Fiberglass coating? How to do that?

[Grolar]

Hi
This is more Cruiser-improvement related, but I figured this forum would be appropriate nevertheless. I'm looking forward to insulating the inside of the plywood drawers I put together for my 80 last year, and I'm interested in fiberglass coating. What kind of material should I use? Any know-how out there? Thanks.

Here's how it looks now:

 

[beaufort-fj60]

you want to make it like a cooler?


if so, the way to do one similar to a boat is get a liner similar to a regular igloo (white shiny plastic). secure it a little shy of flush with the two top rails of the drawer. fill in and around the liner with mixable expanding foam. when it's dry you could just fiberglass the edge of the draw to the edge of the liner. Smooth it off with some sandpaper.




might be easier to find a cooler that fits in the drawer.





if you want to fill the seams between the boards.. look into stitched plywood fiberglass boat supplies.

something like this.. there are a ton of site like this
http://www.boatbuilder.org/kokstitchingandclamps.htm





http://www.westsystem.com/ewmag/18/pdf/plywood.pdf
http://www.westsystem.com/

 

[Tools R Us]

What are you looking for? A cooler type thing or to seal and increase the surface strength of the wood?

 

[Grolar]

What are you looking for? A cooler type thing or to seal and increase the surface strength of the wood?

Basically to seal for a nice finish. The drawers are really strong already. So "fiberglass cloth rolls" might be the way to go, but I couldn't find any at Lovve's or Home Despot.

 

[beaufort-fj60]

why are you going to insulat them?


if you wanted to do a cooler, i found the westmarine how-to-make-a-cooler

http://www.westsystem.com/ewmag/19/pdf/Ew19_Building_icebox.pdf

 

[Grolar]

Rather than insulating, I should have written coating. Sorry, my English is a bit dodgy. Thanks guys for the help.
EDIT: btw, I already have a space for a cooler in this rig, so this isn't about cooling anything.

 

[Tools R Us]

Basically to seal for a nice finish. The drawers are really strong already. So "fiberglass cloth rolls" might be the way to go, but I couldn't find any at Lovve's or Home Despot.

I would ditch the glass and just go with the resin. Get some long set time 2+ hour epoxy (not polyester) resin. When it's mixed add a little denatured alcohol or acetone if needed to thin to about water thin. Brush it on heavy and repeat until it gets close to setting. The idea is to soak as much as possible into the wood without having puddles.

The resin will soak in about 1/16-1/8" depending on the wood, gluing the wood fibers together making for a very durable and water proof finish. For a surface finish it will be 90% of the strength of a fiberglass coating with much less cost/effort and no worries of the glass dis bonding, fiberglass splinters suck!

 

[REZARF]

If they are strong enough already, I wouldn't add the weight of fiberglass/resin, I would simply use a high quality polyurethane and call it done. You could get it in nearly any color and it would be water resistant and look great.

Just my .02

Rezarf <><

 

[Grolar]

If they are strong enough already, I wouldn't add the weight of fiberglass/resin, I would simply use a high quality polyurethane and call it done. You could get it in nearly any color and it would be water resistant and look great.

Just my .02

Rezarf <><

Hi Rezarf. I value your .02. Do you have any brand/reference in mind? Tnx.

 

[Grolar]

Thinking about it, I'll still go for the glass/resin, as these drawers were custom-made by an rookie in carpentery (me!) and their surface is uneven at best. Streamlining the whole stuff is the ultimate goal. But how come I can't find any fiberglass reference onLovve's or Home Despot 's website? Is is that a special item?

 

[beaufort-fj60]

they sell the resin in the glue section of both lowes & hd

it's cheaper at walmart though.

 

[Rocinante]

Looking for cloth
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/cm/fiberglass.html
http://www.fiberglasssite.com/
http://www.shopmaninc.com/cloth.html
http://www.jamestowndistributors.co...glass Cloth&categoryId=520&refine=1&page=GRID

Ace or True Value usually have it as well. You can also get it at auto parts stores where they have the body repair stuff. You'll probably want to get a roller to get the bubbles out. Epoxy resin is more resistant to chemicals then polyester as far as resins go. Personally I would get some of the polyurethane or epoxy that you can pour in like Ken said and skip the glass. I don't think glass will look as good, if that matters. If you're looking for strength, maybe get some glass tape and just lay that on the seams.

 

[photogod]

West Marine will have everything you need for this task.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...e&storeNum=null&subdeptNum=null&classNum=null

You can use fiberglass resin or west system epoxy (great stuff)

Good luck.

 

[REZARF]

If they are strong enough already, I wouldn't add the weight of fiberglass/resin, I would simply use a high quality polyurethane and call it done. You could get it in nearly any color and it would be water resistant and look great.

Just my .02

Rezarf <><

Fiberglass is a good option, just be sure to get a lot of Acetone for cleaning up everything... and it will get into everything!

Any good poly will do, minwax or similar.

These are going to look great when you are done, good job!

Rezarf <><