Thread: Fiberglass Bodies

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I have several and am familiar with fiberglass bodies, lots of manufacturers come & go I also have a good friend that had a successful body manufacturing company and sold it (still running) so I know what he always told me to look for.
Get only hand laid fiberglass, no chopped glass, make sure its has a metal frame inner support, yes some did wood but go for the metal, you will have to have metal to put the column drop to at the very least anyways. Look at the backside and look for air bubbles, you can't see these voids through the gel coat, if there are bubbles basically the void will be after you sand the gel coat the gel coat and glass underneath won't be bonded together. Also pinholes in gel coat suck, trying to fill spheres is tough as you have a little hole and you can't get filler easily into the whole thing, Yes its different than metal, not neccassarily easier, not harder just different. Also ask what kind of resin is used, tooling resin is best but its harder for the manufacturer to work with and clean up so some punt using it and use inferior resins.
That body sounds similar to the cab that Speedway sells??
Best tech tip for working on glass? Rub your skin with baby powder before sanding it and the glass won't get in your pores and itch so bad! Best of luck Matthyj

He did say it was hand laid. I thought it sounded pretty good, but like 34 40 said, just have to cross your fingers. I got to finish this dodge and sell it around fall, will need a new project this coming winter. Thanks for the replies.

The 1 thing I thought of was that you'd have to title it as a new vehicle. That would suck with the way taxes are around here.

Originally Posted by matthyj

best tech tip for working on glass? Rub your skin with baby powder before sanding it and the glass won't get in your pores and itch so bad! Best of luck matthyj

great tip!