Fiberglass Covering?

[mjewell5]

Hello all:

I will be starting construction shortly, and was wondering if anyone has covered their entire TD with fiberglass cloth and resin. I have worked with fiberglass before, having owned a couple of sailboats, so I'm not scared or anything. Just curious to know if this has been done before. If so, what weight cloth? One of my goals is to not use any trim where the roof and walls meet.

Thanks for any help.

[Pmullen503]

Glass cloth and epoxy would certainly work. 6 oz cloth with bias tape on the joints should be adequate. UV protection for the epoxy would be needed.

[tony.latham]

It's common with the woodies.

T

[Juneaudave]

We used 4 oz plain weave on our stripper and it has performed well. In the five or six years it has been on the road, we have had a some small delaminations at the edges where water worked in (Juneau rain) and some pitting from rocks on the front...not too bad, just regular maintenance type stuff. i don't know what going to 6 oz would gain except that it is a little less susceptible to snagging while handling it before wet out.

[Atomic77]

I was considering doing the same thing but ended up going with Filon. I too am going with a "trimless" exterior and moulding all the seams. One of the things that I've been kicking around in my head is... is it necessary to cover the entire thing in cloth? I ended up giving mine two coats of West epoxy before I skinned it. Honestly I questioned whether or not to put on the Filon because the areas that I sanded ended up looking just like fiberglass skin already. I defiantely see using glass on seams and irregular areas and such, but for big, smooth, open places why wouldn't a couple coats of epoxy be sufficient? Of course I would follow with a urethane or polyester primer and a quality top coat... I did this to my interior panels, sanded them smooth, primed and painted them in a candy base coat clear coat. They look no different than any other metal or fiberglass panel. Came out cherry. In boat building we use the glass for structural purposes but since the wood really doesn't need reinforcement, I'm not convinced it's worth it.

[mjewell5]

Interesting points of view. Maybe I'll settle on a sort of "hybrid" instead, and put a strip or two along the top corners, and cover the rest with plain resin. I'm confident that I can get it all blended...not worried about that. The corner strip would certainly add some strength to the corner joint, and the resin on the whole thing would protect the wood.

Thanks for the input guys!

[Pmullen503]

Over the long haul, you'll be glad you used cloth under the epoxy. I have a couple boats where I used just resin over the wood trim and it doesn't last out in the weather. Resin only on the interior, OK but not on the outside. I'd use 6 oz at least on the front and roof (hail and sun) but 4 oz on the sides would save you some resin.

[Atomic77]

Over the long haul, you'll be glad you used cloth under the epoxy. I have a couple boats where I used just resin over the wood trim and it doesn't last out in the weather. Resin only on the interior, OK but not on the outside. I'd use 6 oz at least on the front and roof (hail and sun) but 4 oz on the sides would save you some resin.

And why would you say that it failed? Was it just epoxy only? Any UV inhibitor? Was it primed or topcoated? I'm curious to know how using cloth keeps the epoxy from failing?

[Pmullen503]

This was used over solid wood with a marine varnish with UV inhibitor. I believe the failure mode involved the expansion and contraction of the wood caused the resin to start to delaminate. Over time this gets bad enough that water can get to the wood and accelerate the process. It took about 5 yrs before it was noticeable. I still have that boat and it's almost 30 yrs old. The epoxy and cloth covered wood is still fine. BTW it was a huge PIA to get that resin off the wood to refinish it as I recall.

Using cloth plus resin reinforces the resin layer providing a more stable, longer lasting barrier layer.

[Atomic77]

Hm... Makes sense. Thanks for the info.

[OP827]

Glass cloth and epoxy would certainly work. 6 oz cloth with bias tape on the joints should be adequate. UV protection for the epoxy would be needed.

I am going with 6oz too in my build and one layer feels good enough, even over the XPS foam, not plywood. If there is plywood, then it is almost seems an overkill, but 6 oz cloth maybe easier to work with than lighter cloth as some people on this board mentioned from their experience.

[OP827]

Hm... Makes sense. Thanks for the info.

And laying fiberglass cloth over the 2D surface is quite easy and straightforward too, right? At least this is what I have found in my build..

[Travellingchris]

I am covering my camper in fiberglass, since it's all rounded and there are no complex shape, I am going with 18oz woven roving over foam. The result should be great, I tested it on a small scale model and it worked great.

Good luck,

Chris

[COMPAL55]

I concur, it is done all the time. I am currently building one, and almost three quarters of the way for completion. I got a little lucky on mine, a buddy of mine had about 40 truck tonneau covers he needed to get rid of, so I pieced two halves together to make the walls and same for the floor, would not reccomend for floor; it is durable but not adequate, would do wood panel floor and cover with fiberglass. So the reason the tonneau covers work is because it is a sandwich layup, consisting of one fiberglass layer on front and back of the paper honey comb (aprox. one inch thick) . 1) it cut my cost cause it was free 2) the panel is already insulated cause of the honey comb paper core 3)not sure how much weight savings vs just wood....didn't matter cause I got it all up in a few days. in the end it seems like less maintenance than just wood or alluminum, probably use some good quality car paint to finish; but yes the wood and aluminum does look alot better.......lol looks like ur on the right track there are a lot of folks here that seem to know what to do, keep digging this is a great web site with extensive ideas.......