I need Fiberglassing 101

[Mulv80]

I attempted some fiberglassing yesterday for the first time. I was attempting to fiberglass a new piece of wood that I epoxied to the fuel hatch in the floor. I was not successful to say the least. I first wet out the surface with West System epoxy. Next I laid out a piece of mat and brushed the epoxy on to the mat. The fibers in the mat were coming up with the brush and air bubbles were everywhere. I tried squeegeing out some of the bubbles but at this point I was frustrated and scapped the fiberglass and decided to try another day after doing some research and reading. This was the single most discouraging part of my project so far. I don't know if I will ever be able to glass in the transom. I really need a good source for fiberglassing info. Anyone know of a good site or book that I can buy.

[Skools Out]

west system sucks to be real honest for fiberglassing you need just fiberglass resin that uses peroxide hardner. I just bought 4 gallons from Parker Boats works for 21.50 a gallon with hardner. it's a 10:1 mix on there stuff. you need to first dry fit your cloth to where you are going to glass it in and cut it with sissors to fit then lay it on a piece of old scrap wood if it's a big piece of glass and pour the resin on the glass and get the glass soaked solid wet with resin then wet the whole area you are going to glass with resin. then lay the glass in place it will stick and fit correctly since you have it precut. best to get a cheap glass roller to roll out the air bubbles and smooth out the glass good. see the area i put in yesterday for glassing 101.
Make sure you grind both pieces you are glassing even the fresh wood so the glass has an area to grip for strength.

glass 101 link
http://www.wellcraftv20.com/cgi-bin/...num=1128439189

good link for buying fiberglass cloth
http://thayercraft.com/
http://www.glen-l.com/supplies/cloth.html

good place to buy resin this is the type of resin you really need too.
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com...sin;eclDrill;2

Rollers are really a need to get the glass layed out smooth and airless.
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com...nating.Rollers

good site for books and they have a FibreTalk Forum
http://www.fibreglast.com/showproduc...-Videos-4.html

[Skools Out]

http://capndsboatshed.com/fiberglassmaterials.htm

Just found this link of a boat repairs shop this may answer some of your questions too.

[Mulv80]

Thanks for the help Skools, I just visited that site and there was alot of useful info. I'm gonna have to really read up before I try to glass in the transom.

[Skools Out]

great here's another great site to buy glass and resin.

http://www.uscomposites.com/polyesters.html

[shicks007]

M80,

Sorry to hear your having issues. I did some minor fiberglass work on my boat this summer and used the West System epoxy with good results. Are you using the pumps for mixing your resin and hardner?

For your final topcoating, are you planning on painting or gel-coating? Some say you cannot get a good gelcoat bond to epoxy resins and should use polyester resins for using a gel-coat finish.

Good luck and keep your chin up.

[Mulv80]

Schicks, I don't think the problem is with the Epoxy. I have the pumps and I think the product is just fine. My problem is I don't know what I'm doing when it actually comes to fiberglassing. I think my first mistake was that I tried to do too large of an area and I wet out the surface with epoxy before laying down the mat. I think I will try a smaller area first for practice before I tackle the transom. I always knew fiberglassing was painstaking work I just never realized how hard it actually is. I have a new appreciation for all you fiberglass guys.

[Franco]

HEY M80, BE SURE YOU USE THE RIGHT COMBINATION HARDNER/EPOXY - THAY HAVE A SLOW CURE HARDNER - IF YOUR IN THE BAHAMAS IT MAY BE BEST FOR YOU. ANOTHER PROBLEM I HAD WAS OVER WORKING THE RESIN. WET IT DOWN LIBERALLY, LAY ON THE CLOTH, POUR ON THE EPOXY IF POSSIBLE, USE A BRUSH TO SPREAD IT TO SATURATE THE CLOTH, FINISH WITH THE ROLLER FROM THE MIDDLE OUT. IT WORKED FOR ME, BUT ASK SKOOLS IF I DID IT RIGHT

[Skools Out]

Great Job Franco
Yeah Epoxy is hard to use in large areas.