7 replies to this topic

[THedooBZ]

hey guys,, im a total noob in the area of fibreglassing,, however i have used mat and resin before and it did harden properly so theres a start... basically on my new removable front rather than having holes drilled in the side with dzus or similar i was thinking of bonding some brackets on the inside to keep it looking smooth on the outside.... how do you go about bonding some form of metal hinge/plate/bracket onto fibreglass, whats the best method, will it be any strong???
another reson for me wanting to do this is over time where the dzus entered the flip front on my last mini they began to crack the fibreglass and start to pull through the front..

any ideas???

[biggav]

i should imagine you'd need to get the bracket in place, then weave layers of resin and fibre glass over and around it until it effectivley becomes part of the front end.

[Bungle]

epoxy is stronger than the usual fibre glass resin

[THedooBZ]

epoxy being the liquid resin u mix with a catalyst??? is that correct??? just a bit low on the terminology of this stuff

[Bungle]

yes

but so is fibre glass resin

[ginger_monkey]

I've been using fiberglass matting and resin. When you get a few layers on and your happy with the position mix up a good amount of resin and pour over. This should give you a good strong bond and the resin will make for a smooth finish if your lucky. I had to take the attatchment bars off my old front for the hinges to fit to when i sent it back. Took ages with the grinder cutting away the resin and then peeling it off the front so think it'll do the job well. Here is a pic of the first bit of bonding (not very good) but you can see I've already got some strengthening under the bar that TDK did for me then I'm getting the postion right with some bits of matting before I go to town and cover the thing.

[Ethel]

Have a search on the web... boat building 'n maintenance etc. Think I got a book from the library years back.

As has been said, just overlap it with a good area of matting and rough everything up really well to provide a key.

by the way Monkey, resin won't really bond to aluminium so if that bracket is ally as it looks work out a mechanical joint with the 'glass e.g drill some holes in for the resin to seap through.

Quicky guide:

Paint the resin on to the roughed up moulding then lay the mat on top and stipple (jab with the end of your brush) it down until the resin soaks right through and thorough wets the mat. Trapped air bubbles make for weak mouldings. If you're adding more than one thickness of mat make each new layer overlap the last layer to feather the edges. Don't try to do too much in one go; resin gives off heat as it cures and can even catch fire if it's so thick that the heat builds up. Two, maybe 3, layers of mat is all you should attempt without letting it cure. Fibre glass does like making sharp corners, keep everything well radiused. If your work has stood for more than 24hours then rough the surface before adding any extra layers. To get a better finish: if you have got all the air out of the resin you could lay polyethene sheet on the surface and smooth the resin through that. Polythene is waxy and won't bond so once the surface has hardened it can be peeled off.

[panelbeaterpeter]

^ Spot on!