"Help!" for: Fiberglassing, Resin, & Bondo

[23Magnum]

This thread will contain general first hand knowledge of fiberglassing, resin, and bondo. Safety with these items is very important so you may be told numerous times to include the proper safety equipment when dealing these potentially harmful products.

People who don't know: Post questions.

People who know: Answer those questions.

Please be as clear and detailed as possible with your questions and/or answers. Repeated questions or variations of certain questions may be consolidated over time into an FAQ section in the post following this one.

Always ask and answer questions as if you were asking/answering your mother or grandmother. In other words, politely.

Rudeness and/or impatience will be met with an infraction. You don't want too many of those.

These threads are meant to reduce and hopefully eliminated the need for the numerous 'I need help threads' that seem to generate endlessly in this section of the forum.

They are not a be all, end all to all questions that could ever be asked though. Some questions will be project specific and you may need to ask those IN the project's thread itself. However, some may not see your questions there so you may post a link to said project thread in the appropriate "Help!" thread when you need the attention of a few extra eyes.

[23Magnum]

FAQ Section:

[23Magnum]

Tutorials that involve this thread's subject matter and are approved by the site staff will be linked in this post. Please review them as they may already contain the answers you seek.

Tutorial Section:

[Lord Tofu]

hello

okay iam a noob i have just built a pep helm and want to fiber glass it just dont really know what to do never fiberglassed anything before so could someone please run through the steps ? also do you have to glass the inside of the helm or can you do the outside instead ?

[Liq]

First make sure you are using a decent respirator before ever touching fiberglass resin. I always put a coat of resin on the outside, let it sit a day then fiberglass/resin the inside ONLY. I like to slop a little resin on the area I'm about to fiberglass before I lay it down. It just makes it easier. Remember fiberglass the inside only, or you'll basically make the piece look like crap.

I think the mix ratio of hardener to resin is 12 drops hardener to 1 ounce of resin. I use a plastic bowl wrapped in aluminum foil so I don't trash the bowl with dried resin. It also seems to me the resin doesn't gum up as fast in the foil, but that might just be placebo.

[ventrue]

First make sure you are using a decent respirator before ever touching fiberglass resin.

Decent in this case doesn't only mean good quality, but the respirator also needs to have a filter for organic fumes. For the sanding later you'll need a dust filter as well. Remember that filters will only filter what they are supposed to filter; there are combination filters that suck up a whole range of unhealthy stuff, and there are also filters that only work against a very specific substance. The latter are cheaper, but by no means worse, if you know what you're up against. Also keep in mind that filters wear out, fume filters will then start to let smell through and particle filters will just clog up. Breathing through them without any hazardous material around will also wear them out, as will time. (So.. do not buy cold-war military masks because you feel supercool in them!)

You'll also have to gloves and I'd highly recommend safety glasses, if you're not wearing a full-face mask.

I think the mix ratio of hardener to resin is 12 drops hardener to 1 ounce of resin. I use a plastic bowl wrapped in aluminum foil so I don't trash the bowl with dried resin. It also seems to me the resin doesn't gum up as fast in the foil, but that might just be placebo.

The resin/hardener ratio always depends on the product you're using and it will always be in the instructions, which should of course be read and understood before even thinking about opening the can.

There are many tutorials in text or video form that teach you how to resin, fiberglass or rondo things, you should watch and read those first. Hoewever, some, especially of the video kind, don't really show safety so well. I'm thinking of tuts where the hero would point out his mask and let the camera man put his nose into the newly resined helmet without one, for example, or of vids where people wear masks of the wrong type.

[hollywood]

I also recommend wearing some sort of full body cover, like painters coveralls. You can get disposable ones at Lowes for around 5-7 dollars and they last a good while. you can get a box of latex or vinyl gloves for <5 dollars. IT SUCKS to get this stuff on your skin. And if you get it on your clothes, IT WILL NOT come out.

[Chantelle]

You can have a fibreglass exterior on armour, you just need about three grades of high quality fine grit buffing blocks for use after sanding, and suitable oil to apply before, during, and after the buffing process. This is the same technique as we use on fibreglass pieces for films and television.

We buy our fibreglass as one long sheet on a ream and unroll it only as we need it. We cut it into little squares to allow greater control and avoid air bubbles. We usually apply a barrier to the mould to ensure easy removability (you can buy them from your fibreglass retailer), then gradually apply resin then fibreglass, bit by bit so you're only worrying about on area at once. You still want to work fast, though, if you're using a fast-curing product or hyperdry.

When you are satisfied and it is fully cured, sand it down as smooth as possible. Apply a liberal coat of oil and progressively buff it with the fine buffing blocks. This will not only make it smooth, but depending on the resin it can also give an amazing metallic shine. If you don't like the shine, you can break it back with 99.9% proof isopropyl alcohol on a wet-wipe and/or a matte primer before painting.

[Lord Tofu]

okay cool thanks guys just one more question this one they dont show on vids ;P i have made my helm its looking good so iam going to fiberglass it on the inside and resin on the outside but cause i used pep it very square if that make sense so after the resin and fiberglass how do i get it to look more smooth ? do i use a body filler or something ?

[ventrue]

okay cool thanks guys just one more question this one they dont show on vids ;P i have made my helm its looking good so iam going to fiberglass it on the inside and resin on the outside but cause i used pep it very square if that make sense so after the resin and fiberglass how do i get it to look more smooth ? do i use a body filler or something ?

Actually, this question does come up all around :-)
The answer is yes, once you've resined the outside and glassed the inside (in that order) you use body filler on the outside, let that cure and then sand it to achieve the desired form.

By the way, a few punctuation marks would make your questions way more readable.