads. I would like to repair it myself. Can I just bondo the rough edges of the lip, or do I have to refiberglass it? Anyone who has repaired chunks missing from the lip let me know how you did it... Thanks.
 
I've always let Jim(beyondloadedSE) do my splitter repairs. Bondo seems to be the easiest/cheapest way to go about it. Just put it on a little bit thick, and sand down the raised spots. Prime the area to see how it looks, and go back and fill-in/sand whatever needs more work. Then prime, paint & clear.

For the sanding, a mouse sander seems to be the only way!!

Mark
 
Bondo? i hope your joking. If your going to use any bondo product on a mirko Bondoglass is the only way to go. Then sand it. I just sand by hand with some 60 then 150 then 250. Its easy, but do not use plain bondo it won't hold up
 
I disagree. Bondo is fine IMHO. I've had my splitter repainted twice now professionally and I cant even tell or remember for that matter where I fixed it with bondo.

On a site note, I bottomed out on a sewer hole last week and cracked my splitter and molded front bumper. Not to happy about that.
 
Thats fine but regular bondo is subpar in this application. Bondoglass acctually will bond to the fiberglass in the splitter. Bondo isn't made to fill massive chunks taken out of a splitter. Weather you can see the difference or not if it was repaired with reg bondo then it was done incorrectly. Bondo is made to fill tiny holes and any minor inperfections NOT to fill chunks and other flaws.
 
Yeah, go through all the trouble of fixing the Mirko professionally, spending a ton of time on it, so you can go back out and chip the hell out of it again in a week. Show car? Yeah, go ahead and make the best possible repair. A daily driven Contour that's going to get a lot more abuse? Yeah, regular bondo works fine.

Mark
 
Are you mentally retarded? Bondoglass cost 4 dollars more and is far better. Once again stick to stuff you know, becuase you obviously have no IDEA how to fiberglass or repair fiberglass correctly.

Hell you might as well use Paper Mache' instead of the bondo. Its about the same strength
 
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Im with jason on this one

Specifically the longstrand bondoglass. It has Long (about 1") strands of fiberglass imbeded in it. those strands interlace and will bond to the old fiberglass. Longstrand is for filling gaps and holes over 1/4" I think.

The regular bondo is generally for 'skim' coats filling minor holes. and there is even another product, bondo putty for filling holes in the skim coating!

While the skim coat bondo may work, try repairing it with the longhair glass next time, I think you'll be surpised at how much longer it will hold up.
 
Depending on the size of your cracks rob you may want to pick up bondohair. thats the longstrand stuff. Its a bit harder to work with, but stronger.

You may also want to do this in the house, and vent the **** out the window because the cold will really jack with your curing times.
 
Either way, if my fiberglass splitter breaks, then this bondoglass will do the same thing. Ill stick to my preferred method which is bondo and certainly isnt $14.
 
I used Bondo-Glass on mine.

I wasn't sure if the regular Bondo would hold up as well so I chose the glass kind (with the hairs). Good to know that the regular Bondo works just as well also.

Can't even tell where it was fixed. Saves cash fixing it yourself vs going to a shop for repairs, for sure.
 
use bondo-glass. its not any harder, and 50x stronger. takes more to sand, but its as tough as the rest of the mirko, and wont crack in 2 months like when you put bondo on thick. bondo was never intended to be used on large imperfections, or even on large parts of body panels. that's just idiots using it for the wrong application, thats what fiberglass is for! i watch honda guys use bondo to mold widebody kits and such, on "nice" showcars and 2 months later, there's a crack where the bondo was. just glass it!
 
Big Daddy Kane said:
Would this bondoglass stuff work on repairing a split-in-two lower section of the SVT front bumper (pretty much the same area as a Mirko)?
Click to expand...
The best thing to do here is a straight-out fiberglass repair. It's not terribly difficult. Here's what you do:

1. Buy 1 or 2 fiberglass repair mats, fiberglass resin, and some cheap disposable brushes from Wally World or your nearest autoparts store.

2. Sand the edges of your crack down to a shallow "V" front and back.

3. Cut your fiberglass mat into several strips the length of your crack, at LEAST 3 strips for each side. Make the first one the narrowest, with each strip at least an inch wider than the one that will be below it.

4. Clean the area to be glassed with Acetone. (available at any home improvement store)

5. Mix your resin (only enough to do each strip) in a small container that's large enough for you to get the brush inside.

6. Beginning with your two narrowest strips of glass (one for each side of the Mirko), brush your resin on and then lay on the strip, making sure to keep it nice and smooth and keeping the edges of your crack aligned. Make sure the resin completely saturates the glass. Do this for the front and back.

7. Let resin cure.

8. Repeat steps 5-7 for each successively wider strip of glass. Do this until you have filled in your "V".

9. Scuff sand your repair, clean with acetone, then fill with your filler of choice.

10. Sand, prime, and paint.

Your repair will probably be the strongest point on your Mirko now. I had to do this with a boat of mine that was hit by a pontoon boat and ripped the fiberglass on the side a good 18". The repaired side was 3-4 times stiffer than the other side that had not been hit.

Good luck!
 
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