Fiberglass fix

Gene-C · Post by **Gene-C** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 6:39 pm

I'm working on a Sand Rover T-Pickup. It has a large crack due to, I think, previous owner carrying too much in the pickup bed with no support. I have fiberglassed some square tubing to support the bed to the chassis. But now I need to repair the big crack. I took the body off and turned it upside down and I don't think just laying fiberglass cloth down in the body would be strong enough. At first I thought a piece of wood like the original builders use for support but now I'm leaning towards small square steel tubing. I was thinking of glassing some cloth in first then the square tubing then more glass cloth over that and progress outward. The fiberglass instructions say not to use too much resin by itself as it will crack. I didn't know that. I figure when the underside is repaired and I turn the body right side up all I need to do is V groove the crack and taper in some fill and sand. Any Buggy Buddys out there repair this kind of crack?

fubar · Post by **fubar** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 7:16 pm

There are a lot of good books about fiberglass out there. Lots of different resin and cloth combos. Even epoxy resin and synthetic glass if the smelly itchy thing is a problem.

markmark · Post by **markmark** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:47 pm

Have a look at this link. It may be useful. http://www.fibreglast.com/sitemap.php

Old-Towd · Post by **Old-Towd** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:12 pm

Thanks Buggy Buddys, I checked it out.

newmanx59 · Post by **newmanx59** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 11:42 pm

I would steer away from glassing steel into the structure, expansion & contraction due to heat and corrosion of the steel will all cause problems down the road.

Old-Towd · Post by **Old-Towd** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 5:22 am

Ya your probably right, I'm going with a cut to fit piece of wood

shaihulud · Post by **shaihulud** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:47 pm

You need to be careful about glassing wood in as you could get stress concentrations at the ends of the piece of wood which could cause cracking there. You would need to shape the wood such that its ends are well away from stress points. Fibreglass is very strong and laying enough in the cracked area should give it a good fix as long as the patch is very big in relation to the size of the crack. While you are at it look for other potential problem areas and reinforce them with a few more layers of glassing.