Glassing helps and tips for a novice - like me
12-18-07, 03:46 AM
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Glassing helps and tips for a novice - like me
This started out as a reply to a post, but I thought Id'e set it up as a new thread. I have not seen very much at all on body work advice - other than RXHeaven -awesome ride! - but way too intense for the common garage guy. But he and DLtreezan were my inspiration to try something different.
If you have tips and tricks for the first time body work noob, this is the place to share.
What products work the best, what tools can you not be without, etc . . .
Whether you like my car or not isn't what this is about, so let's keep the thread on topic please.
So here is what I have done:
Custom made 1 off fiberglass rear fenders- no molds.
First time I ever fiberglassed - used off the shelf products.
Again, keep in mind I am not an expert at this, and all my experience came from reading "how to" websites.
I used foam board and right density plastic that was rigid, but bendable to create the basic form. Then I made cardboard mirror templates of the forms for the other side of the car.
From online reading, I used masking tape to protect the foam board or plastic from melting from the resin. I added enough overlap to tape the foam structure to the car.
Then I used two layers of matt and one layer of weaved glass. That was plenty strong enough for my application since it wasn't a load bearing area.
Best ratio that worked for me was 12 drops of hardener to 1 once of resin. That gave me time to brush in the resin and get out any air bubbles.
Learned this the hard way - When laying on the glass, you want to try to lay out all the glass layers in one session. Because if you let one layer harden, it doesn't want to bond to the next layer you brush on.
I used a product called Evercoat - which was basically a high quality kitty hair bondo type product. Good tip- You can't use it as a final coat because it constantly created air pockets when you sanded it smooth.
After one "thin" coat of that which I thought might add some additional strength, I used Premium Gold Bondo as my skim coat. Worked great and easy to spread and sand smooth.
For the tiny pinholes, I used glazing putty.
Then I used store bought rattle can filling primer. That worked great also. - Big time saver.
Sanding:
80 / 120 / 280/ then 400 wet sand - this seemed to work really well for me.
Lot's of cutting blades - I used long exendable blades w/out the handle portion most of the time. Could cut and scrape very easily with an open long blade.
Need a good dremel of some kind - Got a Black and Decker at Walmart for like $30.00 that worked perfect.
The rest was a learn as you do experience. Definitely practice first if you have never done this before.
For example, you can't really bend fiberglass material around a corner without it pulling up and making a lip on the corner. Best way I did it was cut the glass to a smooth edge on both sides and resined over the top of it. Don't know if that's right, but it worked for me.
Other stuff: when using bondo - always try to use it in a "pulling up" direction. I found I had a lot more control when I used a spreader in that direction.
Bondo to hardener ratio: not an exact science, but for me, when I made a circle of bondo, I ran a bead about 1/3 of the way around the outside of my bondo circle. That gave me about 6-8 minutes to apply the bondo before it started setting up.
Anyhow, I hope this is useful to some people.
Share your knowledge
If you have tips and tricks for the first time body work noob, this is the place to share.
What products work the best, what tools can you not be without, etc . . .
Whether you like my car or not isn't what this is about, so let's keep the thread on topic please.
So here is what I have done:
Custom made 1 off fiberglass rear fenders- no molds.
First time I ever fiberglassed - used off the shelf products.
Again, keep in mind I am not an expert at this, and all my experience came from reading "how to" websites.
I used foam board and right density plastic that was rigid, but bendable to create the basic form. Then I made cardboard mirror templates of the forms for the other side of the car.
From online reading, I used masking tape to protect the foam board or plastic from melting from the resin. I added enough overlap to tape the foam structure to the car.
Then I used two layers of matt and one layer of weaved glass. That was plenty strong enough for my application since it wasn't a load bearing area.
Best ratio that worked for me was 12 drops of hardener to 1 once of resin. That gave me time to brush in the resin and get out any air bubbles.
Learned this the hard way - When laying on the glass, you want to try to lay out all the glass layers in one session. Because if you let one layer harden, it doesn't want to bond to the next layer you brush on.
I used a product called Evercoat - which was basically a high quality kitty hair bondo type product. Good tip- You can't use it as a final coat because it constantly created air pockets when you sanded it smooth.
After one "thin" coat of that which I thought might add some additional strength, I used Premium Gold Bondo as my skim coat. Worked great and easy to spread and sand smooth.
For the tiny pinholes, I used glazing putty.
Then I used store bought rattle can filling primer. That worked great also. - Big time saver.
Sanding:
80 / 120 / 280/ then 400 wet sand - this seemed to work really well for me.
Lot's of cutting blades - I used long exendable blades w/out the handle portion most of the time. Could cut and scrape very easily with an open long blade.
Need a good dremel of some kind - Got a Black and Decker at Walmart for like $30.00 that worked perfect.
The rest was a learn as you do experience. Definitely practice first if you have never done this before.
For example, you can't really bend fiberglass material around a corner without it pulling up and making a lip on the corner. Best way I did it was cut the glass to a smooth edge on both sides and resined over the top of it. Don't know if that's right, but it worked for me.
Other stuff: when using bondo - always try to use it in a "pulling up" direction. I found I had a lot more control when I used a spreader in that direction.
Bondo to hardener ratio: not an exact science, but for me, when I made a circle of bondo, I ran a bead about 1/3 of the way around the outside of my bondo circle. That gave me about 6-8 minutes to apply the bondo before it started setting up.
Anyhow, I hope this is useful to some people.
Share your knowledge
12-18-07, 03:56 AM
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I guess I should also mention - be safe . . .. blah blah - wear gloves , cover yourself well - take a cold shower to get the glass shards out of your skin.
Also get a good orbital sander - I think that's what it was called. - makes small circles when it sands - I found sanding in a 5 point star patten worked really well, and kept the excess build up off my sanding disk a lot longer. Sanding in a circle didn't work so great.
I used plexi glass pieces for my mixing boards - clean off really easy!
More pics:
Also get a good orbital sander - I think that's what it was called. - makes small circles when it sands - I found sanding in a 5 point star patten worked really well, and kept the excess build up off my sanding disk a lot longer. Sanding in a circle didn't work so great.
I used plexi glass pieces for my mixing boards - clean off really easy!
More pics:
12-18-07, 12:41 PM
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hey man check out fiberglassforums.com it is a nice forum with nice people who actually want to help you with your ideas and questions. BTW i am lovin the "one-off" idea.
12-18-07, 02:16 PM
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WOW! - what a great site! - Now that is a great tip. I wish I had known about that site prior to starting my project.
I think it will come in very handy when I start making the molded glass hood scoop.
Thanks for the info.
I will definitely be spending time on that site.
TFitz.
I think it will come in very handy when I start making the molded glass hood scoop.
Thanks for the info.
I will definitely be spending time on that site.
TFitz.
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