fiberglass tape question

[Larry C]

I found the using plasic wrap to be very useful in getting a super smooth finish. The cloth must be resin rich for it to work well. soak the cloth strip with lots of epoxy and transfer it on the plastic to the work area.
Squeegee the plastic wrap, actually 4mil plastic works great. Tape the edges tight, let it cure and peel off the plastic.
The finish will be perfectly smooth if you didn't have wrinkles in the poly. No fill coats will be required, just some sanding and maybe some fill here and there. I use this method frequently to make small parts with glass & carbon. It's a lot quicker than doing several fill coats. Remember the cloth has to be resin rich or when you pull the plasic there will be strarved areas and voids.

Larry C

[dwgriff1]

Wow. I did not know i would learn so much!

Obviously my experience with all of this is limited and I really do appreciate all of the input.

I have a rotary cutter (I make hand made books and boxes in my spare time) and some cloth, so it will be bias cut cloth!

There was a LOT of experience behind those answers. Thanks each of your for your help.

dave

[dwgriff1]

Thanks everyone for sharing your knowledge.

I ran quite a bit of tape on the bottom of the trailer where I don't care too much if the edges is smooth or not. That will get a couple coats of paint before I flip the trailer on it's feet again.

I did cut come bias cloth as a test and it wrapped around the 1/8 round on a 2 by 4 without any problem, and I pre-wet the tape.

Next week I'll begin work on glassing the sides to the the top.

Thanks again and to all the others who chimed in with wisdom. I'll have this baby back on the road soon!

dave