Glassing an Alloy Kill Tank

[Out-Station]

G'day everyone.

I've got a massive underfloor kill bin in the floor of my Riptide which I would use a whole lot more if it were insulated. I'm thinking i might fibreglass it. Fibreglass works is a bit of a stranger to me so a bit of a basic idea on step by step approach from someone who knows would be awesome. Do i need to put further foam underneath the glass?? The fron't end of it will be hard to get at but i'm thinking I should be able to get it done.

cheer's, Scott

[megafish71]

Scott, I have just completed a similar task. When I get another camera I will post some pics of it and a guide to how I did it. BTW I hadn't done any fibreglass work before talkling my project, its quite easy, you just cant rush it.

Ron

[Out-Station]

Ron, that would be a good help, a bit of expalanation with pics would be great to!!

thanks, Scott

[wakakiwi]

I have just about finished a re fit on my 20 ft bertram and have done a lot of fibre glass work as a result. This job would be quite easy i would be getting some foam for sure it is easy to work with. Cut it with a coarse blade on a jig saw and its easy to shape with sand paper.make sure your edges are rounded so your glass will curve arround the corners it is very hard to get it to stick to 90 degre corners. Get a small roler ang keep rolling it till the air bubbles are gone. You will also need lots of rags,acetone,and cheap paint brushes.Hope this helps

[Vindicator]

Yeah I did the same, but I used some old coldroom panels that I had left over. I cut them to fit each wall of the kill tank then fiberglassed over each piece on the tin side. Then I glued them into place and fiberglassed all the corners. Fiberglassing is really not that hard once you've got the resin mix right and it doesn't set on you before you finish using it. I don't know how you go fiberglassing straight onto foam though cause whenever I tried to fiberglass over the edge of the panel and onto the foam it just melted the foam away.
I'll take some pictures of it and post them up for you.

Cheers
Kezza

[Horse]

I would be very carefull how you go about a job like this. It is not easy to bond alloy and polyester resin type glass. Any delamination or voids could become coorosion problems down the track. It can be done but I would be talking to a few people in the know before attempting it

[Out-Station]

Thanks, for the advice everyone. Sounds as though i need to do some more homework on getting things to stick!! Original plan was to bond glass direct to the alloy but it sounds as though this is tricky and i also need some foam in their somewehere as well. How do you reckon i would go bonding foam direct to the allow with some type of 24hr epoxy, then is there a way you can glass over the foam somehow without eating it away??

Maybe i'm better of bying one of those FIJ fish bags and stuffing that in there!!

[ozbee]

a lot of pods made these days are glassed over ally . right directions is the answer

[megafish71]

Thanks, for the advice everyone. Sounds as though i need to do some more homework on getting things to stick!! Original plan was to bond glass direct to the alloy but it sounds as though this is tricky and i also need some foam in their somewehere as well. How do you reckon i would go bonding foam direct to the allow with some type of 24hr epoxy, then is there a way you can glass over the foam somehow without eating it away??

Maybe i'm better of bying one of those FIJ fish bags and stuffing that in there!!

I would fibreglass over polyurethane foam(the green stuff) then bond that to the internals of your kill tank with a polyurethane adhesive sealant. Do this one piece at a time until all is done. Then seal all joints with polyurethane sealant, when cured, glass all internal corners with 150mm wide strips of glass, then flow coat to finnish off. Easy to do just takes alot of time. Built 3 ekies under deck in my new boat this way. I didn't take any pics when I was doing this (Doh). I am going to do another job similar to this in a couple of weeks, if you can wait I will post some step by step pics then.

Ron