LiteHouse Trailer-4-Two Rebuild

[Kai in Seattle]

Originally Posted by Davie B

Why polyester resin? And, yes, very helpful.


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

According to some youtube sites, a boat repair show, in particular, polyester resin is more flexible. Epoxy resin is stronger. The person uses polyester resin only on curves where flexibility is key, and insists he uses epoxy everywhere else.

Polyester resin is, as far as we can tell, more "dangerous" than epoxy. The epoxy can states if you start to get a headache or feel dizzy from the fumes, get the sufferer out into fresh air until he feels better. (Or she.) You need a gas mask or tons of ventilation to work with polyester...as far as we can tell. You also need to do something special to get the polyester resin to harden: cover it with clear plastic (like saran wrap) or wax. That is, it hardens in the absence of air.

Epoxy resin hardens in air just fine.

If you're really interested in the discussion here about that, why don't you check out the "Fear of Fiberglassing" thread? It was ours to start with, and we got a LOT of good adivce.

One fellow here says ONLY to use polyester, but a LOT of us use epoxy for repairs. Paul has found the epoxy to be relatively simple to use. I'm relatively certain Bondo-Hair is epoxy, for the simple reason that you don't have to cover it with saran wrap or wax to get it to harden, and it has been sticking to the original material just fine..

Epoxy will stick to EVERYTHING. Polyester won't stick to epoxy, though why on earth it would work that way since epoxy sticks to IT, is beyond me.

[Davie B]

2 sheets of 1/2" AB marine plywood. I'm out $61/sheet. The plywood is on it's way to Making Awesome, our local Makerspace where I'll use the table saw to make the big cuts. I'll do the rounded corners on site with a portable jigsaw.


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[Kai in Seattle]

Originally Posted by Davie B

Attachment 931402 sheets of 1/2" AB marine plywood. I'm out $61/sheet. The plywood is on it's way to Making Awesome, our local Makerspace where I'll use the table saw to make the big cuts. I'll do the rounded corners on site with a portable jigsaw.


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

And there it is, that lovely marine ply! Ours looks a lot like that, but it's 5/8 and was $80 a sheet plus tax. We got three sheets--how many does your trailer need?

[Davie B]

Originally Posted by Kai in Seattle

And there it is, that lovely marine ply! Ours looks a lot like that, but it's 5/8 and was $80 a sheet plus tax. We got three sheets--how many does your trailer need?

The Litehouse is tiny. It's going to take about a sheet and 1/3.

[Ironhinge]

Kai, out of curiosity would you post a picture of the resin you have been using? I have mostly used a bondo product also from the auto-parts store

[Ironhinge]

This is the product I have mostly used, largely due to availability. The resin seems good although I have noticed that ever-coat fiberglass mat is easier to "wet out" than the bondo product usually sold next to this resin

[Ironhinge]

as far as wood penetration, I am not sure... it seems like there is better availability of epoxy products specificity designed to soak into wood... It is the reason I struggled with the choice between epoxy and poly. Eventually I just decided that the original manufacture worked out pretty well and moved to emulate it

[Ironhinge]

oh and this bondo resin is "waxed" meaning that there is wax in it that works to the surface and creates the air seal necessary for it to cure... I do look back and think I should have been using mostly unwaxed resin because it would have reduced the amount of sanding I would have had to do. The unwaxed resin is more of a speciality product for "build up" (putting down multiple layers in a short time) and would have required finding a speciality shop or ordering online

[Davie B]

I ended up ordering a gallon kit of 3:1 epoxy from Epoxy : Epoxy Resins and Hardeners The similar stuff from West or System 3 costs a bit more and doesn't include the hardener. My stuff should be here on Friday.

[Ironhinge]

cool, good luck... let me know how it progresses. Sounds like we have similar projects It will be interesting to hear about the epoxy and how it may compare

[Kai in Seattle]

Hi, don't have a pic, but looks like you got a lot of good replies. Maybe that's why the Bondo-Hair could be polyester resin, if it has wax in it already...but it sticks to epoxy resin and poly isn't supposed to do that. So....

We've decided very much to go with what's locally and easily available. If we have to pay a few bucks more, we just do it. Paul's well into his second gallon of resin, his third can of Bondo-Hair, and who knows how many tubes of hardener?


As someone stated on Fear of Fiberglassing thread here on FGRV, even if you make a mess, you can always cut it out, sand it away, or remove it fairly easily and start over, varying your methods somewhat until you do get it right.

Hard to really ruin it no matter what. Once Paul read that, he began to relax and dive in. Today he's going to repair some big cracks over the doorway that were hidden by a kind of "eyebrow" the PO had added (to hide the cracks) and he'll make a fiberglass eyebrow to divert water away from the top of the doorway...he fixed our rusted-through lawnmower deck with fiberglass. He fixed our little practice trailer, Shelly (the "Legacy-type" motorcycle cargo trailer), inside and out with fiberglass...once he got into it, once he got comfortable with the products he chose and their instructions, he became quite fond of fiberglass.


BEST!

[Ironhinge]

Glad to hear you guys are moving along, sounds like a positive conquering of fear. Do you have a tread on the fiberglass eyebrow?

[Kai in Seattle]

Originally Posted by Ironhinge

Glad to hear you guys are moving along, sounds like a positive conquering of fear. Do you have a tread on the fiberglass eyebrow?

Hi, no thread on the eyebrow...he realized it's going to be harder than he thought to add it, and that he could fix the cracks with ordinary fiberglass repair work. So for now, he's let it go. But thanks for asking. I wish he'd felt like doing it, it'd have been cool. Maybe another year.

[Christian in FL]

Hi, a thought on your cushions. If you have not thrown away the old ones, wash the covers and use them as patterns for the new ones you want to make. This kind of sewing can be done easily. I would be happy to walk you through the process and make a set of cushion covers that need no fastners, velcro or zippers, but can be removed and washed whenever you wish. Let me know and kudos on your hard work,
If you have tossed the old cushions, you can still make patterns from the benches, or buy some covers from Scamp. good luck.

[Davie B]

Thanks Lisa and yes please.


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[Davie B]

UPS dropped off the wet team yesterday.


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[Johnny M]

Originally Posted by Ironhinge

as far as wood penetration, I am not sure... it seems like there is better availability of epoxy products specificity designed to soak into wood... It is the reason I struggled with the choice between epoxy and poly. Eventually I just decided that the original manufacture worked out pretty well and moved to emulate it

I used the bondo resin to glass all new floors to the body of our Boler and it worked well, however, I used Bondo filler to seal a riser I made for our roof vent out of several layers of untreated plywood and that stuff did not bond well, it cracked and peel away within a month...should have coated it with resin before apply the filler I guess...all of the resin is still in tack to the wood flooors with no problems at all...oh and i used it also with some tabs for the cabinets and bathroom walls to with good results...

[Christian in FL]

So Davie, what is the wet team, and what are you going to do with it? Also sent you a pm.

Sent from my C6530N using Fiberglass RV mobile app

[Davie B]

The wet team consists of thin penetrating Epoxy to seal the wood, and thickened epoxy putty to glue the wood to the fiberglass bottom.


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[Davie B]

Originally Posted by Ironhinge

When I redid my floor I went with the grind down to flat rather than use filler to raise up... I think it was the right way to go, however i wanted to share a little.

First off I used a 24 grit flat wheel on an angle grinder to do most of the heavy removal. worked well, was a dust cloud nightmare. Don’t try this in a suburban front yard or anywhere up wind of anything that you don’t want covered in dust. Buy the shop-vac filter that is waterproof and can be hosed off.

The dust and the trailer are staticly attracted to each other, the dust worked its way into unimaginable places... if you can, tape off everything, cover it in plastic or something... I had mold issues as well and had assumed I would be scrubbing every surface anyway so I hadn’t worried about the dust. Keep as much as you can covered and dust excluded, its not worth biologically contaminated areas that also will make you itchy for a week.

The regular bondo filler is fine, it is so much easier to work with than the fiber re-enforced kind... The truth is if you need the extra strength, build up the strength with mat and use the bondo to make the shape. Whenever I could, I used glass under and above anywhere I used filler

I bit the bullet and got some 24 grit pads and a backer for my angle grinder. You're right about the dust. I'm off to buy a shop vac and a better respirator tomorrow.


Sent from my iPad using Fiberglass RV