Painting interior

for the air pockets use an airgrinder with a 3" 36 grit disc and grind out the bubble area and re glass it - or some similar grinder to take it down really quick. don't worry about making it smooth right now, just get that pocket out so you can glass that section again. you should go down to the local Industrial Finishes or ask a local paint shop... hmm... however you need to - get some Duraglass. its fiberglass/bondo. but not bondo brand. it's nice. anyway, spread that over the fiberglass and then mud over tha duraglass, then glaze over the mud.
you'll want to rough up the fiberglass with the roughest possible sandpaper. i personally feel 60g isn't enough 'tooth' i'd go at least 36g or maybe 24g, as fiberglas is pretty hard stuff. i'd even sand the duraglass with 36g, then use the mud and sand with normal grits like you do at school.

oh - don't breathe the fiberglass while your sanding it, it's not so good for you. might wanna cover up with gloves long sleeves and long pants, and think about covering your neck too... its itchy stuff. cold water will rinse it off you, warm will open your pores and make it worse.

Damn it! this whole time ive been taking long ass hot showers after sanding that shit! and suffering for a day or two! and all i needed to do was turn the heat knob to cold!?!?!?!? well its good to know.. and i would highly recomend a respirator

Lol! Right now, all I have is a 10 gallon, 3hp compressor that my dad got! I was told I could'nt run any air tools on it. I've got an electric drill and I bought a dremel bit that is cone shaped. I've been using it to do the touch up work. It takes a while, but it works!

I'm thinking I will need to try and get it into school for the real work on it. I did'nt plan on the bubbles, but I think its because gravity took effect, lol! My dad used a roller on it, and then I went in after him with a paint brush to tap it in the smaller areas. I wish I could have done the dash in sections. I'm betting, now that I think of it, that if I had cut the glass at the curve where it bubbled up, it would have stuck. Oh well...

I used 60 grit paper to sand the dash before I glassed. I must have been at it for 2-3 hours sanding out all the texture and shine! I wiped it down with acetone afterwards... Like 1/2 hour later, we then began to glass.

Actually, lol, now that you speak of it, I could only get my hands on Bondo brand glass-filler! It works good I think. I would put it up there with Evercoats fibertech! Why in the world would I want to fiber-fill it? That part does'nt make sense to me... Mudding it, that makes sense. Nice thing about my mud, is that its mid-brand. Its regular filler but it acts like glazing putty! Good stuff.

HAHA! Funny you should also mention my safety. I'm out there with my dad in a shoot suit, rubber gloves, and plastic bags over my shoes. My mom was wondering why I was dressed for a static room! When I sand, I definitely will be wearing a particle mask! I don't want to be inhaling powdered glass!

No need to worry about me and my safety all, I value that first! Haha, and I got into a debate about hot and cold water with my dad, pretty funny!

Well, I was also bored today, so I thought I would sand my speaker grills and get them going. I forgot to sand them! Most of the glass sticked, but on one part 2 inches had to be redone. I have to wait for it to cure again and all. Lol, I think the resin also melted off the tabs for the grill to mount into the dash! Gonna have to figure out how to get them mounted again!

Okay, guys. I've got 2 problems!

1. When the glass cured in some spots, it bubbled up! Why?

2. It has not cured all the way! Its been 4 days now! What can I do to fix it or should I wait more? I was wondering if maybe I can go over it again with some resin and more catalyst to cure it? But I don't think it would do any good... I have no idea what to do! I wanna yell at my dad for it, cause he wasted my mat. But the guy is poorer than me! And I'm broke too! Crap!

I've also got an idea of pulling the mat off and just redoing it...I just dunno about the areas I cannot do this in!

I'm back on this thread to post up again! I figured some things out and some problems have arisen!

The reason my dash did'nt cure is because the resin I bought was bad! It was supposed to be runny and not so jelly-like. So I got it replaced with a new gallon for free!

So, I was back at it again, restarting from the beginning! I sanded it with 36 grit this time. Got it all glassed, and did it in sections instead of one whole piece!

Well, the next day after I let the last section I did, cure, it lifted! parts of the glass lifted from the dash! WTF! Why is this not sticking to the dash? I've seen plenty of people on here glass the dash! I just don't get why its lifting?

I called up the bondo corporation and the only thing he said is the plastic on the dash just won't let the glass adhere. I dunno what our dashes are made from. So he suggested I buy some epoxy resin where it lifts and sand it then glass ontop of that.

Has anyone been having the same problem? My adhesion, prep, environment, mix ratio, etc. were basically ideal this 2nd time around when I glassed it! Everyday thatp passes the glass just keeps lifting more and more!!!

I was thinking of whether or not putting on a coat of resin itself and let it cure. Afterwards, sand it and then glass on that? Should'nt that provide something equivalent to epoxy resin?

Aye... now I've just been thinking about whether or not I can put body filler on the plastic itself and do it that way... Or maybe just use hundreds of coats of primer to fill the scratches and then sand it and then spray the color, etc. and make it shiny like originally planned...

Would putting the filler on the dash itself make the filler crack or prematurely fail? My main objective to glassing the dash has been really to make it smooth, give good adhesion, and shave unnecessary things like gaps, etc...

Alright, I've written alot, and so I think I should stop here! ANYONE HAVE ADVICE?

High build sprayable polyester filler...

Hmm, I could'nt find anythong on that, gravity.

But, I had an epiphany today! After 2 attempts of trying to get the glass to stick to the dash, I decided to jsut try the resin itself. WOW!

I would like to go in the corner and cry myself to sleep now... It works REALLY well! I could'nt believe how it was everything I was looking for!

Although, I just did the spots that the glass did'nt stick to! I've got alot of building up with the body filler now! I did almost ALL of my dash in fiberglass now and its going to be a pain to make smooth and feather out to the edges now! Eh, atleast I know what to do with the rest of my truck now...

Tomorrow, I want to get some pics up of what it looks like so far. It'll be my last day tomorrow before I leave and figure I'll show you all what it will look like outside of my truck for like 4-6 months!

Just be carefull as to what resins and hardeners you use as they can be very brittle, and that would make more fo a mess down the road.

wow sounds like ur havin a hell of a time. hope mine doesnt go like that wen i get to it. well if it does ill come to u first cuz it seems like uve experienced it all, lol.