Fiberglass Repair

On my last walkaround I discovered a gash in my wingtip fiberglass. Take a look at the photo. How should I go about repairing it?



Spruce sells a number of repair expoxies. Will that work or will I need to cut out and rebuild the section?

-Martin

How deep

Martin is it actual damage to the glass, or just some paint and gel coat broken (scraped) off.

Are any of the glass fibres cut or damaged?

gil in Tucson

How big and deep is it? There is nothing in the picture to give us a sense of scale...it could be 1/8" or 3" long. Is the glass in the bottom of the gash still solid? If so, its a pretty simple job. Sand the hole to remove the sharp, broken edges and feather the edge out a little bit. Fill it with a light weight filler or micro (epoxy resin mixed with glass ballons) and sand to match. Prime and repaint.

Second Photo

G-force said:

How big and deep is it? There is nothing in the picture to give us a sense of scale...it could be 1/8" or 3" long. Is the glass in the bottom of the gash still solid? If so, its a pretty simple job. Sand the hole to remove the sharp, broken edges and feather the edge out a little bit. Fill it with a light weight filler or micro (epoxy resin mixed with glass ballons) and sand to match. Prime and repaint.

Click to expand...

Here's another photo to five you an idea of the size. Not very big. Maybe an inch square.




It's definitely damage to the glass itself. It looks like it's gone about half-way through. But the bottom layer of glass is still solid. So I'll take your advice. Sand, fill, sand, prime, and paint.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

-Martin

Martin,

I would take the tip off and put a small 3"x3" single layer fiberglass patch underneath the area. Can't hurt.

You could fix that with superglue---CA---and microballons.

Go to a hobby store and get some "medium" cure CA, if you dont already have some.

Drop the CA into the damaged area, filling as much of the surface area as you can, and about 1/2 the depth. While it is still liquid, add just enough microballons to bring it up just below the surface-----dont let it get too high above the surrounding glass, CA and micro is hard to sand.

A quick swipe of bondo and you are ready to paint.

Mike