Buy her a VW. You will get the same trouble but with longer intervals. I had an old Passat, a Chico 1.4 (man, I miss the zippy little thing) and I am on my 3rd Jetta. That little Chico lost only R20 000 in value over 5 years. Great re-sale value and they're not named city for nothing. They can take a gap in the traffic like the nothing else (for their class). Some of these other small cars are like walking off a cliff, when you put your foot down there is nothing!!!
I was really impressed by the ammount of work and
- Thread starter tauruck
- Start date
RobertG123
New member
Hey guys
What happened to the fireglass leason
Robert
What happened to the fireglass leason
Robert
Tyrone ter bruggen
Senior Member
Ja!!! Bump Bump...
I never saw it until today.
@ Robert, thank you for digging this one out of the Archives!!! You obviously have allot of time on your hands to dig this deep!!
@ Tauruck, Hey Dude!!! Why didn't i hear of this thread??? You done dealing with Fiat problems yet??? Dont suppose you have any time to teach us guys that were born with 2 left hands...???
I never saw it until today.
@ Robert, thank you for digging this one out of the Archives!!! You obviously have allot of time on your hands to dig this deep!!
@ Tauruck, Hey Dude!!! Why didn't i hear of this thread??? You done dealing with Fiat problems yet??? Dont suppose you have any time to teach us guys that were born with 2 left hands...???
Big Gray wrote:
I like you already dude.
Ford is my thing but unfortunately we don't get "REAL" Fords here.
Front wheel drives and badge engineered stuff from all the wrong places.
In defence of the Fiats my missus bought, the Uno has 499,000ks on the clock and it's still on the original clutch and the motor doesn't smoke or has never been opened.
I tuned Fiat SA that they should give the little woman an award or something. They seemed to think that it is normal wear and tear.
I like you already dude.
Ford is my thing but unfortunately we don't get "REAL" Fords here.
Front wheel drives and badge engineered stuff from all the wrong places.
In defence of the Fiats my missus bought, the Uno has 499,000ks on the clock and it's still on the original clutch and the motor doesn't smoke or has never been opened.
I tuned Fiat SA that they should give the little woman an award or something. They seemed to think that it is normal wear and tear.
Back to the Fibreglass topic. I decided to fix a crack in one of my storage boxes on the duck, my first ever fibreglass project ...
Step 1 Aquire Fibreglass and resin
Step 2 Look for an old paintbrush, couldn't find one, went to buy an al-cheepo packet of 3
Step 3 Apply resin to box, stick fibreglass on resin and proceed to coat liberally with more resin
Step 4 Try to get hands clean
The next day I came back and had a look, fibreglass and resin still wet, so was the day after that and the day after that.
Now it is "Who wants to be a millionare" time ... phone a friend.
Why didn't anyone tell me that you are supposed to put hardener with the resin before I started???
Step 1 Aquire Fibreglass and resin
Step 2 Look for an old paintbrush, couldn't find one, went to buy an al-cheepo packet of 3
Step 3 Apply resin to box, stick fibreglass on resin and proceed to coat liberally with more resin
Step 4 Try to get hands clean
The next day I came back and had a look, fibreglass and resin still wet, so was the day after that and the day after that.
Now it is "Who wants to be a millionare" time ... phone a friend.
Why didn't anyone tell me that you are supposed to put hardener with the resin before I started???
MouseDog wrote:
Don't feel bad.
Boet, even the pros screw up.
If you haven't done that, you haven't worked with the stuff.
Best thing is peel off the uncured stuff, clean the area with Acetone and start over.
I would sugest that you always sand the area to be repaired so that you get a mechanical bond versus a chemical one as in the original lay up.
That way you won't get your repair delaminating.
Don't feel bad.
Boet, even the pros screw up.
If you haven't done that, you haven't worked with the stuff.
Best thing is peel off the uncured stuff, clean the area with Acetone and start over.
I would sugest that you always sand the area to be repaired so that you get a mechanical bond versus a chemical one as in the original lay up.
That way you won't get your repair delaminating.
RobertG123
New member
I am in a month or so going to start to build my own baitboat. I have never done anything like this before so it will be learn as you go.
I have looked at various materials to make the model out of and have basically decided on polystyrean. I have been looking for blue foam but can not find a supplier of it.
Robert
I have looked at various materials to make the model out of and have basically decided on polystyrean. I have been looking for blue foam but can not find a supplier of it.
Robert
Use washing poweder in tap water (do NOT use hot or warm water) to clean your fiberglass stuff with. Acitone is expensive and can be dangerous.
Sondor makes a blue foam, it's closed cell and you can glass on it with polyester resin. You 'paint' the foam first before you apply the glass, it makes a 100% bond.
There is a chemical for sale that 'softens' your old fiberglass so you get a better bond, ask Harvey fiberglass what it is.
When you've done glassing, put peel ply over the glass and brush or roller it like you would a layer. When dry rip the peel ply off and you have a smooth surface with much less work to get it smooth.
Don't use more resin than required, it just adds weight, you need just enough resin to wet the glass properly. The ideal ratio is 2 parts glass and one part resin or 50% resin for the glass's weight. It is difficult to obtain this ratio with hand layup, you may want to look at resin infusion.
Sondor makes a blue foam, it's closed cell and you can glass on it with polyester resin. You 'paint' the foam first before you apply the glass, it makes a 100% bond.
There is a chemical for sale that 'softens' your old fiberglass so you get a better bond, ask Harvey fiberglass what it is.
When you've done glassing, put peel ply over the glass and brush or roller it like you would a layer. When dry rip the peel ply off and you have a smooth surface with much less work to get it smooth.
Don't use more resin than required, it just adds weight, you need just enough resin to wet the glass properly. The ideal ratio is 2 parts glass and one part resin or 50% resin for the glass's weight. It is difficult to obtain this ratio with hand layup, you may want to look at resin infusion.
MichaelK
Sealiner
Right any suggestions for my ski boat.
I have a mono hull super dolphin and from beaching, even though i have a keel strip the gel coat on the hull has worn through to the clear fiberglass.
What do you guys suggest i do to have this sorted out?????
I'd rather try sorted out myself with your advise before taking it into a dealer.
I have a mono hull super dolphin and from beaching, even though i have a keel strip the gel coat on the hull has worn through to the clear fiberglass.
What do you guys suggest i do to have this sorted out?????
I'd rather try sorted out myself with your advise before taking it into a dealer.
tauruck wrote:
Just my 2c,wash your hands and brush with soap powder under water as hot as you can stand ,cheaper than acetone
I was really impressed by the ammount of work and dedication Hooch put into his cooler project. I thought about all the time and effort both he and I have put into projects. How do we learn things. By trial and error (My preferred Method), instruction and on advice of others. Working with Fibreglass or the mere suggestion of it leaves most mere mortals running for the hills screaming. Nobody wants to itch and get sticky resin all over themselves and still end up with an abortion on the work bench. In this thread I want to help those that are interested in the "Black Art" make their next experience with composites a lekker one. Terminolgy first. Fibreglass is glass manufactured like the normal stuff. Melted to a high viscosity liquid and in this case is forced through a die under high pressure. It comes out the other end of the syringe type needle as a very fine hair that is glass but because it's so thin it's flexible. From this all forms are made. The most common one is what most people are used to seeing, CSM or Chopped Strand Matte. General purpose stuff made in different weights and fibre lengths. Then there are woven fabrics in many different forms and weights from 40gr/M up to 600. The big misnomer is that fibreglass eats polyester. Fibreglass does not eat anything at all. It's glass, the same thing you drink your dop out of. The resin is what eats polystyrene. The resin in question is Polyester. The stuff that you find in hardware stores in little tins with a plastic bottle bottle of evil smelling hadener. General purpose stuff at huge cost because the middleman figured a way to buy a drum, decant it and charge more than the price of gold for 500ml. Polyester has it's pros and cons but for the purpose of this little tutorial all I can say in laymans terms is that this resin contains chemicals that break down and destroy Polystyrene. To save those of you much PT with all kinds of barrier coatings like PVA paint etc the anwer is to use Epoxy resin on your Polystyrene coolers. It is more expensive and mixing needs to be more accurate but you will use less than half the material for a lighter, stronger and way better looking finished product.
 This is a photo of the Pattern/plug for the forward hatch I'm doing for my fishing ski. What I did was cut plywood sourced from a Harley Davidson crate to the desired shape and size. I made the ribs to fit and bonded them to the base with wood glue. Polystyrene blocks were then bonded into place with the same glue and preliminary shaping was done.
Just my 2c,wash your hands and brush with soap powder under water as hot as you can stand ,cheaper than acetone