how do you lay fiberglass?

[phatmanmike]

hi folks. im back, and now i got mne a cherry 1960 glasspar citation that has a small spot in the florr that needs replaced anyways, i have a spot about 16 inches wide and about 20 inches long that needs replace.. im aware about cutting it back to the dry wood, wich i did. i have a new sheet of marine plywood that i will cut to size to fit the hole.<br /><br />do i need to encapsulate the new wood with resin and cloth, or just resin. i have both from boatersworld. i read the directions and i assume that you wet the area you intend to glass with resin and lay cloth in it so it absorbs. and then dries and hardens...is this right, am i even close.... im gonna go do a search, but any help is mucho grande... thanks

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: how do you lay fiberglass?

You Should let new plywood sit for a couple of weeks at least to let it air out.<br /><br />You should seal the plywood first with polyester resin and could thin with styrene.<br /><br />Isn't your floor fiber glassed??? If so then I would think that you would want to add your fiberglass.<br /><br />Here is a good place to start www.fiberglassrepair.com well worth the money for the DVD for beginners. Excellent tips and how to do if you are machanically inclined.

 

[arks]

Re: how do you lay fiberglass?

I was faced with a large repair job a few years back when my Sunfish fell off it's storage rack and got holed by the trailer sitting next to it. And not a little hole, either- it was big enough to put my forearm in and move around. It was also right at the edge of the hull side/ bottom, so it wasn't a straight area. Bummer.<br /><br />I was all ready to cut it up and toss it away, but I decided to try to fix it. Keep in mind I had NO fiberglass experience at all, just a little bit of car body rust repair when I was a kid.<br /><br />Got all the material together, read the instructions then went right to it. Sanded everything first, then started mixing. I had no access from the inside, but I was able to fashion a "patch" with cloth and applied resin to the inside of the hull around the hole as well as the cloth patch. Applying the wet patch to the inside was tricky, but I got it before it hardened and it acted as a backer for subsequent coats. The next 2 or 3 coats of cloth/ resin were applied from the outside and got progressivily smoother. Each layer was cut slightly larger than the last to make it stronger. <br /><br />When I got it looking like it should, I started sanding the whole thing down. I was able to get it to the point where I couldn't feel where the repair was, so I cleaned up everything and painted it. It looked so good that even I couldn't tell where the patch was. Not to shabby for a beginner!<br /><br />Hope this gives you the confidence to try it. It's a dirty, messy job, but the results can be very satisfying.