fibreglass - wassup ?

[ketvrin]

Any Fibreglass sages out there that can give me some advice ?

I had resin and hardener bought from Halfrauds last year, mixed well set great, I had some hardener left over and have used it to mix (at the same ratio as before) with resin made by "Stevens" but it has not set !!!

It has stiffened slightly after 24hrs but is still soft and sticky... what should I do? leave it to harden, or rip it back off while its soft - and if I do that how do I clean the rest away?

I thought resin was resin and any hardener would work with the resin... or can hardener go "off" in storage and just not work ?

any other advice ? paint hardener on direct ? sell car ?

[Le TVR]

ketvrin said:

I thought resin was resin

Unfortunately not.
First is that you have probably exceeded the shelf life of the product. Normally you would only keep polyester resin products for a couple of months at most.

With polyester resin systems there are activators and hardeners that are not stable in the long term. The organic peroxide used as activator will naturally selfoxidise over a few months and results will be a bit hit and miss after that.

[bonefish]

Unfortunately not all harderners work with all resins but as Le TVR has said sounds like you've got a somewhat oxidised batch there. If you can leave the panel in a sunny spot for a week then I think you might be lucky and it will harden off ( I've had a few similar instances and they do properly harden after a week). Otherwise you may have to cut/ remove the soft bit out and re-do it

[ketvrin]

OK thanks for that chaps... I kind of guessed it would be so.

It will be next sunday before I can get back to it now so I'll see if it has set by then, if not then I will remove it and start again with fresh resin and hardener...

K

[Olav Bergman]

Hi ketvrin,

Having fun with the glasfiber? What are you fibering??
I've been doing some too. for the bulkhead.
Funny when too much hardener is applied..get's really hot and it starts smoking :-)
you need the right hardener though...

I'll check out your pictures again..see what progress you made.

cheers

Olav

[ketvrin]

Hi Olav

I was glassing a bonnet catch as it was a bit loose... I noticed the same when too much hardener was added hehehe...
i got it right in the end and the bonnet is back on now.

two more days of work and I'm ready to turn the key.

Hows your rebuild doing? I couldnt access your site last time I tried

K

[Olav Bergman]

Hi Ketvrin,
You must be on the road by now!!!!!!! Did it all work out? Car fine again????

I'm waiting for a flywheel/spigot bearing from tvrcarparts. When that has arrived engine and box can be mated. I hope to be on the road end of next month......
Still avoiding the dash conversion though... I must do that soon!!

Cheers

Olav

[ketvrin]

Olav Bergman said:

Hi Ketvrin,
You must be on the road by now!!!!!!! Did it all work out? Car fine again????

Hi Olav
No I'm not on the road yet still have about 10 hours work to do and cant get to the car this weekend I will let you know when I get there...

good luck with your engine and wrong-way-around dash

Ketvrin