Where to get fiberglass stuff?

[aerohead]

I've been getting supplies at Home Depot,Lowes, O'Reiley Auto Parts,Auto Zone,Wal Mart,NAPA,Pep Boys.You can shop around for price.-------- Many fabrics will work.Dacron is not one of them.It's used as a peel-ply in polyester work.--------- The bi-axial fiberglass "drapes" nicely over compound curves.Staggering consecutive layers of the cloth's bias of weep and woof builds tensile strength.----------- Epoxy has advantages over polyester although you need to look at price.------- If you work with Carbon fiber,treat it as you would asbestos.Some universities forbid the students from working with it due to a perceived inhalation health risk.---------- Always use a good form-fitting respirator.If you have facial hair as I do,coat your cheeks and jowls with petroleum jelly to get a good air seal ( applicable for spray-painting also!).-------------- Also,it's preferable to use air-driven power tools for grinding and sanding as composite dust is very destructive to open frame electric motors.

[Bicycle Bob]

"The bi-axial fiberglass "drapes" nicely over compound curves.Staggering consecutive layers of the cloth's bias of weep and woof builds tensile strength.----------- Epoxy has advantages over polyester although you need to look at price."

Bi-axial usually refers to rather stiff cloth made by sticking together two layers of uni-directional. Woven cloth, such as the extremely common 6-oz "boat cloth" is usually equally strong in two directions. For extra conformability and resin content, satin types are available. Really good work is often built up from layers of unidirectional cloth, set in the most advantageous orientations. Anisotropy is seldom optimum, but you can get it with tri-axial cloth, or by alternating layers of cloth (with equal thread count in the warp and weft) set square and at a 45 deg. angle. ("on the bias")

Epoxy usually takes far longer to soak into the cloth, and far longer to sand. Vinylester has similar physical properties when cured, but is easier to work with, except for the short shelf life which means it is only available from high-volume users or dealers. Vinylester is also more flame retardant. For a price, you can get some very superior resins, but they are not needed for bodywork.

[SVOboy]

Ended up getting some stuff from home depot about about 30 bucks.

I'd like to make my first project fiberglassing over a hole or two on the front of my car. Can I simply put some masking tape over the hole and then go ahead and glass over that?

[Bicycle Bob]

That works for molding, but the masking tape adhesive won't support the 'glass for use, so you have to extend the patch onto sound metal or primer. If you want a convex surface, it can be built up with bondo, or you can start with strips of light cardboard taped to the approximate shape. If this is a rust repair, you have to account for possible further deterioration.

[SVOboy]

It'll be over black plastic trim on the bumper. Was hoping to go an inch or two past the hole onto the plastic and just sanding down.

[Bicycle Bob]

Check for adhesion to the plastic. Sometimes, it helps to feather edge the 'glass. Sometimes you might have to just pop it off, and then use a mutually compatible glue. If so, you might just want to use plastic sheet, which can also be pre-formed to a curve.

[SVOboy]

Gotcha, I'll see what happens when I get down to it