Fibreglass or Carbon/Kevlar panels - yay or nay?

I think the front wings on an escort are at least partly structural, if fitting composite I think additional strengthening would be needed.

Carbon panels have to be painted differently to steel panels because of silicone in the carbon leaving fish eyes.

I had a carbon sunroof bung painted a few years ago and had this problem so worth bearing in mind if your going to have the whole car sprayed in one go.

They really aren't structural. And if they become structural then the chassis rails/inner wings must be missing!

The escort design is very similar to Capris. We've used fibreglass ones on Laurens Capri because of the price of steel ones.

However there are a couple of drawbacks to the cost save.

Fitting them is not quick or simple. You will have to fettle them a lot to get nice shut lines (add remove material), and you have to make sure you don't bolt them on with stress in them (i.e. force them to take a slightly different shape) as they'll start to fret and crack.

Bolting them on is pretty easy, either just use std bolts or go more permanent and use weld nuts or riv-nuts.

The tricky bit is prepping for paint to get a nice, wave free, finish. They will need some sort of skim of filler to get rid of the worse of any depressions, then they'll need priming with etch primer to make sure you get good adhesion. Then you'll need a couple of coats of pucker (2-pack) filler primer - this it to ensure you get rid of any pin holes/waviness. Once that's flatted back, just paint as normal.

Finally you need to give the insides of them a heavy coating of anti stone chip paint to make sure you don't get any cracks forming from the inside of the panel - I cannot stress this bit enough!

The best place to get them is either www.smithanddeakin.co.uk/ or www.honeybournemouldings.co.uk/ We used Honeybourne as they're up the road from us, but heard good things about S&D too. They're well made, but like I said, don't expect them to fit perfectly.

Basically it comes down to how much you want to spend - if good steel panels (bad ones will need just as much work as fibreglass - be careful there are very few good steel wings left for mk1 Escorts, hence the price. I've had some re-pro Mk2 ones that needed cutting and re-welding they were that bad!) are expensive then the extra fitting and prep time of the fibreglass ones might be worth it - but don't under estimate how much time it takes to get them to fit/look right (I did!)

Have a piccy of them on Laurens - not perfect (still think a bit more filler primer would help) but you only notice the waviness under artificial light so good enough.

What is wrong with what's on it? its much better to repair original if possible, as honestly unless your willing to spend thousands and wait an age for a certain steel company, spurious panels be it fiberglass or metal are unwanted hassle,
fiberglass or carbon panels save a lot of weight and I guess don't rust but there mostly made for motorsports where fit and finish doesn't matter,

and just to add welded vrs bolt on wings is personal choice I guess, but a metal wing will provide more resistance in the event of a impact even a small tip, in cars that didn't have much crash safety it can make a difference, And alot of what is sold as carbon is carbon/Kevlar-layered basically rip-off fiberglass, dry carbon is the fancy strong/light stuff and would cost 1000+ per panel

Speak to Graham at GS Escorts in Widnes, his pattern wings are quite a good fit and about £150 each for non Mexico ones.....