how i built a fiberglass teardrop

[asianflava]

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:42 pm Post subject: Re: how i built a fiberglass teardrop

Well good for you, I have no time to sit and decifer nonsense.
Randy

How does this contribute to the thread????? There's a button on the corner of your post for deleting things you want to retract.

Before you jump all over Randy's buisness, that was quoted from someone else earlier in this thread.

[Nitetimes]

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:42 pm Post subject: Re: how i built a fiberglass teardrop

Well good for you, I have no time to sit and decifer nonsense.
Randy

How does this contribute to the thread????? There's a button on the corner of your post for deleting things you want to retract.

Before you jump all over Randy's buisness, that was quoted from someone else earlier in this thread.

And I don't think he has any immediate plans for retracting it.

[glassice]

now -now- even the poster steal bother to read it .I apologies to anyone that got upset for what i posted pUT i have a lot going on at this time on my plate . fiberglass bis ,car restoring bis. moveing to NV build ind a paper Crete house a Small bio diesel plant and by march a large fish farm .Boy i glad i am retied and all with ! good arm got t bone by a drunk driver

[glassice]

I have installed my ribs with the foam you don't real need them BUT it better to over build by a 100 times than 1 time under. to make the horizon i got 2 piece of 1ln angle iron wax 4 rows of 1.5 oz mat then clamp together ( high tech. compression molding like a Corette) .On the hatch i made 2 ribs one on each side 6in wide foam Field thats a extra 1 in in the center

[GHOSTSSX]

welidongithepictursorthewurds

chk

[glassice]

if you look at the album there more pic that go with the words thanks

[Gage]

glassice, are you going to be able to make it to Shasta next year? I still think you have me mixed up with someone else. Is this your truck?

[glassice]

When is it ? No my truck is in the middle of my wilows shop will have to use a slap dent puller key they work on all cars

[glassice]

WARRING for the one that have stop by and are build ing the same you need to set the cabinets be for you install the bulk heads i piece cabinet WONT fit through the hatch sorry you may need to cut out the bulk head and slide cabinet through the doors and slide back and re-glass the bulkhead sorry

[brian_bp]

I only recently started following T&TTT, and plunged into this topic today... it took a while!

... I built my "Glass" trailer with a wood frame and insides and used foam as an insulating and forming medium on the outside, them used the glass as a outer structural skin to shape and hold things to together...

Gaston, that is a beautiful piece of work!

The construction method - and the reasoning behind it - make perfect sense to me. Many homebuilt aircraft have been built with fiberglass-over-foam, so it is a proven effective technique. I do wonder about one aspect: with the shape being determined by the foam, and the outer surface not formed in a mould, isn't there an enormous amount of surface finishing work required?

Could you share with us a little more detail regarding the materials, if only for comparison with the materials which glassice is using? For instance, the type of foam (presumably rigid and sandable to form the shape), the 'glass (mat, cloth, chopper gun...), and is that nice glossy surface paint or gelcoat?

The fiberglass must be effectively bonded to the foam; if the interior panels are also bonded to the foam, then the foam is more than insulation - it is the core of a structural sandwich. Did you glue the foam to the panels?

[glassice]

You don't need a mold and very Little bod work it fast easy make a panel 20 foot long how to do is post earlier then cut foam for side wet out glass on smooth board use a roller then be for glass set up put side foam down with blocks are bag of sand to hold down trim .roll top over. Bond sides add top foam lay out in side then fell in out side corner smooth out with paint tarp over wet corners let set then sand to shape cut doors add floors cut hatch that all for the shell

[grant whipp]

Hey, glassice!

"Shasta" - otherwise know as the Dam Gathering of the Tears ('07 will be the 14th year) - is May 3-6 at Antlers Campground & RV Park in Lakehead, CA, right on Lake Shasta (hence the nicknamme "Shasta") and just 25 miles north of Redding. Hope you can make it!

In the meantime, please PM me @ [email protected] with your phone number and address ... I'd like to come down and visit you before you make your jump to Nevada, check out what you're doing, maybe clear a few things up for the folks here who seem confused but very interested. You can also call me and leave a message at either 530-275-6728 (office) or 530-242-6452 (shop). I look forward to hearing from you, and my subsequent visit! 'Til later, then ...

CHEERS!

Grant

[brian_bp]

...wet out glass on smooth board use a roller then ...

So, glassice, if I understand this correctly you are suggesting saturating the 'glass cloth with resin on a smooth board, then transferring it to the trailer? I have heard of this technique (Andrew described it in another forum), but it seems really awkward for large areas.

Gaston, is this how you did your fiberglass?

...cut doors add floors cut hatch...

I can understand in a normal moulding that it is easier to cut openings from a complete panel than to mould the openings; however, in this method it would seem to me that if you cut the openings through the foam and interior panels first, then laid on the fiberglass, the 'glass could wrap into the opening edges for better strength. Does this make sense to anyone?

[glassice]

hi to do the side first then you can set it a side .Step 1the best is a piece of 5/8 melamine (plywood white and smooth) or 1/8 hard board (page board with no holes)lay flat wax with part all .step 2 cut 1in foam for sides . step 3 roll cheep gel coat let flash roll coat 2 .Then find friend are kid may be a smart dog to help lift 10 lb are so of foam and take a piece of wood and add some nails 5 are 6 at 6in are so apart then poke bunch of holds in the foam.step 3 pre cut mat to shape of side 1 in are bigger then get FOAM roller . on the mat DON'T need to be 1 piece MAKE sure that that seams don't cover on #2 layer wet out your flat board .but mat down roll out some res. let set a minuet a so then roil it out (no dry spots) put layer 2 down wet out take foam (that what you need the dog for)wet out the shinier side lay down on the wet mat put kids wife send cold beer to me to hold foam down then cut mat 1 layer (you will add more later)that 1in are so less then the foam after 2 day wet out foam move kids and wet out mat on foam the next day you'll have out side walls MORE TO COME the pic is the floor but the wall will look like this but smooth

[glassice]

BRIAN-P for most just do as i piece then cut out that way if you get a small whoopee it look the same . if you look at the pic i put up next week a so it will show how to trim the doors and hatch i think pic will show better look at the pic. in album at the door open . I have move the trailers to Nev i just have mold to do 12 in fenders in ca.so 1 week there 1 week Ca. but will get lots of pic to help