first try at fiberglass

Bush a coat of resin on the surface then apply the matting over it, use a brush to dab more resin onto the mat so it is completly coveRED / soaled in resin.  Let it dry then repeat.  Layer the matting over the speaker rings but only apply resin up to the exteral perimeter of the circle (ie where the fibreglass will meet the MDF speaker rings).  If you want to glass over the speaker rings you can, but u will only need a few coats over the rings.  Once its all dry you can use sicssors to cut the excess un glassed mat from the inside of the rings, and give it a good sand to ensure that the fibreglass dosnt protrude inot the speaker rings area (ie. were the actuall sub will be sittitng) 

Hope this has helped, any other questions, keep posting.  Goodluck

How many layers have you put on so far?  Put a little bit of glass on, and the n wait for like 30 seconds and apply the matting.  Once this is dry it shuld be rock solid and held in place.  You can apply more mat and glass while the previous coat is still tacky or you can wait till it totally dries.  Always aplly glass then mat then more glass.  The actuall glass is extremely weak without the matting to reinforce its structure.  You can use silicon to seal the box, or you can apply 2 or 3 coats of glass and matting to the internal corners to make it all air tight.  Im in Australia so i havnt used either of these products, but usually it dosnt matter what brand you use, usually they will all stick togethor.  Pic wuld help me alot, good luck

I am new at fiberglassing and this post and reply also. I was lookinbg at something someone had posted a while back. It is exactly what i am wanting to do with mine. Except with a 15 instead of a 12. He gave a some good pictures but didnt explain how he did it very well. I was wondering if someone could look at the pictures and give me a better description of how he did it. I can do all the way down to where he puts that black cloth on. How does he get the cloth to curve like that, and to  stay curved while he is putting on the glass? If anyone has any pictures of how they went through the whole process i would greatly appreciate it.


four pieces of 5/8" mdf, lots of cutting, and lots of glue, got us our ring:


ring sanded, and mounted to the base with a 2x4 to support the stretching:


and all stretched and plugged:


first layer of glass. over the next couple days of working on this when i could, i came to the conclusion that weave is bad, mat is the shiz:


and after the 7th and final layer of glass:


then the real fun begins....SANDING!!:


one of the many things that i learned on this project, is that i really don't like hurricane nuts. my friend ordered them from parts express because of how much better than t-nuts they claimed to be, i didn't find them to be all that. when doing a mock up with the sub, four of the hurricane nuts came out with the bolts half on them, so the only way to get them off the bolts, was to cut a hole in the bottom to get my hand up there to hold them. luckily i read in the forum how to repair such a F-up:


couldn't find any rage gold, not that we looked for days or anything, so went with the bondo premiere. not bad stuff:


and after way more sanding:


which brings us to the current state, fresh primer, waiting for wetsand and paint:
 

Burning Maverick

Are you using cloth and mat in your build up? Or just cloth?

looking good

burningmaverick wrote:

---

ok i have heard people on here talken abotu using some type of a roller to help keep air bubbles out, what excataly is it and where can i find one to use.

---

Do Bondo knives work, that sort of thing? A buddy of mine bought a dynamatt kit and it came with a little plastic roller he said, reccomended it to me, would it be something along those lines?

burningmaverick wrote:

---

ok i have heard people on here talken abotu using some type of a roller to help keep air bubbles out, what excataly is it and where can i find one to use.

---

They mean something like this (midway down page): https://www.tapplastics.com/shop/category.php?bid=15

There's also this handy article: https://www.alldeck.com/news_techtip_metalrollers.html

The rollers are very good for doing sheet applications.  This allows you to roll out, wet out, a layer of fiberglass before it is applied.  It causes the resin to be pushed into the weave/mat for good saturation.  Or, if already applied, the weave/mat can be rolled into a flatter, more uniform finish.  Keep in mind, the weave/mat serve as an inner foundation if you will.  Adding resin, when cured, results in a hardened uniform shaped product of choice. 

Some people simply add resin to weave/mat that is already stuck to a component.  When adding resin this way, it causes us to glob it on by the masses - resulting in alot of added weight due to the resin(even though you sand it down- I know someone will remark about that part).  Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont.  But when possible, I lay weave/mat down on a large panel of glass.  Guess-timate how much resin will be needed.  Pour this resin/hardener combo in the center of the weave/mat.  Use the roller to push the resin all around to every part of the FG-weave/mat until its fully saturated, as well as rolling the excess resin off of the FG-weave/mat.  When, for example applying this to an interior part, apply pam/wax/non-stick to the panel.  Lay the FG/resin on the part an let cure.  When cured, cut the undesired FG from the required areas.  Even though you may require multiple layers by doing this, by the time your finished you will have a very lightweight and very tough final product.

Just go to your nearest boat repair facility, or call them, ask for what they may have.  Ive found a few a long time back to not have anything, but they ordered one for me...at thier price, and just so happened to be that they had free shipping because they had an account with their supplier.  As for these days with my larger turn-over of fabrications, I found a boating shop nearby that will add my order with thiers...as well as Epoxy/Polyester resins, mat/sheet/weave, whats even cooler is they order in bulk and get a cheaper price by adding your order to thiers (maybe this can happen after you get to know them on a personal level - sometimes ya just gotta open your mouth to see what kind of deal you can get). 

The rollers I use are constructed of aluminum.  They are 2, 3, 5, and 7 inch widths.  They employ roller bearings on both ends of the roller pin (nice feature - Must Keep It Clean!)  Also, the roller pins have cuts about 1/32 - 1/16 of an inch deep, three cuts on the 3 inch roller, this helps the air to escape to these cut grooves as well as giving the excess resin somewhere to float into.  On the non-handle end of the pin, the pin is knurled or rolled, this aids in corner pressure in tight places.  These types, well, the 3 inch is $15.  They last as long as you take care of them...I keep them in a metal can full of dedicated acetone. 

I also made a screened pallet, like a jeweler's cleaning machine, for my acetone can.  When you want a roller or brush, just lift out the screen.  When you lift the rollers, brushes, spikes, clamps, ect out of the acetone, you dont have to dip your whole hand down in chemicals.

PM for more questions, hope this helped shed light on the subject.