bad day, my trailer got an "owie"

[Borrego Dave]

[ Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you. Good luck, Raz[/QUOTE]

Good comment Raz.....the bear has eaten me too, dang it

[greg489]

Mike, I agree with Melanie. When I was visiting Snoozy factory two months ago I never saw Alan and only dealt with Richard whom I thought was very customer oriented and approachable. I asked him about Alan, and other than avoiding talking about him, sorta led me to believe he was the man in charge now. He's who I've been contacting ever since.
FYI: I am an old burned out surfer from the 70's and have repaired many dings in boards. I've poured solid resin in many 1/2" d x 2" w holes, waited until it cured and buffed it down smooth. Worked good enough back then to keep the core foam from sucking in water. Just my two cents.

That is a nasty smack though. Bet you felt sick.

[Perry J]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

My Lil Hauley (Snoozy shell) contacted my old SUV while I was backing into the driveway. The SUV suffered a small hole in the side of the taillight.

This was a 2 or 3 mph impact. I thought, surely the Hauley will just have some rub marks at most.

Wrong!

Attachment 76159

This trailer is a lot more fragile than I thought. the outer skin and sandwiched cured resin both crumbled into tiny pieces. I thought fiberglass contained glass fibers? I don't see them.

Now I have to come up with a DIY fix of some sort. Not sure what to do. Thinking about Bondo.

Bondo makes a product called BONDO-GLASS.
It's made for fiberglass boats, truck cabs and fenders and also will fill holes in rusted out metal.

I have used it several times on different Eggs I've rehabbed.
It works well and will fill holes up to 1/2 inch deep.
It would be just the thing for your damaged corner.
Just mix the hardener with enough BONDO to fill the hole, level it off as close as you can to the body and when it hardens sand it down and your done.
A final wet sanding will give you as smooth a finish as the adjoining fiberglass.

John

John

[Melanie B in NC]

Mike - have you settled on how to repair? And have you heard from Richard Mickle?

[Mike Magee]

Richard did write back and said he was having his fiberglass guy, Carl Cannon, get in touch with me. Carl wrote on Friday and said this:

Sorry to hear about your issue. Fiberglass repairs are not very difficult. Walmart or a local parts store should have a marine fiberglass repair kit. You will have to grind the area in the hole it self and on edge of area, the cracks will have to be ground into and teed off. Clean area with acetone and follow directions on repair kit. The repair didn't look very deep so you should be able to get away with using the marine bondo filler. The color is the trick. I can send some gelcoat to match but you will need to spray that on with a small sprayer or air brush.

I wrote him back and asked for more info about "grind into and tee off" the cracks, which I didn't understand. He replied a bit later that evening (but I was at the River Valley Egg Rally, so I just read it today).

With a dremel grind into the crack to open it up to get to the bottom of the crack to where the fiberglass is not cracked.Tee off means at the end of the crack cut horizontal. To end the crack where in the future the crack doesn't spread.

The folks there have been very responsive and Carl is getting back to me on Monday about the cost of the gelcoat. I would not have thought much about doing the "tee off" to stop further cracking, so it's good that I asked.

By the way, I was thinking that the part I was seeing inside the cratered area was the relatively thin inner surface of the fiberglass sandwich. But BAMA was telling me at the rally that these trailers are something like 3/4" thick, so the crater being less than 1/4" (probably closer to 1/8") deep means it really is more or less a surface wound, relatively speaking.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

The color is the trick. I can send some gelcoat to match but you will need to spray that on with a small sprayer or air brush.[/I]

.

Mike we had a fellow who works for a local bathroom and shower supply company who came to one of our trailer meets and gave us a lesson in doing small fiberglass repairs. He had an assortment of colour tubes for mixing and matching. What he told us was that most companies that do installs of bathtubs and showers have someone on staff that is very good at doing small repairs to them & they are very good at doing the colour match. Apparently fairly common during a build process for a brand new tube or shower or hot tube to be damaged by the tile guys or glass guys or plumbers. Said the general contractor often calls them back in to do minor repairs prior to the home being sold. You may want to check around to see if there is such a company near you who would help with the colour match.

[Mike Magee]

I don't have a sprayer or air brush, so I'm not sure what I will do in that regard. But if the gelcoat stuff from Snoozy is reasonable I will probably buy it anyway and then figure out a way to apply it. If they want too much money for it, though, finding a local bath/shower place might be just the thing... assuming their stuff has decent UV resistance (because tubs and showers don't get much sunlight). Heck, for that matter, glossy paint might work in a pinch.

[Franswa]

it looks like all you did is damage the gelcoat....gelcoat is very brittle (the cracks you mention close to the actual hole)...it's only there to level/smooth the FG mat underneath...

I'd go to a boat/plastics shop and buy a gelcoat repair kit..... tape off the area you are going to work on, including the crack, chip away any loose material and clean well....mix up the product (dead simple) and fill in the "bruise" as smooth as possible....then hand sand it smooth

apart from the appearance your repair is now complete and you could use the trailer as is forever...

now for the appearance, matching the color will be hard to impossible unless you happen to own a body shop.....I'd take my time and look for and find a sticker/stripe or maybe some reflective tape....and apply it to BOTH rear corners of the trailer.....like it was like that from the beginning

[Mike Magee]

Herschel suggested buying a pair of reflectors or lights that would wrap around the edge, and placing one on each side. You and he are on the same track.

It doesn't seem to be getting any worse with daily use. I have a long weekend coming up in mid October and will probably fill it in at that time. It's just a matter of buying the kit and getting around to it. (At one time, my dad had some small wooden disks with the word 'TUIT' printed on them. He would hand one to a friend and they'd say, "what's this?" Dad would reply, "You're always saying you will do something or other when you get around to it... now you have gotten a round TUIT." I guess I need one of those round tuits.

[Paul O.]

A round TUIT is always handy.
Back to your first post - I think the reason you did not see any fiberglass mat in the break is that they most probably do not lay up woven mats of glass. It is in most cases all sprayed up into the molds as chopped fiber and resin and then rolled down tight, so the fiber is randomly oriented and results in different appearance from woven layups.

[greg489]

When I was touring the Snoozy factory I inquired about their FG method. Richard took me to the molds and explained to me how the honeycomb foam inner material and the rolls of glass mat are use. I saw huge rolls of FG cloth in different weights. I'm assuming the structure consist of glass mat that is positioned on both sides of the foam inner core then the resin is pumped into the mold to saturate everything. Oh, I also saw where the lower tub section is actually thicker than the upper section (viewed before entry door was installed). I would say averaging 5/8"-3/4" on the bottom hull section and 3/8"-1/2" on the top. I was told corners are generally thicker too. I was glad to see that, because the lower hull is quite strong & stiff and not as flexible as the top section. Just sharing what I observed.

SAMPLE: The image below shows a scrap piece of the FG wall material on the inside gel coat side. I scratched off some of the white gel coat so you can see the honeycomb inner foam pattern underneath. You can also see where the window has been cut out of the upper wall showing a cutaway of the glass resin, inner foam core, & inner & outer gel coats. You can see the cloth in the resin if you look closely. This is the upper shell section measuring around 3/8" thick. The foam core structure is suppose to make the overall unit lighter in weight without compromising strength, while also adding some insulating properties.

[Mike Magee]

Thanks for posting that great photo.

[VinnyZ]

New to the site but not to dealing with fiberglass repairs. I've found epoxy resins to be much more user friendly than fiberglass resin. One post suggested using silica as a thickener for the FG resin. This product, also known as colloidal silica and cabosil, is used for structural situations and is very difficult to sand. Instead, you might consider using one of the Geougeon Brothers (West Systems Epoxy) thickening products such as Micro-light Fairing thickener as the top coat of the repair. Adding the silica or some chopped glass as a thickener on the base coat(s) is suggested. While I have found Geougeon Brothers (West Systems Epoxy) to have excellent technical support I prefer to use the epoxy sold by Express Composites up in Minn.

[David Tilston]

Vinny, What advantage do you see using expoy, (expensive) over polyester resin. I have heard that the only thing that sticks to epoxy is epoxy. While the West system is popular in boating situations, many don't see a need for it in fibreglass trailers.

I really can't say, since I have only worked with polyester resin. I have found the results very satisfying.

[VinnyZ]

If one were in a production mode then price would be a consideration, for me at least.
The working time for mixed epoxy is easily adjusted by choosing which resin is used (fast, slow and slower).
BTW West Systems G-5 (their 5 minute epoxy) is NOT waterproof.
I've long heard that only epoxy sticks to epoxy but have never had that experience. There are 3 simple things to do in order to assure proper adhesion on epoxy. 1) If fully cured wipe with a damp cloth the aniline by-product which results from the curing process. 2) If fully cured rough up the surface with 80 grit paper after first having wiped with a damp cloth. 3) Best practice is to apply a second coat of epoxy before the first coat cures but after it is firm and still a bit sticky. This creates a chemical bond as opposed to a less desirable physical bond.
Epoxy resins w/o any FG cloth is much stronger than the brittle FG resin w/o FG cloth.
Mixing ratios of hardener to resin is much easier that drop-by-drop FG resin.
Epoxy resins are much stronger and more wear resistant than FG resins.
FG resins require the absence of oxygen to fully cure. This is why one must use curing wax with FG resins.
West systems makes an epoxy, G-Flex, that is design to be used on plastic. It works great for this purpose.

Once you get the hang of using epoxy resin you'll never look back. After using West Systems epoxy for a few years I switched to Adtech resins which is approximately 2/3rds the price of West systems, they flow-out more smoothly and are a bit more flexible than West Systems. I order mine from a family business who are great folks to deal with, Expresscomposites.com.
These reasons are why I use epoxy as opposed to FG resins when making custom canoe paddles or for repairing canoes.