The first of many...

In true Jeff fashion, I picked the easiest crack on the Viper's hood to fix first.  I started with the innocuous looking little crack high up on the hood.  You all remember this guy:

It doesn't look look like much, just a short bit of cracked fiberglass.  Removing the paint reveals the truth:

With the paint removed, the true extent of the crack can be seen.  It extends half an inch further down, and an inch further across the top than was visible with the paint there.  Further, the crack branches out towards the bottom.  This is one area where a lot of fiberglass novices make their first mistake.  They don't fully investigate the extent of the crack.  If I had just ground and filled the visible crack, fully 1/3 of the crack(the hidden parts under the paint) would not have been fixed, and the crack would have kept spreading after it was "repaired."  In order to properly repair the area, the whole crack MUST be ground out.

The whole repair area is about 4" wide at this point, and you can see how the ground area is beveled down to the crack it's self.  The areas of the crack it's self that are still "solid" are in fact paper thin.  They are there just to serve as a backing to hold the new fiberglass.  What's left of the actual crack is thin enough that resin will drip down through it.  Since all fiberglass repair relies on mechanical adhesion, the original 'glass is ground with a 36 grit disc to give the new resin some "tooth" to grab on to(I also ground it down further after I took the pic).

This step is the reason why so many fiberglass "repairs" crack again.  Many people not familiar with fiberglass repair will just grind into the crack some and 'glass over it(or even worse, just fill it with kitty hair or bondo).  By doing that you're just covering it up, not actually fixing it.

Think of it like this: You can tape over your door seams, and the side of the car will look smooth.  But, there is still a giant seam between the door and the body, and the door can still easily be opened.  Just because you can't see the seam anymore doesn't mean it's not there, and just because it's not visible doesn't mean it's solidly immovable.  Cracked fiberglass works the same way.  If you don't completely remove the crack, the two broken halves will continue to flex independently, eventually causing the "repair" to crack again.

As I mentioned before, I'm using Evercoat's SMC resin.  I've decided I like it for one reason: it doesn't use standard fiberglass hardener.  Unlike standard resin which uses MEKP as a catalyst, the SMC resin uses the same cream hardener that bondo uses.  Tangentially related fun fact: the chemical in bondo hardener that does the catalyzing is Benzoyl Peroxide, which is also the active ingredient in Clearasil and other acne fighting products.  The reason I bring up the hardener is because it makes the resin much easier to use than standard resin.  The MEKP catalyst used in standard fiberglass resin is a clear liquid.  Because of this, there is no good way to tell when you've got the resin and hardener and mixed well enough.  Because the SMC resin uses creme hardener instead(in either red, white, or blue), it's very easy to tell when you've got it mixed well enough.  I've also found that the resin starts to change color as it catalyzes, giving you a warning that you've only got a few more minutes to work.

I built up the repair area with several layers of fiberglass.  You can see because of the coloring how much thicker it gets towards the center of the repair area.  It's built up to slightly above the original surface so it can later be taken down to the correct height.  Because the bottom of the hood is more structural than cosmetic(and the hood pad covers much of it), the 'glass will be left at the finish height, any bondo that is used is more for filling pinholes in the fiberglass, and less for cosmetic flatness.

We now have the first crack properly repaired.  Only a few dozen more, and we can put the hood back on...