MadaboutKitcars

I was looking at what Gary has done for Nike55 with the wooden bulk head bits and thinking about what I plan to do. I started wondering about how the wood should be protected. I have listed the basic needs I have below but the was wondering how to stop the wood deteriorating once it is in place.

1) I want to paint over the wood so it just looks like the rest of the body so want a smooth finish to it.

2) I need to stick it to the car so there will be bonding paste / sikafix where it touches the edges as glass fibre doesn't like 90 degree joins I have been told.

3) Some of the ply will be thin (6mm or 4mm) and may need one side coating with glass for extra strength and rigidity.

Options for protecting the wood.

a) Glass both sides of each piece of wood so that it is fully encased in glass fibre. Good protection but rough surface finish and cut edges still need protecting

b) Yacht varnish both sides. Good protection and smooth finish but will paint stick to it and will the bonding pastes fix to it?

c) Glass fibre resin only instead of yacht varnish. Not sure of the finish or whether this will work having never used the stuff before.

d) Glass fibre on the side that doesn't show, resin/yacht varnish on the side that does show. gives strength and the visible side remains smooth but do I use resin or varnish for the visible side?

e) Just paint straight on to the wood

My current best guess is D but help and advice from anyone is welcome.

This is for the engine bay and the boot, noth the interior (at the moment)

I chose option D for my wheel arches, so far so good and will finish the inside with bitumen paint for stone protection...

The resin alone on wood seems to give a tough finish however...

Pops

Cover with resin/fibreglass to protect and then aluminium plate / checker plate over the top for final finish.

John

If you use glass cloth, rather than chopped strand matt, you can achieve quite a smooth finish.

I chose option 'f' - I soaked all the ply in clear Cuprinol wood preservative that I had left over from building my garden shed, then fibre glassed over various places where panels butt against each other to give some structural strength once it'd dried. I've also smeared some filler here and there to build up surfaces to the desired height, which looks terrible, but I'm not too worried about the aesthetics as it'll all be hidden under the trim panels when the car's finished anyway.

My lowered floors are slightly different, however - I used phenol coated ply to make a pattern, and then completely encased it all in fibreglass. The lower surfaces also got a liberal coating of flexible underseal spray to protect them after installation.

Should last a lifetime...

Sorry, I meant to ask this question when I first saw this reply.

When you say just the resin, is that with, or without, any catalyst?

Cheers, Paul.

After we have resin and glassed the bulkheads we are going to cover then in a heat resistant quilted self adhesive aluminium cloth

I went for the plain and simple paint option and then underneath the car and wheel arches i painted on top of that with the nasty smelly bitumen stuff that you REALLY shouldn't get in your hair!

That's with catalyst...

Thanks.

I'm sure I'll get the hang of all this eventually!