Good Sam Club Open Roads Forum: Class A Motorhomes: Repairing fiberglass


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grousehunter 61

pollock idaho

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Posted: 04/12/12 09:45am

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I wish that I had taken some before photos of the damage to the back of our motor home but take my word for it, it was a mess. The people that owned it before us had hit something and tore the right side bumper and bent it back and also took the corner off the coach, in the spare tire cover there was a hole about the size of a baseball where they had backed into something. The hole was the easiest to fix. I took masking tape and taped it to the outside, that gave me a base to apply the fiberglass mat from the inside, one layer was all it took, when it was dry, I removed the tape ( not all came off ) and started to build up until I was slightly higher then the original finish. I then sanded it and blended until you could not see, or feel a difference between the patch and surrounding fiberglass. A little primer, light sanding and it was ready for paint.

The right side was a different matter. With the corner gone, there was nothing to back it up with. I started with the glass mat and rubber gloves, building up the missing corner, as it would dry, I would grind it down and then build on that, grind, until I had something solid enough to start shaping the corner. From there it was just fill and sand until the corner took shape.

After a lot of sanding and shaping, some primer, it was ready for painting. I had taken a piece of the broken fiberglass to out local auto parts store and they had matched to color as best they could.

I taped the stripe and sportcoach lettering off with masking tape, then cut around the outline of each letter and stripe before painting.

up close

Its not as hard as some would have you belive, and a lot cheaper then taking it to a body shop.

Rodger & Teri

1985 Sportcoach / crosscountry
1983 Camaro / 1971 Chevy 4x4
chessie's named sonny & choc and a red setter named star
http://sportcoach.blogspot.com/

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San Diego Area

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Posted: 04/12/12 09:52am

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Great post. I have my lower rear panel off right now trying to work up the energy to repair a couple of cracks from "touching" a post a while back. It cracked the panel along a couple places and I need to widen those gaps before starting to lay in the fiberglass for a repair. Seeing how big your project was mine is trivial.

95 Winnebago Vectra 34 (P30/454)

grousehunter 61

pollock idaho

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Posted: 04/12/12 09:53am

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I should have previewed the post before posting. here are the correct photos.

I painted the entire rear cap as it was easier that way then try to find a spot to stop that wouldn't show.

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San Diego Area

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Posted: 04/12/12 09:59am

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Were you able to get a small quantity of paint mixed? Was it two part?? Paint sure is expensive these days and very particular to use correctly.

deandec

Northern CA

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Posted: 04/12/12 10:06am

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Great job.

I too have repaired a cracked rear bumper myself. But I could not post pictures of it as the paint match is not yet good. Never did fiberglass repair before either.

Grinding and Sanding.

What equipment did you use?

It would seem that the curve portion would be a lot of hand sanding.

Dean
95 CC Magna, Jeep GC

wny_pat

Western NYS

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Posted: 04/12/12 10:19am

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Very nice!

SoakedKarma

Reno neh-va-duh

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Posted: 04/12/12 01:57pm

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Nice Job grousehunter likely a better job than you could have got commercially as it was done out of love not money..
I too found fiberglass repair rather easy when I knocked a 3"x3ft hole in the rear end cap by hitting a tree.

grousehunter 61

pollock idaho

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Posted: 04/12/12 11:35am

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deandec wrote:

I used a 4" grinder, an orbital sander, and a lot of paper was used in hand sanding using a foam block. The foam block will give a little and let you sand the round areas without flatting them out

I used a single stage paint and it only took a quart, I had it mixed at my local Napa store, ( not a plug of Napa ). There is an additive that you add to the paint for painting on flexible material like the urethane bumpers and such. I need to do the front cap and that may be done this summer.