Monday 17 October 2016

Starting the fiberglass repair

Carl and I spent a few evenings devising a strategy for repairing the cracks and fractures in the fiberglass shell of this 1976 Trillium egg.  Following Carl's thorough cleaning of the Ensolite removal of all the interior doors, we settled on this order of events:
1. Remove the front, side and rear windows, the plywood furring strips around the window holes, and the belly band.
2. Peel back the Ensolite from each fractured area.
3. Grind out the compromised fiberglass surrounding each fracture from both inside and out.
4. Jack up the roof on the driver's side, since it had sagged considerably.
5. Re-align the fiberglass around each fracture using wood screws and plywood strips.
6. Apply several layers of new fiberglass -- fabric and chopped strand mesh -- to the interior side of the fractures.
7. Apply a layer of fiberglass fabric to the exterior sides.
8. Apply Bondo body filler to the exterior, and sand.
9. Clean up the windows, and re-install for winter storage.

Our search for fiberglass resin, fabric and mesh took us to a boat building supply shop in Ottawa, Ontario.  We live in Muskoka, a region that is famous for boating and canoeing, and we couldn't find any suppliers of these materials in the quantities that we would need.  We watched several boat repair videos on YouTube, and then got down to the dirty work.
1976 Trillium: Drilling out the rivets holding the belly band.

1976 Trillium: Removing the belly band.

1976 Trillium: Removing the front sun shade.

1976 Trillium: Front window removed, and Carl is still smiling.

1976 Trillium: One section of Ensolite peeled back near the worst section of damaged fiberglass.

1976 Trillium: Fracture along the curve of the upper cupboard.


1976 Trillium: Carl using a knife to separate the Ensolite from the fiberglass roof.

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