Thread: Glass Bodies

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Dan Thanks for the welcome. Yes I'm familiar with Gibbons. They make a nice body and use quite a bit of a steel. I've built 6 glass cars in the past however that was quite a few years ago and man have things changed, it's like walking down the cereal isle in the grocery store , too many choices ! I'm almost sure I'm going to have Bobby Alloway build the frame , I talked extensively at Pigeon Forge and then It's getting close to either Rat's or Bee Bop's, Pete makes a really nice body, it lacks a few features I'd like to see but none of the have everything. Pete uses a different resin than polyester and it's not effected by temperature as much. He also uses core mat in the floors and sides to further strengthen it . He charges $6650.00 with power windows, it also has both oak and steel, but not as much steel as Gibbons.
C-Ya Ski

I'm reading up on glass cars, and may decidee to build one. True, you can build just about anything. Gibboms has a good rep, and I'm looking Be Bop too.
I have a lot of experience with steel, and am comfortable with that, but the glass bodies are very appealing for a ground up project.
I have read that glass cars shold not be painted dark colors.. True? I know thay need to be heat treated to stabilize, and a lot of folks say that is just a few days in the sun bolted to the frame. What do you think?
Also, the difference between chopper gun and hand laid glass... Your opinion?

Toaster

Fiberglass is a "living" thing. It "never" stops moving. The dark color thing is based on "absorbing" more heat, which promotes swelling, and of course shrinking when it cools again. I'm not sure that the color makes that much difference in the direct sun, which is in the summer when we use these cars the most. The frustrating thing to some folks is, they will spend a gang of time blocking, priming, blocking, priming, working to get the car surface "flat". Then they paint it. At the next rod run, they're parked in the sun, sittin' in their easy chair, and look over at the side of the car. What do ya know, the friendly car has more waves than a New Years day float full of parade queens. Dark colors will show that more. That evening, the worried rodder has his baby safely tucked away in the garage. He goes out to take another look under the flourescent lights, and the sides look "flat" again. The car's cooled down and the body has moved back again.

Prep at the beginning will help with reducing the severity of those instances. Bolt the new body (the "fresher" it is the more important it is) to your chassis, sand every square inch with 80 grit paper on a block (straight strokes, not circles) to open up the surface of the gel coat, and then put heat to it. If you have a heated booth, roll it in there and crank it up to 150 or so. Otherwise, roll it out into the sun. You'll smell the off gassing. When that diminishes to nearly nothing then you cure is better. Some of the companies claim that they will run their bodies through a bake booth to do that for you. The others that don't have the facility to do that will probably deny the need for it.

Chopper bodies have many detractors, but properly done they can be quite durable. Look at all the boats out there that take a pounding on the water and survive well. The usual benefit stated for hand laid, besides the strength issue, is consistency of thickness. Of course the chopper guys will claim that if it's done right, the sprayed body will be consistent too. And a sloppy hand layer can leave voids, folds, and other quality deficiencies as well. And there is where it ends up. A quality shop will do a quality job, a hack will hack it out. Despite the process used. I do like the shops that use "Core mat" for reinforcement of large "flat" areas, such as floor, door skins, and roofs. On my Gibbon, they didn't do the trans hump at the factory, they ship it loose, presumably for access. When I glassed mine in, I reinforced it with core mat, made the floor very rigid.

Toaster;
Hello , Bob had a lot of excellent information, you asked the difference in chopper laid / hand laid. As the name implies hand laid is just that, fiberglass consists of resin (liquid) set up with a catalyst ( hardener) and any number if binders ie. roving ,cloth and mat , these are usually purchased on a roll or sold by the yard, the resin itself renders no strength and is very brittle but when you combine the two , this magical stuff come out. ie. fiberglass. Hand laid you usually mix up resin apply it to the surface your working on in this case it would be the inside of the mold and then you lay out the matt or cloth and brush or spray out more resin saturating the material and as Bob mentioned it's imparitative you smooth out all of the bubbles, puckers and wrinkles, these cause week spots , you should see no voids , one thig to look for when examining a body , a special roller for fiberglass is the best tool to roll these bubbles out with . When this is done this becomes almost transparent. The other method , the Chopper gun looks similar to a spray gun it sprays out mixed resin in the mold and then on the head of the gun is an attachment that has a rotating sharp blade and it's job is to cut the stranded fiberglass ( your binder) the glass comes in a box like rope and is fed into the chopper part of the gun and then these little chopped up strands are blown into the wet resin and then it's allowed to set-up ( kick/ harden ) When the resin is mixed you add the catalyst (hardner) and this is what makes it harden. it sets up on the chemical reaction it generates when mixed, like body putty, same principal , too much harder and look out, you can actually get it to ignite. As Bob mentioned it's all in the operator of the gun, CONSISTANCY, if not it'll be thin in some areas and thick in others. Hand laying is definately more consistant, but much more time consuming, alot like Heli-arc and Mig welding , Hope this sheds some light on the subject. Oh and one other point It ITCHES LIKE HELL ! ALWAYS take cold showers it opens the pores and the little buggers come out , hot showers drive um deeper. It's really cool stuff to work with once you get the hang of it.

While we're doing fiberglass tips.....................BTW Tim, excellent description of the two processes.

Another way I've found to get rid of the glass fibers stuck in your skin is to do a rub down with some old panty hose (how you acquire them is your business ). The fine mesh grabs the annoying little pieces and pulls them out. Then the cold shower won't take as long.

I thought cold tightens yer poors and hot opens em, like when ya sweat.

Bob thanks for the kind words, I learned to play with the stuff on Vetts , worked in a body shop, while in Jr. High and High School and had a willing mentor. I sure wish I'd have known about the Panty Hose thanks for the great tip , Justin your right about the hot and cold if it, the cold does close the pores and keeps the fibers from going deeper and the hot allows them to enter and go deeper, then you cool off and their stuck there.
and all is well until you crawl under the sheets at night . OH JOY !
All you fella out there building and working with fiberglass take heed to these words of wisdom. Sure wish I'd have knoen the little tricks then , would have made life simpler. And this site, what can I say, what a wealth of information at our fingertips.