My fiberglassing experience - So far

[BiaBia 10+ year member]

So far I am just about done with the mold itself. The pictures you see went 2 layers of resin, fiberglass, resin, then fiberglass and resin again. So all in all, 2 layers of fiberglass and 4 layers of resin. It's drying right now, but before when I just had the mold, it was strong as hell.

It will probably house 8'' woofers, depending on how much airspace I have. I will estimate how much once it dries.

Updates will be coming too, so stay tuned.

EDIT : BTW, the white spots you see is tape that I couldnt' get off. It will be painted so it won't show.

Click to read more...

 

[pj_chevy03 10+ year member]

what do u mean a layer of fiberglass then a layer of resin? they're the same thing arent they?

 

[Bigrick31 10+ year member]

there is fiberglass matt and then there is fiberglass resin.

 

[lotas 10+ year member]

what do u mean a layer of fiberglass then a layer of resin? they're the same thing arent they?

fiberglass mat is the physical sheet of fiberglass...cloth like material. The reason is what is painted or dabbed onto/into it which hardens.

the resin is like a gooey liquid that smells

 

[robbie_turner 10+ year member]

wouldn't bother with just putting down layers of resin with out the fibre it will be brittle a sure way to make it crack. i would a a few more layers if i was you

 

[Damaso87 10+ year member]

wouldn't bother with just putting down layers of resin with out the fibre it will be brittle a sure way to make it crack. i would a a few more layers if i was you

He isnt putting a massive sub in there, so it shouldnt matter

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

yea, hardened resin is quite brittle by itself. the fiberglass is what makes the whole stucture strong.

just try and keep the amount of air bubbles down. and its a great idea to use the resin as the 'first layer'... this way you can 'stick' your matte down onto the resin and get it to adhere where you want it to.

i found that by doing a layer of resin, then sticking as much cloth in small 4in^2 ~ 8in^2 rectangles\squares\strips onto your surface then painting\dabbing it all with another layer works fastest. always use one hand for laying the glass, and the other for painting so you dont get the glass stuck to yourself. and try to extend past the edge of your box by like 2" to keep the thickness uniform. you can always trim down, but its a pain in the ass to extend //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

and always use MDF anywhere you can. its much cheaper and eaiser than glassing //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

i would try and do 4~5 layers of glass matte anyway. the pressure will still flex and change the resonant freq of the box. youd be surprised.

and the last thing you do should be sanding with a really rough grit (40 or so) and getting most or all of the lumps weird bumps that occur when glassing (it will happen no matter how careful you are) and then paint it ALL with a nice layer of resin to smooth it all out. will make sanding and painting a thousand times eaiser. and an angle grinder will do it even quicker!

hopefully that helps //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[robbie_turner 10+ year member]

He isnt putting a massive sub in there, so it shouldnt matter

in my opinion its not worth putting down layers of just resin it is not going to give it any strength at all. Waste of time unless it’s the last layer where your trying to smooth the lumps out. Even then I would recommend using filler and sanding

 

[bcarpenterfhl 10+ year member]

do you always have to use body filler when you want to paint it? if so, is it necessary to sand the glass down before you apply the body filler? and you you body fill the entire area you want to paint?

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

in my opinion its not worth putting down layers of just resin it is not going to give it any strength at all. Waste of time unless it’s the last layer where your trying to smooth the lumps out. Even then I would recommend using filler and sanding

he isnt putting down 'layers of just resin' he put a layer down first to get the glass to adhere to the walls\floor better. then you put resin on that, then stick the next layer to it, then paint that, and repeat.

a sandwich of resin and matte\weave will bet the best because you want the resin to permiate (sp?) the matte\weave as best as possible. and a bit on the front and back will do it best without lots of airbubbles to squish out (at least this is what i found works best)

by all means, dont blob it on, but make sure the glass is semi-transparent in all areas, otherwise its not coated enough. a wooden 1~3" wide roller works great to help get bubbles and crap out too. id invest the $5 (i still need one) they come in handy. but you will want to soak them in acetone between layers or they will gum up and become unusable. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

but a single layer of resin wont help the structure. the glass is what makes it strong- if that is your point - i agree 100% //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[robbie_turner 10+ year member]

he isnt putting down 'layers of just resin' he put a layer down first to get the glass to adhere to the walls\floor better. then you put resin on that, then stick the next layer to it, then paint that, and repeat.
a sandwich of resin and matte\weave will bet the best because you want the resin to permiate (sp?) the matte\weave as best as possible. and a bit on the front and back will do it best without lots of airbubbles to squish out (at least this is what i found works best)

by all means, dont blob it on, but make sure the glass is semi-transparent in all areas, otherwise its not coated enough. a wooden 1~3" wide roller works great to help get bubbles and crap out too. id invest the $5 (i still need one) they come in handy. but you will want to soak them in acetone between layers or they will gum up and become unusable. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

but a single layer of resin wont help the structure. the glass is what makes it strong- if that is your point - i agree 100% //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

sorry i thought he was just putting a layer of resin down letting that dry and then putting a layer of glass and resin down.

 

[robbie_turner 10+ year member]

do you always have to use body filler when you want to paint it? if so, is it necessary to sand the glass down before you apply the body filler? and you you body fill the entire area you want to paint?

i always try and sand down as much of the glass as possible. then add the filler to get a smooth surface. With all my projects so far I have found that the Fiberglassing is the easy bit. I tend to spend twice the time on the sanding and filling.

you will then start to get patches where there filler and the glass starts to join. see my pic of an old project.

you can paint straight onto the glass as long as you use some sort of primer don’t worry i will stick

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

yep, its not about having a coat of filler for the paint to stick to, its about getting the surface baby-ass-smooth.

thats what painting is about. when im glassing, i tend to glass about 3 layers at a time... when i go to work on it again, i grind off all the unwanted 'edges, hairs and bumps' that will be sticking out... and i guarantee there will be lots of these. then ill finish up the last few layers, and when it dries, grind it all down again and apply a coat of resin. then i start with the filler, sand, prime, sand, fill, prime, sand, fill, prime, paint, sand, paint, sand, paint, clearcoat, sand clearcoat, sand, clearcoat, cut n buff, wax.

that is basically it. fiberglassing = easy, painting a gloss finish = time consuming and a pain in the ass.

carpet = the way to go //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[bevo993071 10+ year member]

So the process to fiber glass is:

Tape it off like non other

Paint a layer of resin

Fiber glass strips

resin

Repeat a lot of time

Sand it down and then if I am carpeting it (this is for my moms car so it needs to look clean

and factory) if i am carpeting it just cover it and im pretty much done...

oh yeah, and use MDF for the rings and all, i know that much

 

[robbie_turner 10+ year member]

that is basically it. fiberglassing = easy, painting a gloss finish = time consuming and a pain in the ass.

carpet = the way to go //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

or what about wrapping it in a carbonfiber vinyl I got a nice result. It wasn’t a box, but the next time I make one I think that’s what I might do