First time fibreglassing - any tips?

[paolo]

Over the next 3 weeks I need to glass in the rear arches and inner sills of my Sumo. I've never done fibreglassing before so if anyone has any tips about what I should or shouldn't do that would be much appreciated.

I am planning to go to the local car shop and just get a tub of resin and some matting, is there anything else I need?

[Trevor]

Paul
Try the Fibre Glass Shop in Brentford High Street 0208 568 1645

[ti]

Originally Posted by paolo

Over the next 3 weeks I need to glass in the rear arches and inner sills of my Sumo. I've never done fibreglassing before so if anyone has any tips about what I should or shouldn't do that would be much appreciated.

I am planning to go to the local car shop and just get a tub of resin and some matting, is there anything else I need?

Definately disposable gloves !!

[Grease Monkey]

Acetone to clean the resin off your hands and every other surface.

LOTS of gloves.

Good ventilation is useful.

[robinj66]

Get down your local market/poundshop and buy loads of cheap brushes. That way you can throw them away when you've finished and not worry about trying to clean them or keep them supple for the next time.

Be careful with the ratio of resin to catalyst -it only takes a small amount of the latter - too much and your mixture goes hard before you've finished. Following on from that, I would plan on doing small areas at a time.

The advice i was given was firstly to cut the pieces of matting before starting. For wheel arches etc i would suggest coarse strand matting.
Next apply resin/catalyst mixture to the area you will be working on and then "stick on" your piece of matting. Then apply the resin mixture to wet the matting - I found it best to use a stippling technique which stops the matting ripping apart. You will be able to see where the resin has soaked in as the matting changes colour. Keep on stippling to ensure there are no air bubbles.

If you're anything like me you'll think you haven't done it right and it will never set etc but it actually does work. Just keep in the back of your mind that, in the worst case, you can simply grind off your previous effort and start again.

Give it a go - you'll be amazed at the results


PS Don't be put off when the Sumo panels don't appear to fit very well and you have major gaps to fill - you ARE doing it right

[john cohen]

Dont use to much hardener !!!!!!!.. As it drys it gets v hot and can alter the shape of the panel you are working on.

[Sidecarbod]

Hi Paolo,

I used to do alot of fibre glassing in my previous life as a sidecar racer so here's my 2 pence worth!

The best resin to use by far is the West System, its an epoxy adhesive so it has an unbeliveable sticking ablity. parts joined with polyster resin can be prized apart with some effort.

As an example I once made a flat sheet of fibre glass by laying the cloth over a waxed window pane, I had to heat then break the pane to get the fibre glass to part company!

This resin has some other useful qualities:-

It can be thinned out by applying a low heat from a heat gun whilst you are working it into the cloth, the cloth will "wet out" much better and you are less likely to do the usual thing of "not enough cloth and too much resin"

The job can be cured by continuing to apply the heat.

The pot of mixed resin can be stood in a shallow tray of ice water, this means that you can take over an hour to complete the job without the resin going off in the pot...very anoying!

You must use woven roving and not chopped strand as the latter has a chemical binder that is not compatible with epoxy. You can get the rovings in the form of a bandage which means that you'll have a lot less frayed edges when the job is complete. (Frayed edges turn into needles which are not nice when you run your hand over the job!).

As others have stated cut all the cloth before you mix the resin and build up a mental picture of where each piece goes, cut more than you think you will need as you can always use it on another job. (don't skimp on the layers, for joining inner wings etc you'll need about 1 -2 mm thick join which will be about 4 or 5 layer of light bandage.

Lighter cloth is easier to use than the heavier stuff and is less likely to spring away during the curing process. (it just takes longer to build up the thickness with the light stuff). Many layers of light cloth is also stronger than one layer of thick stuff asumming that you get all the air out of the job.

A good way of bridging gaps is to use modeling clay, don't try to glass against "thin air", you just end up pushing all the cloth through the hole! (The clay can be left in the job or removed if you can get to it).

The Fibre glass shop is a great place to get all the stuff you'll need at a good price, you'll need:-

1.2kg of West System (maybe more, depends on what you are doing)
Woven Roving...sold by the metre, but is quite cheap.
Bandage
Sissors or lots of blades for your knife
Brushes... either buy "hundreds" or clean them until they fall apart!
Mixing pots
measuring pots
Actetone (large tin as its good for loads of cleaning jobs)
Disposable gloves
Paper disposable suite......Fibre glassing is horrible! especially if you are going to sand the stuff down.

As you can see getting set up is not cheap, maybe around £100-150, but its not worth skimping, if you need somthing just bite the bullet and buy it whilst you in the shop or you'll only end up going back to buy more resin or cloth etc.

You can get some of this stuff from boat suppliers but it costs alot more.

Don't even think about those "noddy" kits from Halfords etc, once you've got set up with the proper stuff you'll realise that they are a complete joke!

Hope this helps and does not sound too "big headed" its just that I learn the hard way!

[Sidecarbod]

Hi Paolo,

I've just noticed that you are in Egham, Surrey, I live just down the road in Bagshot, if you like I can give you a hand with the fibre glassing if you are worried about doing this sort of stuff for the first time! (Its not as bad as I made out in my last reply! and maybe I over estimated the cost of the stuff that you will need to buy... 60 to 80 quid should cover it easily)

[slogger]

Don't forget a supply of face masks and eye protection! Glass fibre can be bl**dy evil.

Good luck.

[paolo]

Thanks for all the replies. Very much appreciated.

Sidecarbod - I may well take you up on that offer, the last thing I want to do is get glass mat and resin stuck everywhere, especially on me £60 is a much better figure, I nearly fell off my seat at the idea of spending double that! Bearing in mind this is just for the inner arches and will be little more than sticking them in place (it doesn't have to be pretty!). Have you go an email address you can PM me?