Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Topic: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help. (Read 1517 times) previous topic - next topic

Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

May 23, 2012, 12:09:56 am

ARGGGHHH!!!! I'm kicking myself right now. Took the coach out for a spin since it had been sitting for a few weeks. Could have sworn I'd pulled far enough past the gate entrance to my storage unit, but obviously not as a I caught a portion of it as I was pulling in. Sickening sound and then a sick feeling in my stomach. I know better! Anyway, has anyone tried their own gel coat repairs before? Curious as to the outcome. I've looked at some videos online and done some research. Fortunately, the streaks you see in the pics are only about an inch wide. I'm wondering if I could do a sufficiently good enough job to make it difficult to notice. A good portion of the second and third pics may be able to be just buffed out.

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #1 – May 23, 2012, 12:20:42 am

Benjy, I was at a marina/lawn equipment dealer (odd combination, I know) yesterday and picked up a small slender bottle out of curiosity. It said something about repairing the Gelcoat or restoring the Gelcoat on fiberglass boats. I didn't buy, 'cause I was just curious so I could inform a friend that really needs something like this.
Don't know if this helps or not.

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #2 – May 23, 2012, 12:25:30 am

I feel for you bro. I was looking over my coach and see that, unbeknownst to me, I've managed to rub/scrape not one but two significant areas on rear quarter panels. Since I've got some prior damage not done by me, fortunately, I've been looking at gelcoat repairs. Prior attempts at brushing and then sanding out have proven a waste of time. I'm going to shoot a blend of duralac and gelcoat. Will start off with a single panel at a time and work till I get it right. I know its doable once the technique is worked out. Will post results once I get along with it.

Could be worse, imagine the difficulties in repairing a multi colored painted coach. Some of that stuff is well nigh impossible to repair. Last time I was at Foretravel I requested a quart of gelcoat which they provided but commented that I was the first to ever buy the raw mtl. . They had to have their glass depart decant me a quart or so and were very nice about it.

Chuck

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #3 – May 23, 2012, 12:39:04 am

Thanks to both of you for your replies. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if its worth trying to fix by myself and possibly botch the job or have a professional do it. My guess is it's probably a 2-3 hour job for a professional. For me, maybe double that. If it were to cost $200 - $300 to have it professionally blended, it might just be worth it. On the other hand, not a bad idea to have a little fiberglass experience in the repertoire! Who knows, I might just find my true calling!

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #4 – May 23, 2012, 12:57:38 am

Maybe a side job for Rance ?? Don't feel bad, early this year I demolished my 6' long centre basement door, yours looks like a little scratch compared to what mine looked like.
Why not just use a good mix of finishing fibreglass paste and paint. Should be easy for you.
If you can get it done for $2-300 then do it and just think it was a nice meal out that you lost??
John h

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #5 – May 23, 2012, 01:26:53 am

Benjie,

If you don't want/can't turn it into your insurance company, I would watch a youtube video of fiberglass repair and do it yourself. A quart of filler, body file, sandpaper, paint, etc. from video you watch. A little hard the first time you do it but this looks pretty easy. After you get it close, I would use a long board or even a 2x4 with wet or dry under it and you should be able to get it dead flat. Would buff the surrounding area and then have the color matched and then shoot it with a touch up gun from HF. Again, watching some videos online will explain more than I could in a book. You could even supply the air for a small touch up gun from the on board compressor. Lots of little steps but youtube should hold your hand.

Not a complex repair. You can do it if you do a little research ahead of time so you won't even notice it.

Another option would be to grab a guy off the labor line in your town. They probably hang out in a couple of areas. Lots of talented guys there. Just ask who does body work. I get all my painters, landscapers, etc. from the labor line. Helps a little to speak Spanish. Have had nothing but good luck this way. Auto paint store or body shops may have someone in mind that works on the weekend also. Learned in high school, if you don't ask...

Pierce

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #6 – May 23, 2012, 08:17:48 am

Benjie, You have made me feel better. Last summer I was parked in my BIL's yard in CO, when I went to go dump i scraped a peachtree about 6 feet tall, little did I know that those small branches would make such a scrape, and to compound it I had to go back the other way and scraped the other side. I have yet to try to Polish these scrapes out but looking at yours I am way better off. Sorry bout your accident.
Gary B

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #7 – May 23, 2012, 08:47:43 am

Gary, I'm glad some good could come out of my misfortune!

Way I figure it, if boneheads like me didn't do this kind of stuff, half the fiberglass shops would be out of business!

Quote from: Gary Bouland – May 23, 2012, 08:17:48 am

Benjie, You have made me feel better. Last summer I was parked in my BIL's yard in CO, when I went to go dump i scraped a peachtree about 6 feet tall, little did I know that those small branches would make such a scrape, and to compound it I had to go back the other way and scraped the other side. I have yet to try to Polish these scrapes out but looking at yours I am way better off. Sorry bout your accident.
Gary B

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #8 – May 23, 2012, 09:16:07 am

I did a similar repair on a houseboat years ago. I used body filler (Bondo, Kitty Hair or the like) to build up the repair to slightly below the original lines. I sanded by hand, but a Dremel would make quick work of it. Use several coats of filler, the subsequent ones to fill in small imperfections for a nice smooth repair.

I then used a gelcoat repair kit bought at a boat store that came with colors. I used a tiny bit of color in white to get the off-white of the (boat's) gelcoat, and applied the gelcoat repair mixture to bring the repair surface up to match the height of the original surface.

From ten inches away, it frankly looked like crap. From five feet away, no one could detect it. Total cost of the repair was about $20, with maybe an hour actual work. Three minutes with a Dremel and it is totally reversible.

oldMattB

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #9 – May 23, 2012, 09:17:22 am

Quote

Way I figure it, if boneheads like me didn't do this kind of stuff, half the fiberglass shops would be out of business!

I resemble that remark!

This weekend I'm heading to Nac to have some plastic surgery performed at Xtreme Surgeons all due to my excellence in backing up. Don't beat yourself too much. We've all done some (in retrospect) bonehead moves while driving large vehicles. Before the Foretravel during my youth I did some incredibly stupid stuff with panel vans and dump trucks in NYC traffic.

p.s. I like things to be perfect so I let the professionals do the work they do every day and have mastered the trade. I could never even come close to the quality from a professional, plus I don't have all the tools and knowledge of the materials available.

Just get the coach looking pretty again!

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #10 – May 23, 2012, 11:27:38 am

I have done a little basic fiberglass repair and can certainly say the results are OK but not professional. I think the strength is there but the esthetics are not perfect. However, I will tell you about West system epoxy for repairs. It is an excellent product and I have had good results with it. It is not cheap, but is strong and will last in a marine setting (WEST System 105 Epoxy Resin). I got my stuff at a boat store called West Marine (not same company tho both have West in name) they actually have a free handbook on how to use and some videos for same. If you wanted to take a stab at it, that is what I would do. I just had some fiberglass work done at FOT and am happy with it. I could have done it but probably would not have turned out as well (as far as how it looked). I can honestly say that I was thinking about doing mine before FOT did it. Do it yourself or FOT either way, have fun!

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #11 – May 23, 2012, 11:36:08 am

I hit a guard rail in West Virginia last summer. My neighbor who just moved to Florida from Flint MI is going to fix it for me in a few weeks. He had his own body shop business in Flint for ten years. He built a shop in his back yard with a complete paint booth and 25k dollar paint mixing machine. Great news for me since I just met him a few months ago. From what I have seen he does great work. I would try it myself but I don't have the equipment and I think it would be a bit different than the F18's I painted in the Navy. Will post the results.

Mark Z

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #12 – May 23, 2012, 01:35:16 pm

If you can't make it to Xtreme or FT, I'd look for a marina to do the repair. This is the wrong time of the year, but if you're willing to wait, you should be able to get a profesional repair done locally.

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #13 – May 23, 2012, 02:12:48 pm

Feel for ya

I've been there & done that myself.

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #14 – May 23, 2012, 02:41:50 pm

Quote from: Mark Zettek – May 23, 2012, 11:36:08 am

I hit a guard rail in West Virginia last summer. My neighbor who just moved to Florida from Flint MI is going to fix it for me in a few weeks. He had his own body shop business in Flint for ten years. He built a shop in his back yard with a complete paint booth and 25k dollar paint mixing machine. Great news for me since I just met him a few months ago. From what I have seen he does great work. I would try it myself but I don't have the equipment and I think it would be a bit different than the F18's I painted in the Navy. Will post the results.

Mark Z

I love how "they" did the cover for your propane heat. I scarred up my door there also and need repairs done. I'm going to see it I can get the same done to my door (not the scratch, though)...

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #15 – May 23, 2012, 03:22:47 pm

Repairing fiberglass is really pretty easy. Repairing the finish where the texture and color matches is where the art comes in. If you want it repaired to the level that a future purchaser won't see it, get it done by Xtreme or Foretravel. If you just want it to look pretty good, do as Pierce suggested and try it yourself. Chances are if you mess up it won't cost a whole lot more to have the Pros subsequently fix it correctly.

If you decide to try it yourself, try West Marine or AdTechPlastic, ADTECH Plastic Systems, my old company for resins.

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #16 – May 23, 2012, 07:29:52 pm

Kent,
I don't want to hijack this thread by anymeans, but I am wondering if you have a sense of the coverage of epoxy resin for reattaching the belly skin of the basement on our U270, which is roughly 108 square feet. Of course I know that there are many varibles involved, but I am trying to get a feel for how much of the West System 105 resin and the slow cure hardner I need. A quart of the resin is $40 and the gallons are about $100. So if I need more than a quart, it would pay to get the gallon instead... Just interested in your "educated" sense of it. My gut tells me that it will take closer to a gallon than a quart, but that may just be a belch trying to escape

Don

Quote from: Kent Speers – May 23, 2012, 03:22:47 pm

Repairing fiberglass is really pretty easy. Repairing the finish where the texture and color matches is where the art comes in. If you want it repaired to the level that a future purchaser won't see it, get it done by Xtreme or Foretravel. If you just want it to look pretty good, do as Pierce suggested and try it yourself. Chances are if you mess up it won't cost a whole lot more to have the Pros subsequently fix it correctly.

If you decide to try it yourself, try West Marine or AdTechPlastic, ADTECH Plastic Systems, my old company for resins.

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #17 – May 23, 2012, 09:13:54 pm

Quote from: Kent Speers – May 23, 2012, 03:22:47 pm

Repairing fiberglass is really pretty easy. Repairing the finish where the texture and color matches is where the art comes in. If you want it repaired to the level that a future purchaser won't see it, get it done by Xtreme or Foretravel. If you just want it to look pretty good, do as Pierce suggested and try it yourself. Chances are if you mess up it won't cost a whole lot more to have the Pros subsequently fix it correctly.

Well said Kent and true. I'm convinced some folks are born with a knack for fiberglass work and others, like myself, can never achieve what others do in a seemingly effortless fashion. Of course, I keep trying, cursing, sanding and redoing until I either decide to just live with it or seek out expert help. I am going to have one more go, this time with the almost proper spray equipment and materials and hope for acceptable results. I have a hard time accepting defeat in anything mechanical.

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #18 – May 23, 2012, 10:34:07 pm

Chuck,

There are so many tutorial videos and pages to print out, for example changing a hard drive where you put the different screws on your laptop on small circles on the printed page and reverse the process when putting it back together.

Body work is a lot of black magic but watching artists do it on the computer screen takes a lot of the mystery out of it. I can do a pretty good job but spend 5 or 6 hours compared to 1 hour for a good body man. I have found that the prep work, masking, getting rid of dust, using primer that does not shrink later are 95% of the job. You have to be able to relax and shoot in the morning when you are at your best and the bugs are not out yet. Having someone knowledgeable looking over your shoulder does not hurt either.

Yes, I did replace the optical drive in my MacBook Pro with a second hard drive. Watched a video with arrows and instruction for each screw and I went from idiot to expert in just a few minutes. But learning to do body work is like learning to become a musician. Takes time and patience with a bit of a learning curve to it.

Sure you will do fine and have some fun at the same time.

Pierce

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #19 – May 23, 2012, 11:11:06 pm

If, after you finish the repair, and it is not on par with what a professional can do you will have learned a great deal for a small amount of money, and will better appreciate how good the people at Extreme, FOT ant MOT really are.

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #20 – May 25, 2012, 12:11:26 am

I have to agree with Kent Speers. Doing fiberglass repairs is not that difficult, but repairing the "finish where the texture and color matches is where the art comes in". If you just want it to look OK to you, then by all means, have at it. If you have fun doing it, great! The good thing about fiberglass is that, if you don't like what you have done, cut or sand it out, you can keep redoing it until you get it how you want it to be. If you want it to not show at all, unless you have done a lot more of this than I have, (and I have done a lot), then consider a professional repair.

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #21 – May 25, 2012, 07:18:53 am

Bennie, what did you decide on for repair? Are going to try it yourself? If so, take some photos during the process.

Good luck!

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #22 – May 25, 2012, 09:27:51 am

I'm still undecided, but leaning towards a professional fix. While I'm normally all for acquiring skills outside my current comfort zone, I hope that I'll never have to develop the skill further if you know what I mean! The consensus thus far is that its not that difficult to make it look "OK" and I think I could do a pretty good job, but I really want it to look like it never happened. You just never know when an unexpected life change occurs and you have to sell the coach as quickly as possible. A scrape like that if noticeable, shouldn't be a major deterrent, but doesn't help either.

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #23 – May 25, 2012, 11:16:01 am

Last September when turning right a giant tree root reached out and tore a 12 inch by 24 inch hole in the passenger side 6 foot cargo door.
I repaired it myself but the job took 200 hours.
I will post photos when I learn how to do that with my notebook.
The finished job looks professional except for the colour of the repair gelcoat which is a little too yellow. I had the gelcoat mixed by a professional fiberglass repair shop and next time I will do that part myself also. I had the shop repair a small bit of damage done to the drivers side 6 foot cargo door which I will redo because it does not look professional. Lots of folks repair fiberglass but only a few do it well.
There are tricks to the trade, so if you are going to do it yourself, ask lots of questions and experiment on smaller things before attempting the door repair.

Re: Depressing!!!! Fiberglass help.

Reply #24 – May 25, 2012, 11:53:49 am

Benjie, this is to make you feel a lot better about your little scrape. Here is what I did in Mexico to mine and the door was totalled (bust right thru' inside also) I replaced it at Xtreme with another off another unit and removed decals and some of the hardware from mine to make it good. They then painted it for me.
Works great.
John h

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