1960s fibreglass sidecar repair

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1960s fibreglass sidecar repair

1960s fibreglass sidecar repair

1960s fibreglass sidecar repair

Author	Message
Tincan3	Tincan3 posted 8 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2, Visits: 12	Hello Folks, I am hoping some of you kind people can save me a lot of time by advising on the best way & materials to repair the broken front of a 1960s sidecar body. In my limited experience it is very difficult to get a good bond with old fibreglass using fresh polyester resin and glass fibre. There are so many new products available now such as carbon fibre or kevlar cloths and epoxy resins that I think there must be better material to use. Many thanks for any suggestions. Here is a photo of the damage (long story!). Tags old fibreglass repair sidecar
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Hanaldo	Hanaldo posted 8 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2.5K, Visits: 28K	Yeh I'd use at least a vinyl ester, preferably an epoxy. Just have to scarf, clean and mechanically key the surface very well before laminating. You can also do that repair a couple of ways. It's a big chunk of the laminate that is damaged, so you can completely remove it and try to replace the laminate but there's a good chance you will lose a lot of the shape and need to make it up with body filler which is more work, heavier and weaker. What I would do, is try to repair it in sections. How difficult is it to get to the inside and laminate onto the inside of the side-car? I would suggest it is possible, given that is how the original item would have been laid up in the mould. That would be the best way to do it. If you can, scarf out the two lower cracks so that there is no damaged material left, but only come up to where those two cracks meets the one main crack. Use masking tape or ideally flash tape to cover up your scarfed sections (on the outside of the part), then clean, key up and clean again the inside where you are going to laminate. Cut your chosen fabric (woven fibreglass, chopped strand mat, carbon, Kevlar, whatever) so that it overlaps the area you are repairing by a good 3-4". If you can, weigh the fabric that you have cut up, and then mix up the same weight of resin. Brush some resin onto your keyed surface. When you wet out the material, try to make sure you don't get any bridging or trapped air bubbles (small ones are inevitable, just as long as you haven't got big ones trapped in there). You will get a bit of bridging in the scarf joins, but don't worry too much about that. Let that cure and then repeat the process and just move along the cracks as much as you can without losing the shape that's there.
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Tincan3	Tincan3 posted 8 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2, Visits: 12	Hanaldo, Many thanks. You suggest using an epoxy which I, too, was feeling would work better. Yes, it is possible to reach inside and you are right that the outside could be secured to maintain the shape which will make everything easier. With the repair started in the inside and allowed to harden first to provide most of the strength the outside should not need too much filler I am hoping. I had not thought of treating the breaks in stages - that's a good suggestion. There is plenty of time as I need to do work on the steel sidecar chassis - another story! Would an epoxy resin liberate the fibres in chopped strand mat in the same was as the original polyester resin? I am also thinking that something like a kevlar cloth will make up some of the strength lost due to the breaks but that carbon might end up being a touch too stiff. Thanks for the reassuring reply.
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