Laying glass

[bear76]

I've stripped my dash to metal and have a question about laying fiberglass over it. How do I do it? How do I prep the metal? How do I fill any holes? Anything would help.

Thanks

 

[resurrected_jimmy]

Glass is pretty easy to work with just mix the resin correctly and paint it on so to speak. The are a couple of different kinds of mat you can use to wrap the form you want to glass. For your use I would say get the non-woven mat. If you are trying to fill in holes where speakers or something used to be you can either build a plate to cover it and glass over it or build it up with a few layers of fiberglass mat which will require a little ingenuity to hold it in place while the resin dries. I'm not sure exactly what you want your end result to look like.... i.e. just like stock only in fiberglass or to follow the form of the metal dash so I'm not sure how to tell you to proceed with filling holes in detail. To get glass mat to lay down smooth and get the air out of the resin there is a tool you need to acquire. It is a small metal roller with grooves in the drum the is used for smoothing out glass sheets and making them follow the contours of the shape your a encasing. Most of my experience with fiberglass comes from boat repair and modifications. We would build wood forms or cores of what we were making and then do the glass work. Hope this helps some.

 

[bear76]

What do I have to do to the metal for the glass to "stick"?

 

[resurrected_jimmy]

scuff the metal with sandpaper. Its really the resin that sticks, and most of it is basically epoxy, the mat just soaks up resin and helps build up your form. When I used to lay glass I would paint the form with resin first, take a piece of glass and lay it on there and then slop resin into it with a brush or soak the glass mat in a pan first and lay it on. Then work it in with the roller.

 

[Leper]

I never got glass to stick to metal.

 

[bear76]

So I "paint" the metal with the resin. Do I let it dry then lay the glass on top, or do I lay the glass in wet resin?

 

[resurrected_jimmy]

You do it wet. Paint the metal with a liberal amount of resin, lay the glass, then your gonna have to paint the glass with more resin so all of it is wet, work the glass in nice and smooth and let dry. When you get the glass mat nice and wet it will become very flexible (think wet paper towel) and then work it into shape with your hands and the roller to get the air out and to make it conform to your shape.

In reply to leper's post the more scuffed up the metal the better. I have not had issues with getting epoxy resin to stick to metal but I guess you could shoot your dash with an etching primer first.... This gets beyond what I have worked with or done so I'm just throwing it out there. A paint guy would come in handy for telling us if that would work or not

 

[ntsqd]

If you use the 'normal' resin it is a polyester. The resin in most Bondo type body fillers is also polyester. Can use Bondo to form any fillets needed under the fiber.
If you can encapsulate some of the metal then you've got a mechanical interlock as well as an adhesive working for you.

 

[K5-newf]

Im in the middle of doing this to i put the fiberglass on from underneath. Then i used fiber glass filler to fininch the wholes. When i get that sanded down i will do the whole thing in a finishing filler. Also u might want to check the area of where your gauge cluster fits the dash. it sticks out past the metal frame of the dash. I just used to cheap brushes from the dallar store. Becareful when mixxing the fiber glass , to much harder and it will get to hot , not enough hardner wont dry, and third it stinks so dont do it inside your house. Make sure theres no rust on the dash either , after a while it will crack off.