Frenching fiberglass or new turnsignals for the ‘55
In order to get the ‘55 going again with the new fiberglass front end, one of the things I needed to do was to get the turn signals mounted.
Here is the turn signal on the stock fender.
Since the stock turn signal bezel was pretty corroded and the bulb sockets had given me trouble in the past, I decided to french in some new turn signals. First I used the lens as a template to cut out an opening.
Then coated some heavy paper with release wax and rolled it in a tube. Then I used the lens keep it the right shape.
I wanted to fill around it, so I made some filler out of white gel coat and glass micro-balloons. This sort of filler is much stronger than the bondo-types that use talc.
Here’s a shot from the inside, I used some tape to hold the paper in place and prevent filler from dripping through.
Next I coated the part of the tube on the inside of the fender with some gel coat and a couple layers of fiberglass cloth. Also shown is a piece of fiberboard that cut to fit over the tube. This is a guide so I can trim it down evenly with a die grinder.
If I was just frenching the stock turn signal, I’d just make some mounts to hold it as shown below. The thin fiberglass tube actually fits around the lens and between it and the housing.
Next time I’ll show the new turn signals and how I mounted them.
