perhaps a "finishes, paints, and coatings" subforum?

[jeff0520]

I've noticed a lot of questions come up about different paints and coatings, from roof coating to undercoating, and exerything in between. Maybe a separate subforum would make it easier to find the right info.
Thanks

[kd5edj63]

I think that would be a good thing. I have been searching all day on the forums and found little info on this specific issue

[Esteban]

I agree that It would help. More and more people are building teardrop trailers that are not aluminum skinned. It would help to have an area to discuss varnishing, painting, and fiberglassing. Now the information is very scattered. BTW I recently added information to the epoxy user's manual thread with links to suppliers and good how-to information.

Here is a linky to a resins, fiberglass and paint sub-forum at a boat builders website.

[kd5edj63]

I checked out the epoxy video. Looks like a good product. I wonder how much it would take and cost to do the outside of a TD

[Esteban]

I checked out the epoxy video. Looks like a good product. I wonder how much it would take and cost to do the outside of a TD

How many square feet would you need to epoxy and or fiberglass? A 4' x 8' teardrop would need less than a 5' x 10'. The profile would make some difference too as would your choice to make your own doors or to buy pre-made doors. Figure out how many square feet you want to cover and add maybe another 15-20% for waste.

Fiberglass cloth comes in different weights (per square yard). 4 oz. and 6 oz. are two commonly used cloth weights. In general one fluid ounce of epoxy and hardener will be used for each ounce (weight) of cloth. So 9 square feet (1 square yard) of 4 oz. fabric will need 4 oz. of resin and hardener. One gallon of resin and hardener has 128 ounces...so it can cover up to 32 square yards if you used 4 oz. cloth. There will be some waste for brushes, rollers and mixing pots so your actual coverage would be less. 6 oz. cloth would cover somewhat less than 24 sq. yards per gallon of epoxy and hardener.

Some people cover everything with epoxy and cloth (my preference) others coat all the wood with multiple coats of epoxy and only use fiberglass tape on the seams. Both ways can work. Years ago I helped a friend who had to sand down his epoxied and painted (it had no reinforcing fabric) camper to bare plywood for an epoxy do over because the plywood cracked (checked) over time. If it had been fiberglassed (with reinforcing cloth) it would not have cracked/checked. That memory strongly influences my preference.

The Laughing Loon link Updated 9/10/13 How-to Make a Transparent Glass Lay-up details step by step "good practices" for fiberglassing and is well worth reading and to print a copy to keep handy in a reference folder or notebook. One of his main points is to roll on epoxy in multiple thin layers so it flattens out better with the fewest air bubbles. It will then take much less sanding and filling to fair (smooth) it out when it's built up.

If you use epoxy you may use it for more than just covering the sides, roof, and hatch. It is a good sealer for wood that will get varnished.
Varnish and Epoxy~ a Professional Wood Finish YouTube video shows how it's done.



You can find many YouTube videos for fiberglassing kayaks and canoes to help learn fiberglassing techniques.







edited to practice adding Youtube videos

[mikeschn]

Good idea Jeff...

I'll look at that this weekend!

Mike...

[kd5edj63]

I checked out the epoxy video. Looks like a good product. I wonder how much it would take and cost to do the outside of a TD

How many square feet would you need to epoxy and or fiberglass? A 4' x 8' teardrop would need less than a 5' x 10'. The profile would make some difference too as would your choice to make your own doors or to buy pre-made doors. Figure out how many square feet you want to cover and add maybe another 15-20% for waste.

Fiberglass cloth comes in different weights (per square yard). 4 oz. and 6 oz. are two commonly used cloth weights. In general one fluid ounce of epoxy and hardener will be used for each ounce (weight) of cloth. So 9 square feet (1 square yard) of 4 oz. fabric will need 4 oz. of resin and hardener. One gallon of resin and hardener has 128 ounces...so it can cover up to 32 square yards if you used 4 oz. cloth. There will be some waste for brushes, rollers and mixing pots so your actual coverage would be less. 6 oz. cloth would cover somewhat less than 24 sq. yards per gallon of epoxy and hardener.

Some people cover everything with epoxy and cloth (my preference) others coat all the wood with multiple coats of epoxy and only use fiberglass tape on the seams. Both ways can work. Years ago I helped a friend who had to sand down his epoxied and painted (it had no reinforcing fabric) camper to bare plywood for an epoxy do over because the plywood cracked (checked) over time. If it had been fiberglassed (with reinforcing cloth) it would not have cracked/checked. That memory strongly influences my preference.

The Laughing Loon link Updated 9/10/13 How-to Make a Transparent Glass Lay-up details step by step "good practices" for fiberglassing and is well worth reading and to print a copy to keep handy in a reference folder or notebook. One of his main points is to roll on epoxy in multiple thin layers so it flattens out better with the fewest air bubbles. It will then take much less sanding and filling to fair (smooth) it out when it's built up.

If you use epoxy you may use it for more than just covering the sides, roof, and hatch. It is a good sealer for wood that will get varnished.
Varnish and Epoxy~ a Professional Wood Finish YouTube video shows how it's done.

You can find many YouTube videos for fiberglassing kayaks and canoes to help learn fiberglassing techniques.

Thank you The square foot coverage is helpful. I probably wouldnt opt to use cloth

[mikeschn]

Skinning secrets subforum started. It's about halfway down in the general discussion forum!

Have fun!

Mike...

[Esteban]

Glad the epoxy coverage information was helpful. Epoxy and fiberglass is much lighter than aluminum and cost competitive. If you want to practice do it on some scrap plywood or on the bottom of the floor where (near) perfect smoothness isn't an issue. That's how I began to get comfortable using epoxy (from Raka).

If you only use epoxy to coat your plywood be careful not to use douglas fir plywood (without reinforcing cloth) which is highly likely to crack or check. Cracking/checking is more likely to happen in curved areas under tension stress but flat parts of my friends teardrop cracked/checked too. His plywood was (marine grade?) fir.

BTW I practiced (edited) adding YouTube videos in my above post. Hooray they work!

[kd5edj63]

I plan to use baltic birch. As someones sig states, "the cost is soon forgotten, the quality is remembered forever" or something to that effect