Woodworking help

[Kevin B.]

An angle grinder with a worn out flap wheel cleaned up the bumps of folded and/or overlapped fleece nicely. A little bit of bondo took care of the rest.

A coat of bedliner went a long way towards hiding the difference in textures between fleece and bondo, but didn't completely mask them. Another coat would probably do the trick, but I ran out.

Fiberglass and bondo are fun to play with, thanks for the suggestion Chance! The fleece is very flexy, even with the fiberglass resin and bedliner over the top. I think next time I try a thing like this, I'm going to use actual fiberglass mat instead of fleece and see if that makes a difference.

 

[BlueWolfFab]

Yes it will, I thought you were going to put a few layers on top ha. Not sure how strong the fleece will be by itself.

 

[Kevin B.]

I briefly considered it, but I don't know how you would sand down the fleece/resin layer over the big gaps? I tried and it wanted to crack on me, so a light sanding was all I could accomplish and that left way too much texture to bond with a layer of fiberglass I think. Maybe a better/denser fleece would be less lumpy and need less sanding.

 

[BlueWolfFab]

Texture is great for fiberglass adhesion. just make sure you work out all the air bubbles (chopped mat FG is better for that, and use a stippling action with a brush)

And yep the best base layer I've found is like a good dense tight-thread cotton/polyester blend like that of a hoodie, which isn't fleece at all. Then just wait until the resin is just barely not tacky to the touch anymore and start your layers of fiberglass. No air bubbles means you can sand the fiberglass directly to smooth it up some and hit it with a skim of bondo to polish it off. Then spray on some gelcoat which acts like liquid body filler and seals everything up.