Questions for the fiberglass experienced

[brushcutter]

Hey guys, I have put it off long enough, and although I would much prefer to wait for cooler weather, it is time to start the glass work on the Trackster. I am just getting over a nasty bout of a cold/sinus brought on by a nose full of dust from experimenting with a wire brush/angle grinder.I wanted to see if it would easily remove the black ? stuff in the pic below. Next time I'll be wearing a tyvec suit and will actually put the dust mask ON and not depend so much on the fan to keep the dust blown away, (it worked for a few minutes anyway)... So I am NOT looking forward to this part of the build.

I am hunting for suggestions and checking to see if my thoughts are somewhere close to correct. After looking at the pics below and seeing the poor state of the gelcoat, what action is necessary? I will glass the float ring to the tub thus creating a gen1/gen2 hybrid.

My most recent glass experience was to repair a busted pirogue that was slammed by an atv when it flipped while pulling the boat up a steep hill. So for those with knowledge of glass work what is the fastest way to remove the damaged gel coat? I have 50 and 80 grit sanding discs for the grinders. If what I have read is correct I only need to worry with the areas that are damaged (which is only about 99% of the tub) and sand the rest only enough to allow the new gel to stick. So what do you guys suggest? If this were your tub how would you proceed?

[Tomo]

hi
18 mths ago i had a tub that was in poor condition .
Gel coat cracked bad only in a few spots
Fibre glass cancer = black fungus sludge
The inside had also been painted in house paint .

Solution
I used an experienced blaster located at a ship yard
The inside of tub was totally naked down to the exposed fibres
Carried out repairs
relined inside of tub with glass matting and new resin 3 layers on floor etc
Used a lot of resin due to how much the blasting had removed
After all is done i used what is called a flow coat to spread over inside of tub .Fuel, grease and oil donot affect it .

tomo

[brushcutter]

Thanks Tomo, I would love to be able to have mine blasted, but I'm not sure I trust the 2 places I know of to not blow holes through the tub. One is a rail car repair plant, the other is where I used to work, don't know about the first, but we used to call the guys who did the blasting at the old job "animals" = they could tear the horn off an anvil with a corncob and a rubber hammer!

The sanding discs I have will more than work on the flat, easy to reach areas, I have been looking on line for some specialty abrasives, such as balls and stars to get into the tight areas. I will certainly look at the flow coat because the more I think about it, the less I like bed liner especially if a repair ever becomes necessary. Thanks again!

BTW, what did you use to apply the flow coat, and where did you get it?

[coosaridgerider]

I was thinking soda blasting.

[brushcutter]

Although I have heard of soda, I don't know of anyone within a 2 hour drive of me who does it. I have a craftsman blaster, so I might try it on the tight spots. I did start with the grinder this evening and it worked almost too fast. I had to be careful too keep it moving while in contact with the tub, or I think it would have eaten straight through. I will also try making some custom attachments for the air grinders to see if that will help with the tight spots.

[Coop]

I've restored a few Corvettes, I had a couple of them blasted to remove the paint, they were blasted with walnut shells, worked very good and wasn't to hard on the fiberglass. If you could find somebody knowledgable with that process, that is the way I'd go. Look for somebody who specializes in Corvette body work, they should be able to help you out.

Coop
.

[brushcutter]

Thanks guys, I did another hour or so this evening which should put me in position to finish everything except the tight areas tomorrow. I'm focusing mainly on the flat stuff that will not be covered when I attach the float ring to the lower. I'll try to get up pics of my progress tomorrow.