Restoring Fiberglas Wheelpants

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 18:54:46 -0500, " jls"
wrote:

New at this am I so how about a little advice here?

I did the restore on a set of cherokee spats and nosebowl, wing tips
elevator and rudder tips. washed them out with a cheap aerosol can
degreaser. (the fibreglass is waterproof so you can get it all as wet
as you like.)
I used a disk sander and woofed off all the paint and most of the bog.
hand sanded it to a smooth finish. used glass and polyester resin for
the repairs (the original resin was polyester on these)
sanded off all the rough bits.
used a johnsons baby powder and poly resin mix to apply a thin weave
filling coating. this was screeded on with a scraper cut from an
icecream tub lid. sanded and more applied in the depressions, wasnt
long before all the shape was smooth.
after a final sanding it went off for painting.

use a gentle hand on the sander and it is a piece of cake.
wear a dust mask.

I found all kinds of stuff on restoring fiberglas boats but couldn't
extrapolate.

it really is quite easy. you can always sand off any mistakes and
start again. just do it and be patient, the job will teach you how it
needs to be done.


the cherokee's nose bowl was quite spongy so after sanding it inside
and out I fibreglassed it on both sides. this makes a 3 ply of the
original layup and stiffens it back to original.

I see the cherokee ocasionally and the fibreglass is still in top
notch condition.

btw when you are ripping off the paint use a coarse disk so that it
doesnt clog up as much.

Stealth Pilot
Australia