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AndrewChar Sat Jun 02, 2007 4:01 pm

Hello, quite new to the wonderful world of fiberglass. I recently bought a manx (or clone, havent id'ed yet) fiberglass body and it is in a sorry state. There are several holes, it has a horrid aint job, and the underside is disgusting. How would I go about pathing holes, and prepping for a new paint job? Help! My brand spankin new pan from manxchassis will be coming soon.

-AC

surfnc Sat Jun 02, 2007 4:51 pm

AC,
Here is how I filled a hole in the dash of my old buggy.



Here is the dash before I started!!



You start by beveling the edges so the glass has something to hold on to.


You can use a rechargable drill with small sanding drum you can get from ACE or Home Depot.



Use 2" masking tape from behind to act as a support for your fiberglass cloth.



I used 6oz cloth and wet out the area with polyester resin and layered up about 6-7 layers using a 1" throw away chip brush. Use the brush to get most of the air out and get a good bond to the beveled area. Let the glass overlap an inch or more. You will sand it away later. Make sure you use a resin that is sandable when it cures. Laminating resin without wax dries tacky and is hard to sand.



Your hole should look like this after sanding. It is still lower than the rest of the dash.



You can then fill it with Bondo or other body filler and sand it flush with the rest of the dash.



Then prime area for final painting.



Here is a picture of finished dash with gray spray on bed liner applied. If you can get to the back of the repair you can add a layer or 2 of glass to cover and overlap repair to make it that much stronger. Make sure you read the instructions on the resin, use gloves and proper mask if you are in an enclosed area. Also do a few tests to see how long it will take the resin to "kick" or cure and remember to sand your patch before putting more resin, cloth or Bondo to remove wax layer so that you will get a better bond. Let me know how it goes and post pics when you can.

mach4 Sat Jun 02, 2007 6:42 pm

Surfnc has the process nailed. Great job with the pictures and description.

I used a slightly modified approach when I did some hole repairs on our Manx. I learned fiberglass work from some friends who built airplanes, so I prefer epoxy to polyester.

A couple of different techniques I used was to do most of the repair from the back side. If you cover the front with cardboard and saranwrap you can do your layup from the rear and get a couple of inches of overlap to the base material. Once that layup has setup I used dry micro or flox to fill the remaining gaps and then bondo to finish.

It's really pretty simple.

My son and I built a surfboard using fiberglass-polyester and I really didn't like the stuff.

AndrewChar Sat Jun 02, 2007 7:46 pm

Thanks for the advice, I actually have some resin and cloth sitting around from old projects.

surfnc Sat Jun 02, 2007 8:29 pm

mach4,
Thanks for the kind words!
Funny you should mention making surfboards!!



I do that on the side, here is one of my retro quads and if you look to the right in the back ground you will see my Fiber Jet Beachcomber that I sold a few months ago. Now that it is warm I miss it and am working hard to get my next one done.



It will go on a 68 pan and I hope to have it ready for paint some time next week.

You are right about epoxy over poly. You have more time to work with it and it is alot more friendly all around. (People and Environment) I am used to the poly and have it around with plenty of scrap glass to fill in holes etc.

AC,
Be careful of old resin, sometimes it takes forever to "kick" or will turn your project into a tacky mess. Do a test before you use it on your buggy.

Vince

seabeebuggy Sat Jun 02, 2007 9:25 pm

another thing is to use the the chopped cloth and the weaved cloth in layers. you should not just use the nice weaved cloth.. 2 chopped to 1 weaved. also it is a good idea to go back and support the patch with more glass, on the back side and not just use tape it will need a back to add strength. There is a video you can buy on amazon dvd on fiberglass repairs. it is a good dvd and cost like 20$.

surfnc Sat Jun 02, 2007 9:55 pm

Chopped and weaved cloth in layers will work well and you will not have to use as many layers. I just had the cloth and the time to do it that way. You could also use "micro ballons" or cabosil as fillers and thicken the resin to use with the cloth. I also did mention that if you could reach the back side of the patch that you could add a few layers to strengthen the repair and I would recommend it on fenders or body repairs. The tape is only used as a support till the resin "kicks" and is then removed.

mach4 Sat Jun 02, 2007 11:17 pm

Surfnc - Airplanes and surfboards are very similar in their construction. Foam core cut and finished to shape with fiberglass layups to create a finished product.

We did some pretty extensive fiberglass work on our buggy.

We cut out the wheel well and glassed in a rather large segment. The second picture shows what was cut out.




The prior owner had cut out a major chunk of the rear deck to clear the bell housing. We fabricated a piece out of foam and fiberglass to provide a finished look.






AndrewChar Sun Jun 03, 2007 8:54 am

What type of sanding device would you reccomend for taking off old paint to prepare for a new paint job and smoothing out the underside for paint? And what type of primer do you use?

DSTMULE Sun Jun 03, 2007 9:34 am

I just picked up a manx...rough shape...holes ect so i will be tackling problems in near future.
You did a great job on repairs.

surfnc Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:39 pm

Mach4,
Nice job on the buggy, I really like the paint color. The good thing about epoxy is that you can use the blue foam insulation sheets that you can get from Home Depot to help strenghten it and act as a core. Polyester would melt it into a nasty mess.
Do you have any pics of finished body complete? (front and sides)

AC,
You can use a palm sander with 100-120 grit sand paper, 80 grit if you need to go through a few layers of paint. Make sure you wear a mask, you do not know what kind of paint might have been used. Do some test areas to see what works best without going too deep into the gelcoat or metal flake/clear coat, whichever the original buggy surface was. Remember to not go crazy with the sander, the more scrathes you put in the more sanding with 220 or higher you will need to do to take them out. The primer will depend on the final type of paint you choose, not all are compatable. You might check the body/paint forum for better info on that.

As for the underside, it sounds like the PO used undercoating on it. Powerwash the whole body top and bottom!! You may find that the undercoating is OK after you clean it. I do not know an easy way to remove it if it is not OK. You might check the body/paint forum for that as well.

AndrewChar Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:06 pm

Is it possible to sandblast the old paint away, I have a friend who onws a paint shop and has access to one? I tried the palm sander, but with the only paper i had, It took maybe 15 minutes to clear off a 2x2 inc square of paint

surfnc Mon Jun 04, 2007 5:33 pm

AC,
I would not recommend sand blasting a fiberglass body, it could easily turn into a lumpy bumpy mess that would take forever to fair out. Stick with the sander and use 80-100 grit paper. It will be slower but it is much easier to control.

seabeebuggy Mon Jun 04, 2007 6:18 pm

maybe try a stripper. test in a small area first..

mach4 Mon Jun 04, 2007 10:35 pm

Strippers are definitely not recommended. The ingredients in Aircraft Stripper and the other common ones will do a real number on the polyester resin that fiberglass buggies are made of.

Now that having been said there is one "stripper" that you could safely try - take a look at this rather extensive thread in the paint section http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=167756&highlight=perfect+paint+remover

I tried the stuff on the hood of our Manx and part of the rear with marginal results. I think it was just as easy to use the sander.

If you're having that much trouble getting the paint off, maybe it is ok to use as a base. Unless there is lots of build up, you might be ok in just sanding it real good, then do your body work, then hit it with a good epoxy primer or go direct to a sandable sealer. There are lots of different opinions on what works best, so spend some time in the paint section of this forum, talk to your local jobber about what they recommend, and make the best decision you can.

Having just finished ours, what I did was sand it down real good to get down to a solid base. I did my fiberglass work and body work. Then did epoxy primer, then sandable primer, then color coat then clearcoat.

There's your first opinion - there are lots of others... have fun

AndrewChar Tue Jun 05, 2007 9:11 am

Ive been talking with my local auto beauty specialist (a good friend) and I have decided to do the sanding and paint just as mach4 did. Thanks for the advice

Zcarnut Tue Jun 05, 2007 10:28 am

What kind of body is that Mach 4?
It looks alot like mine (almost the same color choice too ;) )

mach4 Tue Jun 05, 2007 1:08 pm

I have no clue. I've checked around and have not found anything that would tell me what it is. It's a pretty wierd one. The pan needed to be cut 15" rather than the "standard" 14.5". It is quite thin. We did quite a bit of layup with fiberglass epoxy reinforcing the fenders ane the rear. (The hood was actually pretty decent.) As you can see from the pictures, it was very, very rough when we got it.

If you've got any ideas on what it might be, let me know.

The most distinctive thing is the hood


Zcarnut Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:30 pm



I think I ID'd mine as a Kellison Sandpiper Roadster.Yours LOOKS like mine and I have the same single ridge down the hood center.Mine does not have the little "lump" in the center of the backseat area though but the battery area looks the same.
The glass on mine is pretty thick.

Zcarnut Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:33 pm


Your front fenders look a little "taller" or thicker in the front than mine to me.



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