Fear of Fiberglaassing

[tractors1]

The learning curve of how to do something I found personally rewarding. My dad didn't have the skills to teach me on how to rebuild/restore a 1902 abandoned house I bought. After only 28 years of working on it, I'm finished !!!!!!!!!!!

[FRED SMAILES]

Originally Posted by tractors1

The learning curve of how to do something I found personally rewarding. My dad didn't have the skills to teach me on how to rebuild/restore a 1902 abandoned house I bought. After only 28 years of working on it, I'm finished !!!!!!!!!!!

SO, I'd say that was a confidence builder!!?
Fred

[SteveV]

Originally Posted by Kai in Seattle

EVEN BIGGER UPDATE:


He's halfway done with the TOILET HOLE! The mother of all leaks! The possible original weak place in our shell back when whoever added it thought it was such a great idea, and whatever supposed "expert" "sealed" it with a metal ring and silicone (utterly useless). That hole really baffled him...it was cut through a curved/bent area of the shell floor. Now, after only a little experience, he happily lifted the trailer and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned away ALL the old horribly ineffective silicone (we sure hope so!) taped it shut from below, then put waxed paper on the part of the sticky tape that showed through to the inside, and proceeded. This time he used ONLY mat, no cloth. He probably won't buy cloth again, but has used up nearly all the cloth fellow RV'ers gave him when they looked at the shell.


He's finding out he has all kinds of tools that work well, grinders, sanders, cutters...and has lost his fear of touching the old fiberglass, is ready to cut it away where it needs it, is willing to wait for a cure to set before laying in more...


Really nice to see a man using his own tool!


Wait--that sounds wrong, somehow.


Anyway, very happy here!


Updates to come.

Good to hear your project is moving ahead. As others have mentioned fiberglass repair work can be very forgiving, you just need to get past the initial fear of the unknown. You'll be camping before long now!

[stevebaz]

Well we're hearing good progress now. Hows the cooking going?

[Kai in Seattle]

Hi, cooking is fine, today I'm making dogfood (usually Paul makes it for the pug girls), so it relieves him of that chore. Then I'll make him a pot of his favorite chili, and probably some homemade ice cream, particularly if he keeps fiberglassing even though today is colder than before, in the 30s. Though maybe he'll just go get some butyl rubber tape and clean the curtain rod ends indoors...it IS very cold!

[stevebaz]

Below 40 degrees is bad for laying up composites. You really want to be above 60. This is doable with heat lamps and alternative measures. But at 40 degrees the resin wont properly flow into the micro surface your trying to bond to.
Some of these chemical mixes wont properly cure at such a slow rate. Instead of getting hard and tough they get hard and rubbery which is not what you want in your repair.

[Donna D.]

Steve is correct. Pay attention to the "instructions" on the can. Some caulk/resins, etc. never will setup properly if below the cure temp.... until next summer!

[Kai in Seattle]

Yes, he didn't fiberglass below 40. Today is warmer again, high 48, little heater going and mainly he's prepping. Problem is, we cannot get the floor in until the holes are patched, can't patch the holes until the weather is warm enough, can't put the floor in while the windows are leaking, can't work in the belly band until we have a floor in and the windows redone, can't get the door back in place until the floor is in...it's like one of those scenes where two people pull out their dayplanners and decide they don't have time for lunch until 2030. First one thing, then another! WAIT! No! First six other things!


I'll let him know the FGRV group says he was right not to lay glass in the nearly freezing temps.


You have to admit, though, when the glass is near flash point, it does take the edge off the winter cold!


Ha ha. Kidding.


He got his chili anyway, and will make him a cake today. He said it was too cold for ice cream! (And it really was.)

[Kai in Seattle]

Originally Posted by dbir

With the tremclad rec white - its about a 10 foot job, most people would never notice it now that the trailer is cleaned up - some day i'll get around to shaving the belly band and painting the whole exterior, but its in really good shape, so i'm just living with it for now.

Paul's working on the outside a bit today, the outside portion of his one "through" patch from warmer days last week.


Dale---OK, missed this the first time around, but today we noticed our belly band is completely gel-coated over, including the plastic decorative piece. Seemed like it was "all fiberglass" or something, without screws, but apparently when it was painted brown, they just went right over the top of everything.


SOooooo how do you "shave a belly band?"


You can shave a beard...and you can save a bard--if you shave a beard, you no longer have a beard, but if you shave a bard, you still have a bard--a beardless bard. But HOW does one shave a belly band?


Suggestions about getting all that shiny brown coating off; how much needs to come off, and WHAT were we thinking?


Thanks--

[Paul O.]

Any updates? I hope it is all going well!

[Kai in Seattle]

Originally Posted by Paul O.

Any updates? I hope it is all going well!

Hey, Hi! Paul O.
Between warmer but torrential days and colder days, no fiberglassing for now, probably for several months.
HOWEVER, he removed the rock shield from the front, sanded it, cleaned up a wad of extra putty/silicone all over it (why on earth would anyone care if it leaked?) and found a lovely piece of "polycarbonate" (Lexan) at work for free, brought it home and trimmed it, and cut a smaller hole in the rock shield, and is out right now getting "machine screws" and acorn nuts and I hope a nice bag of semi-transparent or white vinyl or rubber washers to make a kind of bulletproof window in the front there. He was going to put the Lexan panel behind the fiberglass, but I talked him into using it as a shield for the fiberglass instead, it being bulletproof and all.
He wanted to get ALL the wndows done in Lexan, but seriously, this panel was free, the others won't be, and I found a $9 bottle of plastic restorer that actually does some good and seems to go a LONG way, the other windows are just fine, mostly, so why waste the money today when we have so much else to feed this beast?
THEN he painted the back side of the rock shield with marine primer in white, and apparently the front as well, then a 2nd coat inside (overkill, thy name is Paul), and will roll and tip some marine enamel in white on it "soon."
We've been working on a name for this beast, and a "theme" or "idea" for outside and inside, and we may have gotten that sorted.
One Step Up
The Rolling T**d
WTHWIT (WTF Was I Thinking)
Glatisant (The Questing Beast from Don Quixote)
Shelly (As in, "Look at me, Shelly, Lots of girls have--")
Sandy (As in, "Correct me if I'm wrong, Sandy.." from Caddyshack)
Pre-disastered (World according to Garp)
Firefly
Serenity (hardly!)
Dragon Egg (Draggin' Egg)
NarcissusAbound
Why Shore
Gimli (the Dwarf from The Hobbit)
Gollum
McManor
Lola (as in, "Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets...")
Vaut le Voyage (but who knows if it will be?)
Shore Power
Moya or Talon (From Farscape--the living ships)
The Crate

Tried to post picture but it didn't work, sorry.


Oh--and working on fleece curtain panels to roll up and down.

[slowpat]

Perhaps we can form a support group? Across the sound from you is a kayak kit company. I purchased one. It was supposed to be easy and take 80 hours of labor.
Well, this is the second winter that I am not working on it because of temperature.


According to their brochure, you can get a quicker setting up resin mix for cooler temps. I have the kind that works between 50 and 80 degrees.


I have the outside of the hull glassed and seams of the deck. My problem is that I am a morning person but the directions stress that rosin must be applied when the temperature is either constant or dropping to avoid air bubbles. So, I was out there at 10PM last summer, in poor lighting, cursing and rolling on the epoxy. Then I had to get up at 2AM and trim off the cloth before it hardened too much. Sigh...I hope it floats when I finish it.

[tractors1]

Originally Posted by slowpat

Perhaps we can form a support group? Across the sound from you is a kayak kit company. I purchased one. It was supposed to be easy and take 80 hours of labor.
Well, this is the second winter that I am not working on it because of temperature.


According to their brochure, you can get a quicker setting up resin mix for cooler temps. I have the kind that works between 50 and 80 degrees.


I have the outside of the hull glassed and seams of the deck. My problem is that I am a morning person but the directions stress that rosin must be applied when the temperature is either constant or dropping to avoid air bubbles. So, I was out there at 10PM last summer, in poor lighting, cursing and rolling on the epoxy. Then I had to get up at 2AM and trim off the cloth before it hardened too much. Sigh...I hope it floats when I finish it.

Fear not........every year the Engineering Department of Purdue University (Indiana) has a concrete canoe race for the student-built canoes. Most DO float! There are National Contests: Concrete Canoe National Competition

[Kai in Seattle]

Originally Posted by tractors1

Fear not........every year the Engineering Department of Purdue University (Indiana) has a concrete canoe race for the student-built canoes. Most DO float! There are National Contests: Concrete Canoe National Competition

Another name we've strongly considered:


Struback. (Both the result and the cause of all our problems from "The Failed Men" short story from the 50s by Brian Aldiss)


I'm thinking of entering this shell (off the frame yet) in the concrete canoe contest. I'd say "Bet it sinks" but my luck it'd float to shore and I'd get ticketed for littering.


Say--slowpat, a support group might be a good idea! Some days it feels really needed!


We discovered this AM that "most" of the aluminum trim on the rock shield was painted and clear coated when the PO had it done in dark brown. But why it was covered the way it was, some here, some there, some left--remains a mystery.


The gift that keeps on giving. My neighbor said, "Oh, well, be positive! It gives Paul something to do and gets him out of your hair!" That wasn't the point of buying it--I had plenty of "Honey-do" projects already that he wasn't doing...now he's back to not doing the fiberglassing. He just LOVES the colder weather! Perfect excuse.
Today we had "the" discussion about how you cannot keep adding layers of primer instead of sanding and fairing the unpainted glass! But apparently he discovered that little method without mentioning it...that marine primer is $40 a quart--or $160 a gallon! Even epoxy resin is only $40 a gallon! Good NIGHT, Irene!


Oh well, what can you do?
8)


Tried to buy the man a vacation, ended up buying him a job where he has to pay to work! NOT the retirement occupation either of us had in mind. The guilt is worse than waiting out the weather. Hoping this time 2016 isn't the 2nd winter he's not working on it! But beginning to seriously wonder...


Back to the salt mines.

[tractors1]

This works as a fiberglass primer at less $:

Parker Coatings Boat Primer Paint : Cabela's

[Kai in Seattle]

Thanks! $16.99 is cheaper than $39.99 or even $29.99. And if you order 3 quarts, you can get free shipping.

[Kai in Seattle]

Update: December 8, 2015


We had a brief break in the weather and Paul sanded and faired a hole that went through to the outside. First fairing half done; he says it looks "pretty good."


I made him homemade ice cream.


He bought a 10 x 17 foot portable "garage" to set up over the entire trailer once it's back on the frame, so he can work even when it's raining. It'll take up to 20 mph winds, so it's still only a part-time shelter, but it should help a lot. Many days here are warm enough but he hates the rain coming in through the open door when he's working inside the shell.


OK. So hole #20 or 21 is in progress!

[Kai in Seattle]

January 6 2016 -- he finished fairing that hole (it was an exterior hatch) and today (another weather break) sanded it smooth and primed it with marine fiberglass primer.


He also took off another hatch door that turned out to be aluminum, and is working on removing all the silicone. This one is about 8 x 10 or bigger, and is partly why that area of the inside floor rotted. He said he'll cut a piece of that fiberglass one-piece bathroom or use the cut-out from the rock shield (primed and ready for paint, with a piece of generic lexan in front of the hole) to fill it. We have several more clear, warmish days predicted, and he's willing to work on this.
So--more progress made; I count a primed hole as a finished hole. Down to 20.


Hope everyone had a good holiday season, and wishing all a happy new year!

[Kai in Seattle]

February 6, 2016

One month since last update.

He counted the holes he's filled so far: 24.

He went out in the dark last night, put a light under the trailer now that it's back on the frame, and circled all the rest of the little holes.

He announced he still has 30 holes to fill, including that 2 x 3 footer where we're taking out the old 3-way fridge vent.

He's gotten pretty good at using fiberglass "panels" to mostly fill a larger hole and then mat and resin it into place. He's gotten very good at "Bondo-hair." He's faired and sanded, acetoned, washed, re-acetoned, primed...and in the case of the rock shield and the small, "practice" motorcycle trailer, painted with Rustoleum marine enamel (white) and some leftover car enamel paints we mixed into a nice gray-blue for the little trailer's lower half and interior. "Shelly" came out looking pretty sweet, no huge rock chips now, and some proper weep holes so she doesn't gradually fill up with stagnant water while waiting for use. Paul took off the roof rack, used the butyl tape (in white), and put all the trim and rack back on properly. He reports not a smidge of water is getting in right now, so we have big hopes for the work he still has to do on the amerigo!

He's out right now getting ready to primer (marine/fiberglass) the patched hole where the old, leaking roof vent was.

Again, to all, thanks for all the advice and encouragement!

Meets and nogs and wags coming nearby; hoping to catch at least one of them this summer if we can get enough done to be able to sleep in "her."

Still a whole lot to do, though.

[Paul O.]

After this project is over, He will fix Everything with fiberglass and bondo!

Is Shelly the name that may stick? When I google "shelly" I get pictures of Shelly, some good, some, well,.... When I google "carol", or "francesca" I do not get any pictures - why is that?

When I google "Look at me, Shelly, Lots of girls have" I get back here!

And I had some fun with "Semper ubi, sub ubi" - learn something new every day! (My small amount of Latin learning was done in a non-English speaking environment.)