Fiberglass Info
 

OK, getting ready to seal the holes from the seadrive and need some help.

Can someone give me a quick summary of what resin and glass to use for what application?
Should it be West System or not?

A bit too much info on West's site including woven, unidirectional, biaxial...

I'm guessing from the look on another post with details that it's woven, but within woven I see different sizes.

What have people found to be the best source to get the glass and resin?

Hopefully the glass and resin needed for the transom seal will be the same as needed for the floor work.

Any help or pointing in the right direction is appreciated.

I wish I knew enough about glassin' to answer your question...but ya might as well start cuttin' plywood plugs to fit those openings while yer waitin' to find out about what mat to use...

Lots of fiberglass tips on Classic Sea Craft .com...

Info from a search
 

Hopefully this helps.
Know the difference between Epoxy and Polyester and why you must choose the correct type first !

FIBERGLASS COVERING / BUILDING FABRICS

Fiberglass Cloth, Mat, Roving and Tape - for Epoxy or Polyester

Fiberglass fabrics have been developed for many marine, industrial and household purposes. Consequently, there are different types of fabrics - i.e., CLOTH, MAT and ROVING. Each type has special characteristics suited to fill a specific need. On this page we describe each type of fabric in order that you may select the one best suited for your project.

First, some specifics about our line of Marine Fiberglass Fabrics. They are superior strength fabrics woven from pure glass fiber and treated with special finish processes. These finish processes are very important in that they remove the oils used to lubricate the fibers during manufacturing. Certain industrial fabrics are not finish processed; consequently, beware of these so-called bargain fabrics as they can be difficult to wet out and can lead to delamination.

Whether you use our Marine Fiberglass Fabrics for covering or strengthening, they have outstanding tensile, structural and impact strength. We recommend them for boat hulls, cabin decks, auto customizing as well as any application where strength and durability is required.

FIBERGLASS CLOTH - Weight 6 oz. or 7-1/2 oz. per sq. yd.

Our cloth is treated with a chemical coupling agent which significantly improves the peel strength and adhesion over or-dinary cloth when using Epoxy-Plus resin. It works equally well with polyester resin.

We recommend using one layer of our 71/2 oz. cloth for the hull, sides, bottom and transom for boats from 8 to 18 ft. We recom-mend two layers on larger boats where additional structural strength is required. 6 oz. cloth is used for cedar strip canoes.

FIBERGLASS MAT - Weight 1-1/2 oz. per sq. ft.

This treated material is a non-woven felt consisting of chopped glass fibers 1 " to 2" in length, crisscrossed and randomly interlocked and held together with a binder. Since it is not a woven cloth it can be stretched to fit into difficult areas. Because it is highly absorbent it soaks up a great deal of resin, and the resultant structure is stiffer than a layer of woven cloth, although not as strong. Matting is often used be-tween layers of woven cloth or roving, or as a waterproof layer when there is no gel-coat. Typically used with polyester resin which dissolves the binder. Not recommended for use with Epoxy-Plus.

FIBERGLASS WOVEN ROVING - Weight 18 oz. per sq. yd.

Woven roving is a high strength, coarsely woven fabric widely used in all phases of fiberglass molding. This 18 oz. treated roving has replaced all other lightweight grades where speed of wet-out, drapability and flatness of weave are important. Higher physical properties are possible in laminates of this grade because of the reduced number of interstices in the fabric. Typically used with polyester resin, But can also be used with Epoxy-Plus Resin.

FIBERGLASS CLOTH TAPE - Weight 9 oz. per square yard

Woven fiberglass cloth tape has many uses. It may be used in any area that needs reinforcement, for covering seams, for bonding edges, or Stitch and Glue construction. All tapes are made with specially woven and bonded selvage edges to prevent fraying. Almost invisible to the eye, these fine selvages represent a marked improvement over the bulky, twisted type which often slip off in handling and produce a ridge, thicker than the tape itself, in the finished laminate. For Epoxy-Plus or polyester resin.

That helps a ton!

Acording to West's website their epoxy resin can be used over poly resin boat. Their claim almost seems like their epoxy resin is the way to go.

Can anyone confirm this rather than going off of marketing info?

as long as you are not using poly(including gel coat) over epoxy, your fine.

Cool! Let me see if local source is better price than online and get those holes plugged up.

RIVER MARINE SUPPLY
260 SW 6th Street
Miami, FL 33130
305-856-0080
www.rivermarinesupply.com

these guys are listed as suppliers of MAS epoxy. i have used it with good results

http://www.fgci.com/ this company is out of st pete, but their tech guys are very helpful & gave me good advice on some of my projects.

Sweet! Minutes from work. Will check them out tomorrow.

Hey, what kind of wheel do you use on the grinder for glass work?

what i used was a sanding pad with some very aggresive paper(40 grit). i cut out the bad with a skill saw and feathered the bevel for the patch with the grinder/sander. i had a friends 8" grinder and i was doing more harm than good. i went back to my 6" and the sand paper and had better results. i got the paper at a flooring store. it is used on the edger for redoing oak floors. there are a lot better glass guys on here, they will know a lot more than me.

good luck

here's some pics and info on other projects i've done

first one is part 1 of my 21 project tons of pics

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/community/showthread.php?t=5978

this is part 2 of the 21 with a lot more stuff

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/community/showthread.php?t=5461

this is a jetski that had major glass repairs may help most

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/communit...ead.php?t=7579

link to alot of glassing links

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/communit...ead.php?t=4866