old fiber glass

Tom-D

Tom-D

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Tom-D
how well does old fiber glass bond, can this kit be build safely?

I have an untouched (not started) glasair II kit with about 90% of all kit parts. This kit has been garaged for all of it's life and now needs to find someone to glue it together. Due to it's age things like the resin are no longer usable but readily available. yada yada and so forth.
 
If I recall correctly the GlasAir used Vinyl Ester resin in the manufacture of the kit parts. Vinyl ester is very stable and is (was) used in all sorts of corrosive chemical handling. Stuff like the piping and ducting used for moving the stuff, vats and other supplies of that type. Its very corrosion resistant so chemicals in the garage or other storage area should have no effect on it. UV light is pretty hard on all sorts of plastics so that would be my main worry. If it was stored indoors out of the sun it should be fine. There should be peel ply or tape of some sort over all the bonding areas and if not sanding the bonding areas to clean and prep them for gluing would be a good idea....I'd do that even if the stuff was brand new. Not sure if the current makers of the glas air can tell you what resins were used or give you some idea of buildability but in my opinion it should be fine as long as new glue and resin are used for building. Those chemicals do deteriorate over time....

Hope that helps

Frank
(who used to build composite gliders, planes, drones and other stuff)
 
How long is the life? I would dispose all the uncured resins. A good scuffing of bonding surfaces and chemical wipe is all that's needed.

I was Reichhold Chemicals chemist and Dynatron/Bondo's chemist in a past life. Other than that, my forte was making surfboards and hand lay up plastic boats. I haven't a clue of the stresses in aerodynamics.
 
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Tom-D said:
how well does old fiber glass bond, can this kit be build safely?

I have an untouched (not started) glasair II kit with about 90% of all kit parts. This kit has been garaged for all of it's life and now needs to find someone to glue it together. Due to it's age things like the resin are no longer usable but readily available. yada yada and so forth.
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Tom- you mean either woven roving cloth or chop strand cloth? The glass is fine- no coating or anything that goes bad.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Tom- you mean either woven roving cloth or chop strand cloth? The glass is fine- no coating or anything that goes bad.
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I know the glass woven stuff is go to go until worlds end but what concerns me is the ability to bond to old lay ups.

The shell of the kit is the structure, and has never been glued together. Can you achieve a 100% bond to old glass lay ups with new material?
 
Tom-D said:
I know the glass woven stuff is go to go until worlds end but what concerns me is the ability to bond to old lay ups.

The shell of the kit is the structure, and has never been glued together. Can you achieve a 100% bond to old glass lay ups with new material?
Click to expand...
You sure can :yesnod:

Clean and scuff as Rich & Biff mentioned in their posts.
 
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