channelling a T-Bucket

CC ... what type of wood are you using here?

Use the highest quality cabinet grade plywood you can get. It has 9 to 12 layers, and more rigidity to it's thickness. A 1/2" piece of cabinet grade is way stiffer than a 3-5 ply construction. grade.

As far as the structural pieces, I use Poplar. It's a clean, straight wood. Easy to work with and soaks up polyesters and epoxies well.

Remember, it's the glass work that determines the final strength. Mat for bulk, woven cloths for strength.

Gotcha man! Thanks!!

You don't want the floor to touch the body if possible, leave a small gap. When you lay the glass strips between the floor and body they will bond the two together........do the top and underside with those strips of glass.

If your floor touches the body it can create the shadowing you mention, where you see the outline of the floor from the outside of the body, so cut your floor just slightly smaller than the inside dimension of the body.

I just use Home Depot outdoor grade plywood, like they use for roofing. I put the good side up and lay glass mat over both sides so the plywood is encapsulated in glass. The floor in my 27 is over 25 years old and is as solid as the day I did it. I also coat the edges of the plywood with resin to seal them. Rot comes in from the edges of plywood, so if you seal those you will be fine.



Don

Thanks Don! There's a world of good in what you say and I'm trying to digest it all! Gonna be a busy winter in the garage.

Fiberglassing is really fun, it is so forgiving. The only thing I hate about it is the itch from grinding it. But long sleeves and vinyl gloves take care of that pretty much.

Here is a picture of the bolts I mentioned, running down into the top of the frame rail.



Don

Yea grinding glass sucks.

When I have to do a bunch of grinding I'll set up a water mister to spray on that area, or even a hand held spray bottle and use my air die grinder. It cuts way down on the itch factor. The discs last a lot longer too.

I made the mistake one hot Summer day of using a big grinder to clean up the interior of my 27 when I was building it. I was only wearing shorts and sweating like mad. That night I had to sleep with no sheet or blanket on me and my arms straight out because the fiberglass slivers had gotten all over me.

An old boat builder told me he gets into the shower and puts baby oil all over himself then uses a stiff brush to brush one direction only, that pulls the slivers out of your pores and the oil slides it off your body. I tried that and it does help. Also, if you run a pair of panty hose over your skin it will pull the fibers out (how you acquire the panty hose is your business ! )

Don

Panty hose huh? Garage door will be down for that! I'll assume you wore a dust mask when you were grinding. But what about your eyes? Safety glasses won't eke the dust fibers out. Did you wear some sort of goggles?

No, I didn't wear any eye protection. Probably why I am blind as a bat today. Trouble with Florida humidity is that safety glasses get fogged up really fast.

Don