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Old 02-04-2016, 08:45 PM   #1
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Cutting fiberglass body kit

So I removed my fiberglass body kit that came on my Sportsmobile. I now want to cut the wheel arch flares out and put them back on; cheap bushwhackers. I don't have the proper tools, so what do I need to cut the fiberglass? And I'd like to buy everything on amazon if possie

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Old 02-04-2016, 09:21 PM   #2
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I would use a angle grinder with a cut-off wheel ( thin abrasive disc ). I would also recommend safety glasses and a good quality dust mask .
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Old 02-04-2016, 10:19 PM   #3
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X2 on the dust mask. If you have a beard shave it off before cutting. Otherwise you will not get a good seal. Cutting fiberglass is nasty.

To keep the nastiness to a minimum you could follow what they doclean room construction. When they have some cutting to do it is a two man job. One to do the cut and the other to hold a shop vacuum nozzle next to the blade and follow along.
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Old 02-05-2016, 11:09 AM   #4
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ok great!

so would this work?
Robot Check

what blade should I get with it?
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Old 02-05-2016, 08:07 PM   #5
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That will work, and get the thicker grinding wheel, not the metal cutting wheel and you're set.

I'm doing the same.

My process was cut the fenders short at the lower edge where they transition into the running boards. Then i glued in a piece of eps foam that was far too large. I shaved that down until I had a nice enough profile at the lower edge. The eps foam doesn't play well with polyester resins so I wrapped the foam in plastic wrap and started laying on strips of wet out glass.

I just use off cuts of glass that I have from making boards. It's 6oz and will probably take 12 layers or so.

The biggest energy saver is wetting out the glass before putting it on the table. Just spread out some wax paper on a piece of plywood, lay out your glass strips and pour resin on.

Generally you can plan on 1.2 times the weight of the glass to give you plenty of resin to wet out a batch of glass. I'll post some pictures tomorrow if you'd like.
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Old 02-05-2016, 10:11 PM   #6
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That will work, and get the thicker grinding wheel, not the metal cutting wheel and you're set.

I'm doing the same.

My process was cut the fenders short at the lower edge where they transition into the running boards. Then i glued in a piece of eps foam that was far too large. I shaved that down until I had a nice enough profile at the lower edge. The eps foam doesn't play well with polyester resins so I wrapped the foam in plastic wrap and started laying on strips of wet out glass.

I just use off cuts of glass that I have from making boards. It's 6oz and will probably take 12 layers or so.

The biggest energy saver is wetting out the glass before putting it on the table. Just spread out some wax paper on a piece of plywood, lay out your glass strips and pour resin on.

Generally you can plan on 1.2 times the weight of the glass to give you plenty of resin to wet out a batch of glass. I'll post some pictures tomorrow if you'd like.
Pics would be great!!
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Old 02-06-2016, 03:05 PM   #7
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So this is quick, but hopefully helpful too.

I cutoff the fenders and added foam which I then sculpted to look something like this.


I wanted to use the profile of the wheel well that someone else came up with, and just reshape the front. Here you can see the foam that I used. Started with some great stuff, didn't like that so here you see a combination of great stuff, polystyrene foam, with drywall mud to fill in cracks.

So here's the process:
1) spread out foil and cut some pieces of glass. I'm just using junk polyester resin here.


2) mix up your resin and dribble some resin onto each of the glass pieces. I had some PEX laying around to mix, but ANYTHING will work.


3) The resin that you dribble on can sit for a second as you get all the pieces wet out, then use a spreader to completely wet out the glass. They will go nearly clear, or brown if you're using this ugly resin.


4) then it's just a case of putting down stickers. The resin is nasty on your hands. I just ran out of gloves, so I just used the spreader and a tongue depressor to lift and place all of those pieces.


Fiberglass doesn't wrap tight corners well, so you can just build up corners from each edge which you might be able to interpret from these pictures.
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Old 02-08-2016, 11:22 AM   #8
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Thanks for the input guys,
I was able to borrow a Skill Jigsaw and I used that. I was able to cut it was ease, but I still have some fine tuning to do to the lines.
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Old 02-08-2016, 05:58 PM   #9
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time for my shameless plug…..Fiberglass Florida, Inc. Fiberglass Products, Resins, Supplies and Materials

i know you're in California. but we do ship and there is some helpful info about all of the products. and feel free to hmu is you have any technical questions.
good luck !
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Old 02-12-2016, 12:47 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bayshoregarage View Post
time for my shameless plug…..Fiberglass Florida, Inc. Fiberglass Products, Resins, Supplies and Materials

i know you're in California. but we do ship and there is some helpful info about all of the products. and feel free to hmu is you have any technical questions.
good luck !
Imho a first post with a self-proclaimed "shameless plug" is just spam.
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