Fiberglass Repair Help

[photobug]

Getting ready to replace the front clearance lights with new LED ones when I noticed some fiberglass issues on the front of the cabover cap. Several long cracks and some weird surface markings under the black paint.











I'm a bit alarmed at this, and not sure how the best way of fixing it would be. If I was at work, I'd call NDI and have them run an ultrasound on it to verify how big the cracks are, then send it to fiberglass repair to fix. This isn't an option though. I was thinking take a dremel and route out the cracks, then fill the chanels with resin. Probably wouldn't look too good, but at least I wouldn't have any leaks. Any one seen this and had it repaired? How did they do it?

In case you didn't know, lazy daze decided that front windows were too much of leak path and deleted the option. Problem was the front looked like a bread truck, so they painted fake windows on the front with fake curtains on the inside. The side windows still are real.





I'm hoping this is just some type of paint delamination and not an issue with the fiberglass.

I leave on my cross country road trip in a little over 2 weeks so I don't have a whole lot of time.

[fourthclassC]

Hi, another suggestion here. If they are really cracks, I think the 1/16" drill hole at the ends is good. If only gel coat cracks I suggest the same. MarineTex . I think this is the best stuff for this type of repair. Using a really clean edge rubber squeege to apply thin..

[photobug]

Hadn't thought of stop drilling the cracks and injecting the cracks, was going to just grind out the damage and fill with resin. might do a bit of both depending on the depth. Tech support at LD says it's usually just gel coat crack, so sand seal and paint. we'll see. Kitty cut open his ear so $700 and the whole afternoon blown. hope it doesn't start raining again.

[theoldwizard1]

pauldub wrote:
You can't just make a channel and fix a fiberglass crack. You can google fiberglass crack repair.

Lots of "how tos" on YouTube, mostly on boats.

Boat exteriors tend to be thicker and stiffer so the G-Flex may be the best solution.

[Hank85713]

Stop dril the cracks with a 1/16 bit Then sand to clean and fill with some epoxy and then again sand to smooth. Only real way is to redo the entire cab over to make pretty, but for temp repairs the above is what is needed. As to the crinkles that is usually due to weather effects and again needs to be sanded smooth and reepoxied/fiberglassed. painting is optional but needed if you want to pretty the cap.

yes you can rout the cracks a little for the epoxy/fiberglass rosin setup but really after all is said and done the whole cap will probably need rework. The stop drill is at the end of the crack and keeps it from spreading further. Also do the same for any metal cracks you ever find.

[cgmartine]

There was someone else on this forum who had some issues with the nose on their class C, and they had to remove the entire nose and rebuild the frame. you need to find what caused the problem and correct it, otherwise, any cosmetic repairs to the fiber glass will only return. It was not an easy Dremel job.

[photobug]

I am at home, leaving in 2 weeks. Permanently.

[path1]

Temp until you get home. Then go to fiberlay in seattle or they moved to kent. Supplies and knowledge

[SpeakEasy]

A few years ago I had similar cracks in an ABS roof. I got some help from West Systems to figure out what product to use. They steered me to G-Flex E-poxy. Here is a photo essay of my repair using this product. It worked perfectly, and held up perfectly right up until the day I sold the trailer. This was ABS, rather than fiberglass, but I think the G-Flex would work just as well on fiberglass.


-Speak

[pauldub]

You can't just make a channel and fix a fiberglass crack. You can google fiberglass crack repair.

[donn0128]

As a temporary fix eternabond until you get home and can pull the nose off. Ugly? Yea, but ay least there wont be any leaks.