Help! Trailer fell off truck/needs front corner fibreglassed

[JuliusB]

pics posted now........big gaping hole. Thanks everyone for the info and help.

[JBjunior]

Originally Posted by JuliusB

pics posted now........big gaping hole. Thanks everyone for the info and help.

Where did you post the pictures?

[JuliusB]

sorry.....I managed to post pics on my Kijiji ad where trailer is for sale. I could not post pics on this site despite great instructions from Glenn Baglo.

[JBjunior]

Originally Posted by JuliusB

sorry.....I managed to post pics on my Kijiji ad where trailer is for sale. I could not post pics on this site despite great instructions from Glenn Baglo.

I just saw them. You need to post a picture from a distance that shows the extent of the front damage. I can't tell from each of the 3 pictures showing damage how much of it is the same or is it across the entire front.

[Raspy]

Originally Posted by JuliusB

sorry.....I managed to post pics on my Kijiji ad where trailer is for sale. I could not post pics on this site despite great instructions from Glenn Baglo.

On a Mac, here is what I do:

Make sure your pictures are on your computer desktop such that you can simply click on them to open and view. Close the pictures so you only see the picture icon on your desktop, not opened for viewig them.

Open Fiberglass RV and click the reply button on the thread you want to comment on. Write your comment as you usually do. Look just below the comment window and find the "Choose File" button. Click that. Now you should see a list of all the files on your desktop. If not, look at the menu that comes up and find the desktop files. Scan through those picture files and select one by clicking once on the one you want to post. Just try one picture the first time.

Click the "choose" button with one click. The file should attach next to the "choose file" button. Then click "submit reply". Your comment, with the picure, should come up as a post on this thread.

[Raspy]

Originally Posted by JuliusB

.I managed to post pics on my Kijiji ad where trailer is for sale.

Can you post a link?

[k corbin]

You can make a temporary bandage patch with fiberglass cloth and resin. That will seal up the hole for your journey. Then when you have the time you can remove that make-do repair with cutting and grinding flush and make a properly shaped and faired in invisible repair. Keeping the weather out is the main thing. So what if it looks ugly for a few weeks, just do it and fix it right later.



Tip to help you do it without a big mess. Trim the cloth to size so there is some overlap. Tape a plastic sheet or cut open garbage bag onto a flat, protected, work table surface making that plastic a little larger than your patch. Put a few pieces of masking tape at the corners of the plastic to hold it down. Lay the cloth down on that plastic. Now mix the resin up and push it into the cloth with a disposable paint brush or squeege. You want just enough resin that the cloth turns from white to clear. But you don't want so much resin it will make a drippy mess. Take the tape off the plastic, now with a helper pick up the plastic sheet with the cloth on it and take it over to the trailer and press it in place peeling the plastic off before the resin sets up hard. The professionals do this job with "peel ply" which stays in place until the resin hardens then they remove the peel ply, it is a great method which leaves a smooth surface on the resin. But you are just doing a temporary repair so plastic is budget friendly and easy to come by. The reason for the plastic or peel ply is it makes spreading the resin easier and it makes transferring the material easier and also you don't stretch the patch out of shape. Once the patch has hardened you can brush another coat of resin on it to seal any small voids.


Anyway a temporary patch will get you to where you are going and make do for a while until you can get it properly repaired. It is something a person with little to no experience can manage.

[Pete Hein]

There's an outfit called "West System" - https://www.westsystem.com/ - that sells all sorts of materials for fiberglass repair. The products also are distributed by many marine-outfitting places like Amazon and West Marine (no connection, I think).

More to your need, they also publish a ton of material on how to use their stuff. At least some of it used to be free for the asking. So check the website and see what you can learn.

BTW it isn't all that difficult. The single most important thing is PREPARATION; by which I mean both "surface preparation" and also "mental preparation" - if you've never done this sort of thing before, be ready to waste some material and time, patching, say, a hole in a big cardboard box. You'll be glad you did.

[Mary F]

Picture post instructions link is in my signature. You're looking for post #7 of our "Forums 101" thread.

[David Tilston]

Link to ad:
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-travel-trail...ationFlag=true

[Raspy]

Can't tell too much from the pictures because they are so close up, but it is clear that it is pretty serious. More than a simple patch.

Probably best to duct tape a piece of plastic or cardboard over the hole, the best you can, and head home.

You'll probably exceed the value of the trailer in repair costs unless you do it yourself or find someone who wants a project.

I asked about safety chains in my first post, but never got an answer. Since the trailer went off on it's own, I'm assuming there weren't any.