Repairing my local kebab van (fibreglass project)

[nuzuki]

Hi guys, Im new to the forum but have been reading posts for quite sometime now. I have been given the "oppurtunity" if you'd call it that to fix my local kebab van side panel as a drunk motorcyclist crashed into it at 2 in the morning and then somehow managed to do a runner The panel that is there at the moment appears to be more of a laminate plastic so my first question is how would I join my panel to the exsisting panel? Im trying to avoid screws or bolts and keep it looking flush. I have used some sealant called "serious stuff" for similar things in the past.
Luckily I have a fibreglass panel left over from an old project which I can cut to shape. One side is very smooth the other not so much so that will go on the inside.
I need to make a lip on the panel at the top and bottom so would need to join some new fibreglass to some old already hardened fibreglass. Do I just go right ahead and lay the new fibreglass on top of the old stuff? Will it bond nicely?

Thanks for reading, I shall post up some pics of the panel I have and the damage on the van before I get involved further.

Cheers

Nick

 

[cumbriasteve]

Welcome to the forum, for 'sticking' stuff I have used 'Grabit' in the past, from builders merchants...it's really powerful stuff and once when I made a mistake and tried seperating some wood from some steel...the steel bent and the wood splintered..the Grabit still held.

Your problem may be the laminate.. bit too smooth and also too non porous, perhaps adhesive as used by double glazing guys would be the answer.

 

[piman]

Hello Nick,

fibreglass welding rods? :-)

Alec

 

[GrahamGKD]

Do I just go right ahead and lay the new fibreglass on top of the old stuff? Will it bond nicely?

Hi Nick, You will need to key the old fibreglass a bit with some coarse sand paper to do a decent job. If there is a big area to prepare you could do it with a flat sanding disk in an angle grinder (but go careful).

I'm not sure what size of panels you are talking about but if you need to lay up some more flat fibreglass you can do it on some old kitchen worktop (not the stuff in the kitchen ). I have used both kitchen worktop and melamine faced board in the past and the freshly laid up panel has peeled off nicely when it is set without the need for any release wax.

Hope that helps?

 

[octo0072000]

glue

tiger seal from motor factors or fley bay takes 24 hours to harden fully touch dry in 12 hours they stick car wings on with also camper roofs if the burger van is plastic that will stick it a lot of them burger trailers are plastic laminate and you normally have to fit a full panel you may be able to glue a panel behind the outer one and fill the front in with resin and mat plus filler to finish make sure you de grease the van first or nothing will stick to kebab fat

 

[Engineer]

You need to use powder bound fibreglass mat and epoxy resin...........anything else will certainly fail after a while. Best to avoid the job if you are not experienced with composite work as it may mean an awful lot of hassle for not much money.

 

[Drains]

You need to use powder bound fibreglass mat and epoxy resin...........anything else will certainly fail after a while. Best to avoid the job if you are not experienced with composite work as it may mean an awful lot of hassle for not much money.

Why not polyester resin, oh wise and positive one?

 

[Robotstar5]

Why not polyester resin, oh wise and positive one?

Because Polyester is the cheap, shoddy Aluminium type and Epoxy is the professional Copper version of the resin

 

[Engineer]

For this type of repair you need to rely on secondary bonds to hold the repaired parts together. Epoxy has far greater adhesion than poly, and the slightly higher cost is well worth it in the long run, as cracks and future problems are a lot less likely.

 

[bullet]

hi mate, hope this helps, i deliver on behalf of these and most of the stuff is to catering van makers and truck bodies, they supply, pig skin for roofs, vetrolite and grp, and all the fixing accessories
trying to be helpfull and this is by no means to be a plug for the company
http://www.servicemetals.co.uk/


if the admin feels ive broken any rule i'll except my punshment, just trying to help

this what im making

its to house two of my birds

atb bullet

 

[octo0072000]

is that a saker falcon i had a days flying years ago in your area with buzzards

 

[66-V8]

Lucky birds, sure beats living a natural life.

 

[bullet]

is that a saker falcon i had a days flying years ago in your area with buzzards

no mate its a goshawk, got two, and just orderd a sparrowhawk

 

[octo0072000]

very nice

 

[nuzuki]

Thanks for the friendly replies fellas! We are in the middle of a house move so I have told the kebab van owner I cannot do the job until I move due to having more space at the next place plus most of my tools being tidied away. I do have some polyester resin and will note for future reference that the epoxy is longer lasting. I am worried about the join on the panel cracking overtime but had an idea to glue a metal (alu) panel behind the join, then bodyfiller at the front. The good thing is they have agreed I can have the van for a couple of days to sort it out but it seems I still have a couple of months to think about how to approach the job. I am still meaning to post up some pics of the damage so shall do so very soon.

 

[Keith 66]

As a boatbuilder i use polyester & epoxy reins all the time. Epoxy is vastly more expensive & probably way overkill for what you want. Its a kebab van so polyester will be fine.
When glassing prep is everything, damaged areas should be ground back to good glass with a coarse disc on a grinder. Then the stuff will stick quite adequately.

 

[Engineer]

If repairs carried out on a thin unsupported GRP skin fail due to polyester not being that great for secondary bonding, then the small additional cost of epoxy will seem very little, especially if the job needs to be done again FOC.

 

[pedrobedro]

Only reason for using epoxy in my view would be if it is used in water a lot, polyester is hygroscopic to a degree but in a van or car it should be perfectly adequate. There are lots of cars with polyester resin fibreglass panels which have been on the road for years without problems. If it's a big panel with a lot of flex do what the bus builders do, reinforce the back with some 2x2 glued on with Sikaflex.

 

[Engineer]

There seems to be an awful lot of confusion over making a simple repair to a GRP vehicle body, so this may be of assistance to anyone interested in how to go about doing this sort of work properly: http://www.fibreglass.com/HOWTO/k-repair-frp.htm

 

[octo0072000]

There seems to be an awful lot of confusion over making a simple repair to a GRP vehicle body, so this may be of assistance to anyone interested in how to go about doing this sort of work properly: http://www.fibreglass.com/HOWTO/k-repair-frp.htm

i think you will find it's not GRP but a plastic sheet composite material like most of catering trailers are made of now as said in the first post