"Help!" for: Fiberglassing, Resin, & Bondo

[Ghost Bear 027]

This may be blasphemy to some on here, but I've also reinforced helmets with strips of cloth because fiberglass can be such a god awful mess... It's a tad heavier than fiberglass, but if you take strips and dip it into the cup you've mixed your resin in, it's easy to lay in, doesn't come apart in your hands like fiberglass will when it gets sticky, cuts like fiberglass when you're smoothing it all out, and best of all...

It's a lot cheaper to cut up an old t-shirt (or pair of undies (?) if you can get past the idea of wondering whats on your head... ) you should have probably thown out 10 years ago than it is to drop $20 on fiberglass or take another trip to an advanced autoparts...

Maybe it will retian water if it gets wet or sweaty? But I always hit it with a coat of truck bed liner to seal everything off on the inside... Maybe it's heavy, but you can man up a bit Spartan.

 

[RobotChicken]

If your concern favors ease of application over strength of finished armor, then yes you could get away with cloth and white glue or resin. But cotton fibers are not near as strong as glass fibers, and resin shouldn't be getting applied to the reinforcement (fiberglass) while you're holding it in your hand. Apply resin to the armor piece, then apply the glass, then more resin over the glass if not saturated enough from the first layer of resin. If you avoid touching anything wet with resin, your hands will remain dry and glassing ends up being no mess at all. I use tweezers for laying the glass pieces and let go after the other end is touching the resin. Then a blunt bamboo skewer is used to push it all down into the resin. Gloves never come in direct contact with the resin, so the gloves stay clean. But, if underwear helmets is your secret fetish then go for it!

 

[Jason 078]

In stead of using mat, why not simply cut the fiberglass cloth into small 2×2 squares. Spray adhesive the inside of the helmet and lay the pieces in, so you can conform to the corners better. Also, you can lay them at random angles to overlap and make sure that every nook and cranny is covered. If you want, spray another layer of adhesive, and lay down a second layer of fiberglass cloth before resining it. That way, you have the ease of working with cloth, no odd strands that come up and cause pokies, and the strength of the random set to the pattern.

 

[kaufmanp92eb]

Jason is right. Fiberglass cloth is a much better option over mat. And very easy to use when cut into squares.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

 

[RobotChicken]

I totally agree with the remarks about cloth instead of mat and didn't mean to give any impression of suggesting mat. In fact, I'm using fiberglass cloth on my build. I was going to use mat and even had some bought, but after doing more research I ultimately opted for exchanging the packages of mat for cloth.

 

[Katsu]

Fiberglass mat has the strands strewn randomly about, which creates more directions of pull when the resin matrix is formed, and causes it to be slightly stronger than cloth which only has two directions of pull. Additionally, since mat is not woven, it will in theory bend on corners and edges more easily.

However, I always use cloth because the woven nature keeps the shards from flying around and getting on everything while you're working, and the strength benefits of mat are not really that big of a deal when working with armor. Boats it can be important but we're not standing three people in our armor! The place I buy fiberglass from has them priced the same, and the cloth is WAY more easy to use, while the mat is only a LITTLE bit stronger.

 

[RobotChicken]

I think the strength of cloth can be improved by placing the second layer bits at a different angle than the first layer, as Jason mentioned. This is how I was planning to do my hardening. Wherever a second layer of glass covers the first layer, place it non-orthogonal to the lower layer so it has more pull direction.

 

[recon313]

has anyone in here been using spray putty like this one http://www.samuraipaint.jp/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17&Itemid=11. if does can anyone explain it how its work? 2nd things does there is any tut or idea in here for making detail (like in cereal killer helmet ) im kinda don't know what to do after aplying a bondo and smoothing it up but the shape doesn't really seem nice to me it seem like it lack of detail.

 

[Rookie425]

A couple last layers of resin to go, then I move on to Rondo. Real quick, when I rondo the inside, I'm sure to have some seep-through, as I did a rather amateur job on the pep stage. Mainly, there's a few pin size holes plaguing a few areas. Since it's been resin'd, I'm guessing I can just tape those over until the inner lining of Rondo hardens?

 

[Carpathia]

Yup. Tape will do fine.

 

[Rookie425]

Holy Hell. Using Rondo was ten loads easier than resin. I took a chance when doing the inside of the helmet after my second inner layer of resin because I didn't check for any holes. Luckily, no seepage happened, and I was able to apply a full layer to about 90% of the inside (the last little bit of mixture began to harden). It performed exactly as I've been told it would and I'm kinda pleased with what I've got so far. Next up, fiberglass, then more Rondo.

It's my first time. Tell me if I'm too excited about this.

 

[Deolf101]

Does anyone know any good brands for fiberglass, resin, and bondo

 

[Katsu]

Bondo Bondo and Bondo?

Honestly though, Bondo is a brand, and we use it ubiquitously for Auto Body Filler because the Bondo brand stuff is fairly good in terms of quality, and can be found at almost every megamart.

If you live on the West Coast USA, TAP Plastics sells a proprietary fiberglass resin I like because it's color activated - it's blue by default, and turns amber when the right amount of MEKP has been mixed in to catalyze it.

Beyond that though, really anything you find at a WalMart or autozone (It will usually be bondo) will be fine.

 

[Chainsaw ninja]

So I'm gonna resin my helmet and I want it really durable, so do I put the mat on with the first layer on the inside then put more layers over that or what? Also I want to put condo in I assume it goes on after the resin. And then how many layers on the outside?

 

[RobotChicken]

...Also I want to put condo in I assume it goes on after the resin.

I think you scaled your helmet a bit too large if you can fit a condo in it.....

 

[Chainsaw ninja]

Well crap i thought it'd fit after padding. Lots and lots of padding XD

 

[recon313]

guy i have seen some people rondo outside the helmet but what's the different from rondoin outside and iside??

 

[Chainsaw ninja]

I always thought that rondo would be sloppier and go everywhere when looking for detail while if put on the inside you can just slosh it around, but I'm not entirely sure

 

[Katsu]

Rondo the outside is a special technique. I highly recommend watching Cereal Killer's videos as they show how to do it.

The basic premise though is this:
Bondo is great over flat areas, but if you want to build it up (adding a comm box or something to a piece) it is actually too brittle to be reliable, so what you do is create a box to contain the rondo, pour it in and then take the cards off when it dries and it will be a very strong thing!

So the basic premise is, rondo on the outside when done carefully can be used to create new built up areas that would not be very high quality if done in bondo, as the resin will make the rondo a lot stronger.

Watch the videos, they're long but good.

 

[Dorvack]

Watch the videos, they're long but good.

Just in case you need a link.