Opinions on first coat of resin?

[Kenyel Dotts]

Spandex material can be used too. A lot of people have been using ponte now. I always use a t shirt material (super cheap and stretches well). I would rip it off and start over like tacoma said. Would be more work trying to fix it. Also, a way to get rid of some small wrinkles is if you do your first coat, let it cure and cut out the area that's wrinkled. Usually you can start your layers of glass right over the hole if it's small enough

I hope you are looking at the same picture that I am looking at. Because the pics I am looking at show y not to use this material

hahaha spandex material has been used in A LOT of builds like these. It looks like it wasn't stretched tight enough so the weight of the resin caused it to sink. This won't happen in every case....You can't rule out a certain material because of one happenstance. Never assume, it leads to assumptions man.

How is it a assumption if all the info on why I should not use it is in front of me.....?

Show me something different that would make me think that this is a good idea and may be I can consider it.

[Sergeant_Skyrim]

I agree with mbdblue. This is my first ever attempt so I don't have any experience yet. The only reason I attempted spandex is because I thought it'd use up less of the resin. Going to use a fleece blanket on my next attempt and I've already tried stretching it-it only streches to a certain extent whereas the spandex would keep stretching and stretching.

Again, don't take this as an example of spandex not being able to work. Still in the early stages of learning how to glass haha

[Kenyel Dotts]

Spandex does not absorb as well as cotton this is Y fleece is used. If you look at his pick of the front doors you can tell what ever u are using is way to thin look at the speaker rings and you can see through the material. that's like using a screen from a screen door to mop the floor thinking it will absorb WATER ON THE FLOOR. The more you stretch it the less it absorbes. If you don't stretch it far enough then well look at the picks above. LMAO

[Kenyel Dotts]

Look mom my new wet suit from body armer.... when it gets dry I can stop a bullet. lol

[mbdblue]

Spandex does not absorb as well as cotton this is Y fleece is used. If you look at his pick of the front doors you can tell what ever u are using is way to thin look at the speaker rings and you can see through the material. that's like using a screen from a screen door to mop the floor thinking it will absorb WATER ON THE FLOOR. The more you stretch it the less it absorbes. If you don't stretch it far enough then well look at the picks above. LMAO

HAHA that's exactly why spandex is used my man. If you use a sweatshirt material or fleece, it soaks up 1/2 a gallon of resin on your first layer; an incredibly unnecessary amount of resin for your base. The only thing your trying to do on your first layer is provide a good base for laying down your next 4-5 etc. layers. This is also why Ponte is starting to become popular. I've never used it before, but from what I hear, it absorbs a decent amount of resin without wasting all of it like you would with a regular fleece. Like I said, there have been plenty of builds using spandex successfully.

OP, I would always use a real cheap material from walmart's fabric section. It was only a dollar a foot and would stretch real well (but not as much as spandex). Might be worth a shot if your into it. Did you end up ripping it off?

[Airborne]

dude just made a couple of mistakes is all. The material isn't the issue. Friggin Kudos for going this big your first time out!

[Sergeant_Skyrim]

Spandex does not absorb as well as cotton this is Y fleece is used. If you look at his pick of the front doors you can tell what ever u are using is way to thin look at the speaker rings and you can see through the material. that's like using a screen from a screen door to mop the floor thinking it will absorb WATER ON THE FLOOR. The more you stretch it the less it absorbes. If you don't stretch it far enough then well look at the picks above. LMAO

HAHA that's exactly why spandex is used my man. If you use a sweatshirt material or fleece, it soaks up 1/2 a gallon of resin on your first layer; an incredibly unnecessary amount of resin for your base. The only thing your trying to do on your first layer is provide a good base for laying down your next 4-5 etc. layers. This is also why Ponte is starting to become popular. I've never used it before, but from what I hear, it absorbs a decent amount of resin without wasting all of it like you would with a regular fleece. Like I said, there have been plenty of builds using spandex successfully.

OP, I would always use a real cheap material from walmart's fabric section. It was only a dollar a foot and would stretch real well (but not as much as spandex). Might be worth a shot if your into it. Did you end up ripping it off?

I was going to rip it all off today but doesn't look that way anymore. Got an exam in a bit and still need to read for my night class but I did get the insides of the speaker rings cut out last night. It's pretty hard and dry in most areas but there are some that are still a little movable and slightly stretchy. I did end up picking up a fleece blanket for $2.88 at walmart though so hopefully attempt 2 works much better. Won't be afraid to stretch this stuff as far as I can that's for sure lol

dude just made a couple of mistakes is all. The material isn't the issue. Friggin Kudos for going this big your first time out!

Appreciate the kind words man! Was definitely a good learning experience and I am grateful for all the feedback from everybody. Now I know what to do next time and I'm expecting much better results!

[CarAudioFab]

Start over man, that is going to be a ton of work to fix. Here is my take on what material to use:

Everyone wants a tried and true best material to use for fiberglassing, well I am a firm believer there is not one clear answer. On larger projects, like this one, I personally like anti pill fleece, now sure, not everyone may like it but here is why I would have used it. Fleece allows a fair amount of stretch-ability but isn't overly stretchy. You have some large spans the material needed to be stretched over, you could pull a ponte or spandex like material all day, and the second you get a drip of resin on it, it sags. (Experiment if you don't believe this methodology: Get a 20 foot long rope and tie it to a tree, no matter how hard you pull that rope, there will be sag in the middle, and if there doesnt seem to be ask a friend to push down in the middle. Very little force will produce sag). Yes fleece sucks up a lot of resin (downside) but with far spans I feel it is best to use it. (Merely my opinion).

I am also a firm believer that grill cloth is a great fabric to use.... when the part is small. In other words if your spans are no longer than 5-7" I would use it, mainly because it is so much more stretchy than fleece, but also because the spans are not far enough that I cant fix the small amount of sag with a minimal amount of body filler. Also you dont get that "wave" looking sag when the spans are small.

A lot of selecting a material is really an art, try different materials and you will figure it out, what I wrote above are my suggestions.

TLDR: Start over, try fleece, but it munches up the resin!

[Sergeant_Skyrim]

Appreciate the feedback, I actually picked up a full gallon of that US Composites 435 a while ago and I only mixed up 16 ounces for this and ended up with about half of it left over which made me a nice beer coozy lol.

Needless to say I've got plenty of resin left and had only planned on doing the 2 door panels + a pillars later on so I should have plenty to finish up now

[mrd6]

Start over man, that is going to be a ton of work to fix. Here is my take on what material to use:

Everyone wants a tried and true best material to use for fiberglassing, well I am a firm believer there is not one clear answer. On larger projects, like this one, I personally like anti pill fleece, now sure, not everyone may like it but here is why I would have used it. Fleece allows a fair amount of stretch-ability but isn't overly stretchy. You have some large spans the material needed to be stretched over, you could pull a ponte or spandex like material all day, and the second you get a drip of resin on it, it sags. (Experiment if you don't believe this methodology: Get a 20 foot long rope and tie it to a tree, no matter how hard you pull that rope, there will be sag in the middle, and if there doesnt seem to be ask a friend to push down in the middle. Very little force will produce sag). Yes fleece sucks up a lot of resin (downside) but with far spans I feel it is best to use it. (Merely my opinion).

I am also a firm believer that grill cloth is a great fabric to use.... when the part is small. In other words if your spans are no longer than 5-7" I would use it, mainly because it is so much more stretchy than fleece, but also because the spans are not far enough that I cant fix the small amount of sag with a minimal amount of body filler. Also you dont get that "wave" looking sag when the spans are small.

A lot of selecting a material is really an art, try different materials and you will figure it out, what I wrote above are my suggestions.

TLDR: Start over, try fleece, but it munches up the resin!

Best advice given in this thread yet. All my experience has taught me the exact same thing.