Thread: Fiberglassing Tips?

Hey guys, I just made a complete dash for my car ( the console is next) and i tried something new. I bought a case of floral foam and hot glued the bricks together, then cut and shaped and sanded them down to the shape that i wanted, which was to be the final look of the dash. then i put down masking tape ( not needed because the soft floral foam will not melt in the presence of resin)then i threw on a coat of resin, a layer of chopped strand mat (www.fiberglasssite.com) and dabed on more resin. sanded 'er up, some body filler in places, sanded primed, gauges set in, wired, and used. yall should try that, its so much easier then dealing with mdf. and you dont need a jig saw to cut out the rings n such.

Pictures?

yeah, i do have some pictures i think they are lost on the chip in my camera. il get them up here fore the days over with.

Originally Posted by JasonWW

I've got a new question for the fiberglass pros out there. I'm thinking of buying a used fiberglass hood of which I will sand, repaint, etc... , but the thing that was originally wrong was it has paint bubbles. Do you think it was something in the fiberglass that caused the bubbles, or was it the paint?

I'd really like to know, because if I get the hood and repaint it, I don't want it to bubble again on me. Anyone know?

that's in the fiberglass. airbubbles..... a gel coat was not applied. I would highly highly recomment gel coating it.

in the trunk of a car, your not exposed to direct sunlight or frost. therefor, gel coat is not required. but whenever doing a body panel or any peice that will spend its lifetime under the sun, you need gel coat.

hey, you know that the bubbles could be the result of traces of a clean up material on the hood. for example. acetone may have been used to clean and smooth the material. if that isnt removed it will cause paint not to adhere to the surface. ACetone has different compostions, most evaporates quickly, like alcohol, whats left ( residue) is just as preventitive for adheration as wet acetone.

First of all, never use Fleece, only Spandex. You should also never use staples and use CA glue and Activator (Can be ordered online from Tower Hobbies.) Fleece when hard is very brittle and anyone who's made a center console or a sub enclosure and tells you their enclosure dosen't have cracks or dosen't flex, or that thier console dosen't have cracks is straight up full of ****.

Cheap **** from Home Depot is a no-no. You should also, while applying use the heaviest Oz glass first, which logically would be 7 oz, then lighter and so on and so forth.

I don't buy it. If you build it strong it enough there will be no flex and it won't crack. As for staples or CA it's a personal choice. I use both. I like to router an edge and staple the fleece to that.

Another way I avoid cracking is I use white water resin. It's made for making kayaks and won't crack.

I think I know what has warped the minds of so many into thinking fleece is the fabric you should use. Its the magazines.

I was getting my oil changed last year and while waiting there was an issue of Truck'n. Low-and-Behold, this issue had an article about sub enclosures and making it out of fiberglass. They used the classic "prop the woofer rings with dowel rods and lay fleece over it" trick. They used fleece. God Damn, thats where people are getting confussed. They're relying on some hack from "Joe Shmoes Audio Hack Store" (I say it like that cause the name of the shop doing the install sounded like Uncle Bob's Audio Outlet). They used fleece. Then the snow-ball effect occures and people get confussed think, "hey, its ok to use fleece".................................






Wrong.......period.



One thing you should pay attention to is the fact that these articles are put together by a shop. Typically shops have the $$ to buy in all the resin they need to soak that **** properly. If you also notice, the type of curves they are trying to accomodate with the fleece are relatively shallow. A baby could curve them.

You must understand several things.
1) You and I don't have all the money that a shop has resource to which is why, using 45oz of resin is not advantagous. (and if you do you shouldn't be an idiot and buy all that resin to do it the wrong way)
2) You are very restricted to the simplicity of curves as shown in the article. 3) You WILL have a **** ton of sanding involved prior to fiberglassing.
4) Do NOT EVER rely on the strength of the enclosure on the streched fabric. Its only there to create a somewhat solid base for shaping fiberglass. This is why they have S2 glass in the first place.

Other things to note from the article which are huge *** No-No's is the use of power sanders. This article had the guy using a belt sander for crying out loud. Huge F-n no no. It was apparent, at least to my eyes, that the end result was ****ty and was a photoshopped picture of the enclosure prior to primer, as I was easily able to see flaw after flaw with flat spots and the like.

This article was found in I believe the April, May or June 2005 Truck'n magazine. The magazine featured a HUGE yellow H2 Hummer, if you want to research and find the article. I almost stole the magazine so I could scan the pages, but I didn't.

Just keep in mind, that there is no possible way, that you can create the curves as I have by streching fabric if you were to use fleece. You also will never be able to adequately saturate the fleece with 9oz of resin. 9oz is all it took to do the whle sub box I have.

There is no right fabric to use for every application. I use fleece, carpet, grill cloth etc etc. It all depends on the application.