I gotta do it...I just gotta...

[TPABlazer 10+ year member]

the strands dont stick to the brush much, the wieght of the resin and the stickiness (for lack of better word) hold the matte together.

 

[Acidburn 5,000+ posts]

when working with fiberglass, i prefer the cloth, i find that it doesnt come apart so much, just a personal preference i guess

 

[sumone 10+ year member]

Fiberglassing, take 2:

This was so much easier! why in the world would anyone wanna use a fleece for that! come on Don I'm not an experienced professional like yourself! I used fleece cause I had it on hand and didn't wanna buy fiberglass mat. But when I saw it was only 5 bucks...I had to be kidding myself to use fleece.

First of all, laying the tape was the hardest part again. But once you get start laying the fiberglass and resin&hardener mixture on, it's not that complicated. This time went very smooth, however, I think I got some hardened bubbles and stuff.

To compare with tuesday using fleece, today:

2 3oz. cups of resin,

2 brushes,

took about 20 minutes to lay the resin

when I used the fleece:

5 3oz. cups of resin,

4 brushes,

took about an hour to lay.

Also I do remember Gauntlet's pic of his finished mold and his stuff was pretty brownish/redish. And mines is pretty clear. I guess the good thing is if I need to do another layer, I don't have to be in the car.

tell the truth, I should've re-did the driver's side (the side I did when I used the fleece) cause this stuff went by quick! However, what made me not was the dreaded laying of the tape and I was hungry.

I should be getting my 542 dremel bit soon ($6 off of ebay) and then will be able to cut it. All in all, I think this turned out alright. I will have a pic up of the finished one later on, cause right now it's still in the car curing. Also my batteries ran out (rechargeable) for my camera so wasn't able to take any in-the-process pics.

But I think this is gonna be good.

 

[sumone 10+ year member]

woo hoo...driver & passenger fiberglassed bottom molds are done! I did the driver's side today, replacing the stuff I did with the fleece on tuesday. Today was kinda rough - I think I cause I jumped into like "ok, this is my third time, I know what I'm doin". I ended up kicking over a full cup of resin, spilling half a cup of resin&hardener mixture onto the floor (thank God I had that cut-up plastic bag there!!!), and got a few dabs of resin&hardener on the carpet up by the edges of the carpet, however you can't see anything.

One thing I noticed was that getting the mold up off the tape was kind of hard, even though I did use some petroleum jelly. So when I pulled out the molds, I pulled out the mold AND the tape....lol

Another thing is you shouldn't skimp out on the edges - when the edges get hard and you still got fiberglass strands that are partially resined, you see why they call it fiberglass....lol

Well next step is to trim it, but still waiting for my 542 bit, so as for now....step one is done.

 

[Gauntlet 5,000+ posts]

What brand of resin, and how many layers did you do? The ones in my pictures were 4 layers thick, that's why they're so dark...they look a lot lighter with just 1 layer.

 

[sumone 10+ year member]

I used bondo fiberglass resin - the yellow&blue square gallon can. I only did one layer, and realize I should add at least another layer on to make it stronger. Also the funny part is I can distinguish the actual squares that I had cut up of the fiberglass.

 

[ss3079 5,000+ posts]

Do at least two layers.

I used two mainly because there was no air bubbles to sacrifice the strength of the piece and not a lot of completely flat places that were large.

I suggest doing a minimum of two layers. If you have to stretch your fleece a lot, it will bend the ends. Can't go wrong with 3-4 layers --- do it right the first time //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

- Steve