how i built a fiberglass teardrop

[Classic Finn]

Hmmm... I think 25 years doin fiberglass without a respirator will mess your brain up...

Pickle Juice and Fiberglass dont mix ...

[GPW]

He's doin Fglas and foam TD work ... Hey !!! He's got pictures eh ??? I got plans for a Fg and F TD ...Lets see what he's discovered...????

We live in a "tragically Hip culture" that's not very forgiving of folks who haven't learned the subtilities...Tsk , Tsk !!!

[angib]

I like to use a paint able jelcoat . colorer jel is hard to match if something happens.

Myself, I favour the coloured gel coat as that way minor dinks and scratches can just be polished out - a lot easier/cheaper than the complete respray. And any gel coat can be painted, if you want to.

BUT, if using a coloured gel coat, the vital thing is for the customer to buy some of the pigment used to colour the gel coat, so that they can use it to do repairs. There is some big rule that says if you don't keep some spare pigment either a) the pigment manufacturer will discontinue that colour, b) the pigment manufacturer will go out of business or c) the laminator will go out of business (so you can't find out what pigment was used).

The smart ones among you will notice that this is the same rule that says that the manufacturer of your china will discontinue that line one year before you drop a stack of six plates.....

And if anyone wants a painted moulding you can try the truly frightening system invented by Lotus Cars, which is to spray the paint onto the mould and then laminate onto the paint, so that a finish-painted moulding comes out of the mould!

I use 4 layers of 1.5 oz mat on the out side and 1in high dident foam and 3 layers 1.5 mat on the in side

Thanks for that information - not many people are generous enough to share it.

For anyone not used to reading glass weights, this gives an outer skin of about 5/32" (4mm) and an inner skin of about 1/8" (3mm). The total weight of skins and foam is about 2.5 lb/ft2 (12.2 kg/m2). That's about the same as a single 3/4" thickness of unstiffened plywood or a sandwich construction with 1/4" ply + 3/4" framing + 1/4" ply - so this is not a lightweight alternative!

This design could be built much lighter using glass cloth instead of chopped strand mat - the weight would reduce by about 40% because much less resin is needed for cloth - but the outer skin thickness would reduce to a little over 1/16" (1.8mm) and might be easy to puncture with stones.

Andrew

[glassice]

Andrew so you have sanded fiber glass in the past. The pant you can use here in Calif is watter base it'S hard to paint the mold and not have a wreck and the E.P.A.APROVE jel coat seam to fade and what you can use today you may go to jail tomorrow for and the foam is closed cell watter can not move a round AND THE WHITE FOAM MIGHT MELT. and i use woven on high stress array and on the out side you have to worry about bleed through (it not smooth) .I HOPE THE ONE's THAT NEVER HAVE DONE FIBERGLASS WILL ASK LOT OF IT VERY EASE TO DO BUT YOU CAN WASTE A LOT OF CASH FAST ,ARE A FIRE

[asianflava]

IT VERY EASE TO DO BUT YOU CAN WASTE A LOT OF CASH FAST

You can say that again, especially since the materials aren't cheap. Even though it uses up materials, practice practice practice and try a few experiments before commiting to the actual piece.

[Classic Finn]

Ive tried that fiberglass work once... Well I got it to do what it was supposed to but I personally dont like the smell of it... Gave me such a headache...

I,ll leave that work to others ... especially when they have the experience..

Classic Finn

[Gage]

That damn white truck has really got me confused. Talk about turning a 'Pot Stirrer' around.

Have a good day.

P.S. In reguards to GelCoat. Can you brush it on, then sand it and then wax & polish or is it a spray on. This would be to refurbish a surface (complete).

[angib]

P.S. In reguards to GelCoat. Can you brush it on, then sand it and then wax & polish or is it a spray on. This would be to refurbish a surface (complete).

In order to apply gelcoat to the exterior of something you have to use what's called flowcoat in Britain - this is just gelcoat with a small amount of wax added to it. Normal gelcoat won't completely air-cure: it stays tacky until the first glass layer is laminated onto it. In flowcoat, the wax floats to the surface and forms an airtight skin that enables the gelcoat underneath to fully cure. Of course it then gets in the way of sanding the gelcoat, but it will come off easy enough.

Application by brush or spray works fine, but you wouldn't want to do much of an area by brush unless you have a really good brush technique, or you really like sanding - gelcoat is pretty thick, sticky stuff and you're trying to put on a good thickness of it (say, 5 times the thickness of paint).

Andrew

On edit: Is this for your boat, Gage? If so the first thing is to see if a polish won't bring it up. If it's really bad, you might also sand it, starting at, say, 800 grit, before polishing.

If you're thinking of gelcoat as an alternative to paint, it's the hard way to go and a lot of little detail (non-slip deck surface?) would be completely lost.

[K-1]

I am a carp fisherman .. a hobby that I enjoy tremendously ... a WHAT !! Actually I am the State Chairman in Tennessee for the Carp Anglers Group a national organization. I currently hold the Tennessee State mirror record.
http://pictures.carpanglersgroup.com/cag_records.html scroll down to Tennessee

With that said ... most of my friends in the carp side of my life are foreigners ... carp fishing is huge in places like England, France, and Romania. We have some interesting discussions lol's.

The Brits have names for things that trip me up all the time ... chuffed is one of them ... it's like being proud ... the lew .. is the bathroom, wellies are rubber boots and many more.

I have my hardest time with the fisherman from Romania ... and our fiberglass friend here talks a lot like them.

Some of these people I wouldn't trade for a box full of rednecks

For our fiberglassing friend I would suggest that you type your messages into Microsofts Word with spell check first ... then copy and paste that to a message on this forum .

Seems to be helping my other friends -Wayne-

[angib]

Wayne,

You can get help - if you put 'British-American dictionary' into Google, you'll find several websites.

It would have told you, for example, that the word is 'loo', not 'lew'. But you could also write karsey, netty, excuse-me, bog, crapper, and not more than twenty other words........

Andrew

[K-1]

Wayne,

You can get help - if you put 'British-American dictionary' into Google, you'll find several websites.

It would have told you, for example, that the word is 'loo', not 'lew'. But you could also write karsey, netty, excuse-me, bog, crapper, and not more than twenty other words........

Andrew

That is funny ... I am just a black powder shooting redneck and have been trying to figure these people out on my own lol's. They say something when it comes to a pail of water that still has me wondering ... maybe I can find it there Thanks !!!!!!!!!! -Wayne-

[glassice]

WOW A LONG POST YOU NEED TO PUT DOWN SOME TIP OF GEL NEXT TO THE MOLD TO HELP WITH PIN HOLES AND TO COME OUT OF THE MOLD BUT GO PRICE SOME RED GEL THEN GET OFF THE FLOOR AND IF YOU CAMP LIKE ME IT GOING TO GET SCRATCHED.1# RULE IN GLASS DON'T PUT RESIN IN A COFFEE CUP 2# DON'T GET MAD IT CAN BE FIX 3 DO NOT USE ANY THING THAT HAS WAX AFTER YOU LAY UP PUT CAR WAX ON IT IT WILL CURE IF YOU USE A PAINT BRUSH GO 1 WAY THE BIG SECRET IN GLASS IS CHEEP YELLOW FOAM ROLLERS 3.5 IN WHEN THEY FALL A PART PUT NEW ONE ON WHEN YOU DO GEL DO 3 COATS WITH A ROLLER GOING ONE WAY LET IT FLASH ( YOU CANT SEE YOUR FINGER PRINT WHEN TOUCH) THEN NEXT COAT ARE WE GET AWAY FROM HOW TO DO FIBER GLASS CHEAPLY

[glassice]

G I DON'T KNOW . TO PROTECT THE WHITE FOAM IS EXTRA COST & WORK AND THE H-D FOAM MAKE IT A LOT STRONG and why are you trying to see where i from?............................my mother

[GHOSTSSX]

hmmm....well.....try as I might, I JUST DON'T GET THE PICTURE!!!!!

I hope it's not contaigous!!!

KCUHC

[Jst83]

Me No Follow eather