Few questions, all over the board

Ok, so I have a few questions, I know how to fiberglass, or at least, I know how to fiberglass in my own way, I have done a lot of things, smoothing out custom panels, repairing parts, removing trim and fiberglassing in, custom dash, yadda... but... I am not sure if I am doing it right.

What I usually do, is mix the resin, take a small 50 cent paint brush, cut some cloth into strips, then wet the part I am fiberglassing with resin, put the strip on, then brush resin over top of that. Where I see air bubbles, I just put more resin in and try and work them out, if I cant work it out, I just leave it and sand it down later. I usuall end up with a real rough surface after, and do a lot of sanding. Then when I am done, I put the brush in acetone, clean it, and let any left over resin dry, then crack it and peel it out of the pail. I use 4 litre pails.

The only ways I have seen fiberglassing done is on TV and they either use chop machines, or vacume.

Should I be using strips? Or should I cut out the shape that I want, then pour the resin on, and smooth it out from center. Does it matter in technique if I use mat or cloth? What abotu fleece? What I am thinking of doing from now on, is use larger pieces, and pour the resin over top, and use a roller and not a brush, the brush seems to pull the cloth and mat apart. Also, how do I stop the coth and mat from comming apart when cutting it? What is best to cut it with?When I am making a custom fiberglass enclosure for a sub, when the felt goes from a high spot to a low spot, and I need a 90* angle instead of a low slope from just stretching the felt, is it a bad idea to staple the felt down to the MDF skeleton? How do i calculate the volume of the encolsure? it wont really be a standard polygon shape. Should I just rough it? take a hight, width, depth, radius, and guestimate?If I use a roller for the fiberglass hwo do I properly clean it after? ALso, what Resin should I use, poly or epoxy?When I have my plug and I am reinforcing the inside, I know I should use cloth and resin, but is kitty hair, long strand putty going to brake apart or anything? I am really curious about edges to, making clean edges that mold right into the stock panels allready on the car, but still having the whole unit removeable.

I knwo this is a lot of question, they have been building up for almost a year now. I have searched lots on teh net, and have been reading posts on here, and I jsut cant find any good tutorials on fiberglassing.

Thanks guys!

I am just learning/experimenting with FG for my first time, so I don't really have good answers to any of your questions except for the one about calculating the volume of your enclosure.  I read somewhere that you can fill the enclosure with something like packing peanuts and then pour them all into a regular box.  You can then calculate the volume that is occupied in the cube a lot easier L x W x H.  Hope this helps.

fazdaddy wrote: I am just learning/experimenting with FG for my first time, so I don't really have good answers to any of your questions except for the one about calculating the volume of your enclosure.  I read somewhere that you can fill the enclosure with something like packing peanuts and then pour them all into a regular box.  You can then calculate the volume that is occupied in the cube a lot easier L x W x H.  Hope this helps.

Hey, I had actually heard of that myself. but in doing it like that, its hard to do before hand. For smaller boxes, 6x9's and such, you can also just pour water in them, good test to make sure they are air tight... but I was hoping to find somn that would allow me to measure it in the planning stages. The only thing I can think of, is putting everything into 3d studio max.