Good Morning All,
Yesterday (Saturday 4/25) I applied to majority of the required fiberglass cloth to the dash, let it cure a few hours then did initial trimming and shaping. That covered ca. 90% of the targeted areas - those where I'd removed the external vinyl down to the foam - with two large-ish pieces of cloth; this morning, I've added smaller pieces to cover the remaining areas, mostly due to their tighter radii.
Statement of the Obvious:
this is loathsome work, and those who've used fiberglass (I am a relative neophyte) will understand why I wasn't shooting any photos mid-process: gloved hands full of stickiness and simultaneously working to keep improving the work at hand while not accidentally making it worse.
Once the cloth was on and the exterior coat of resin applied, I had to make cuts to accommodate the defroster vent openings. Wet resin is both sticky and slippery; the cloth will move around when you're doing tasks like cutting slits before it cures.
Once I'd reached that point where I told myself to stop messing with it, I gingerly carried the dash outside to let the sun (currently only making rare appearances here in New England) improve the curing process. If one side looks greener than the other, two cans of the same product from the same manufacturer had different tints.
For initial trimming and shaping I used scissors and my Dumore mini grinder (having grown disgusted with the lack of durability baked into Dremel products, the Dumore is a serious bit of kit, made in Wisconsin) with a cutting wheel, then 40 grit Norton BlueFire abrasive paper on a Makita palm sander and an assortment of hand sanding pads. This project would be a fool's errand without having a good supply of high quality, North American-produced abrasives ... don't be fooled by the "value-priced" imported dross.
This morning I applied the final pieces of FG cloth then added a thin coat of resin over the work I'd shaped yesterday.
While body fillers rely on similar chemistry and make the same smells, I'm looking forward to putting the FG and related materials away as soon as this part of the job is complete. I do not know how folks (boat makers, surf board whisperers, et al) can work with this stuff daily.
Following the fine tuning of today's work, it'll be time to start
adding/shaping/adding/shaping flexible fillers to get the shape and then details right. I preferred overhauling the torque tube, but this project still has some miles to go.
John