Fibreglassing - upsidedown

[denisb]

Any hints on fibreglassing upsidedown without -

- Dripping resin everywhere, god that stuff stings when it goes off.
- The CSM coming away from what your trying to stick over etc

I am trying to stick some additional roll cage mounting points to the roof on my car (AM Sportscars EX2) so don't have the option of getting things the right way up and can't be bothered to take a mould etc.

Thanks

[steve_d]

Should be straight forward enough. Paint some resin on first then stipple the matt into it. A proper layup of resin and matt should have enough resin to wet the matt but not to leave a glossy wet surface. Therefore it should not be sufficiently wet to drip.

The only dripping will be if you have too much resin on the brush.

Steve

[cinqster]

Get yourself some colloidal silica to mix into the resin from a good chandlers (West Systems have it in their range) It thinkens the resin up and was designed to be used for this very purpose!

Be sure to use a mask when you open the container as the particals are lighter than air and probably not best ingested!

Edited by cinqster on Monday 17th July 14:14

[ricola]

and don't try and do too big a piece or too many layers at once or gravity will take over!

Rich

[grahambell]

Would advise covering anything important with bin bags to catch what drips because if using normal resin it will drip everywhere. I speak from experience after filling in the sunroof on a mate's Saphire Cossie...

Best wear a hat too.

That silica stuff might make all the difference but haven't used it myself, though sounds like it's worth giving a go.

By the way, always loved the EX2, vastly underated kit that really deserved to succeed. Good luck with it.

[Avocet]

Mix a bit of gelcoat resin with the laminating resin you're using. Gelcoat is basically just laminating resin with a thickener (like colloidal silica) already mixed in. Be careful about putting too much in because it will stay tacky forever and a day! Ideally, you need to get some with a bit of wax added to it to make it go off properly. Any fibreglass supplier ought to be able to sell you a bit of wax in styrene to add but follow the instructions carefully!

Better still, if you're trying to bond on to existing fibreglass, use epoxy resin rather than polyester. You use it in just the same way and it sticks to fibreglass that's already been cured a lot better than polyester resin. It's also much easier to wet-out the mat with it. Most boat chandlers will sell 1kg "project packs" of epoxy.

[denisb]

grahambell said:

Would advise covering anything important with bin bags to catch what drips because if using normal resin it will drip everywhere. I speak from experience after filling in the sunroof on a mate's Saphire Cossie...

Best wear a hat too.

That silica stuff might make all the difference but haven't used it myself, though sounds like it's worth giving a go.

By the way, always loved the EX2, vastly underated kit that really deserved to succeed. Good luck with it.

EX2 - They are still going but not selling in quantities because they are in a funny market segment. They are now trying to go after the 'practical track day' market and hopefully will sell more. If they had stuck something like a Cosworth Turbo in the demonstrator from the outset it would probably have done a lot better, the original demonstrator had little 'wow factor'. Mines, erm, a bit modified and it should be interesting to see how it does in the Castle Combe GT series, NW Sports & Saloons etc and against all the 911 GT3RS I usually do track days with.

Thanks for the advice, I just put up with the drips for the moment and have finished the job. Just got to clear up the mess!

I think part of my problem it I just keep buying "Davids Fastglass" from Halfords rather than the real stuff.