New Pictures! + Fiberglass fix question.

I have uploaded some current pictures. (Jeromes Streetbeast)

Installed the tranny, brakes 90% done, began fitting steering column,
ran throttle and clutch cables, mounted shifter, e-brake handle
bracket and pedal assembly.

Attention all you fiberglass gurus!!!! Please look at DAMN IT.jpg,
whats the best way to fix?

Later,

Jerome

Jerome, where is the damnit jpg? Is it under files?

Jerome: Now don,t laugh.But when I make a repair I use cardboard
wrapped with suran wrap and seal all cracks with duct tape you must
were some kind of glove when laying cloth dipped in resin. and a dust
mask and eye protection are a must when Grinding a 2 inch area around
a repair on both sides you can lay more suran wrap or duct tape to
control resin travel and lay at least 3 layers of cloth on a repair
to achive a strong repair.
If it does set before you get it placed you must re grind the
surface area enough to make a new lay
Read the resin instructions and plan it out in small stages. I can
be fun to play with and you be please how simple it can be.
There are three kinds of resins that I have used. Call the kit
builder to match what they used. It will respond to the old glass
better less old to new distortion.

Huh???.......How do you use the cardboard and saran wrap. Do you use
it to mask the area?.......Jerome

Say you have a hole 3' round on a horzonal surface ,cut a 4 ' peace
of cardboard wrap it with one layer of suran wrap and tape it under
the surface with duct tape Now you can fill the hole with 3 or 4
layers of the dipped cloth or untill you have level filled the hole
when it sets grind close to flush the finish off in three sand
block stages 40,80 then 220 grit paper . when you peal off the back
side of the repair patch it look good as well all you need then is
Gel coat

Gotcha!

Good apprach. If the area is pretty broken up, you can reshape it by
hand, use masking tape on the top surface to hold it together. Go
behind it and grind it out with 220 grit. Reshape it with your hand
and then paint a little resin in there. Place your already cut to
shape and size cloth on the wet resin. Take a cheap paint brush and
brush your cloth flat again with more resin. Using the paint brush
helps you get any air out and carefully lay the new cloth flat,
brushing it out flater. If you need a second underlayment of cloth,
do it the same way now. Before it really sets, you can reshape it
with your hands. The closer you get it to it's final shape, the
thinner your repair will need to be. I've gotten them right on
perfect by working it wet. Let that dry and harden. Now your ready
to go back on top to the original fiberglass which may have cracks
from impact. You will want to take a die grinder (I use a dremel)
and gently cut out' carve out every crack that is in the fiberglass
mat to make a little V. On most glass cars this winds up being a V
about a half inch wide. Basically you are taking a tiny crack and
widening it from that crack down in the bottom of the V to .5 inches
wide at the top so that you are going to reglue/repair it with a
wider/stronger patch. Every significan crack must be ground out to a
V and repair to return the panel to it's original strength. I've
seen guys try to glue two broken pieces together on race cars and
they are recracked within three or four races. (Ok, it was me and my
brother). Basically, we learned that it just takes a little longer
to do it right the first time. For the little crack channels, you are
going to want to cut up some of that fiberglass mat into little .25
and .33 and .5 inch hairs, mix it with some resin and paint it into
those channels. Keep a little of the mat on the side. Dab it into
the channel, and keep a little resin only on the side, also to paint
it in. Be careful not to get too much outside of the channel because
you are going to be sanding it all back down to a finish surface.
Also, don't mix your resin too hot (with too much hardener). If you
do it will dry too fast and be too rigid when you are done. You want
it to be a pliable repair. Once you get your repair structurally
fixed, you are going to want to go over the final surface with a
thinner, flexible fiberglass repair like bondo. (Others will
complain if I say MarinTech. And then the final finishing with
sandable primer. When you get the repair surface both smooth (not
wavy) and no pin holes, your ready to go to paint. I would advocate
at least a 6 inch flat block sanding to make sure you don't have
waves. You can use a guide coat, which is misting black paint over
the grey or red primer, then sanding. When you sand off the all of
the black with a flat 6 inch long block without seeing any black in
the "lows", you'll know you got it flat and not wavy.

Thanks Jack. I'll be printing this out and saving untill I'm ready
to tackle the job.

Maybe go look under "Files" and then at "Papa Johns Damage". We can
also talk on the phone when you get ready to grind in... :)
Thanks,
Jack

Here's a link to some polyester filler and also some fiber matte
stuff:

http://www.autobodystore.com/FillerMatls.htm

Thanx for the resource.

I contacted SB and they basicaly told me the same info. Cameron at
the factory sugested a polyester based "hair" type filler like the
ones on that web site and offered to send me some gel coat to finish
off the repair if I want it. He also suggested that I lightly tap
around the area to be sure to remove the gel coat surface that is
unsupported. He also promised to "make it up to me", whatever that
means :)

Thanks again,

Jerome

When you get that gel coat glaze, I'd be interested in the brand and
how it looks/applies. I think we all would.

Let us know how your repair turns out. I have a similar situation on
my SB from the shipping crate. Over the right front wheel there's one
small and one larger chip. I'll have to call Cameron and have some
gel coat sent up. He's pretty good about "taking care of ya". They
didn't do all the factory installs they were supposed to on my kit.
Nothing major, but to make up for it, they sent me a tonneau cover &
nerf bars. So I'm happy.