Remember when I mentioned the following:
Okay, so the Salt Torpedo got close to being ready for fiberglass work. I spoke to Gary Maur, of Kustom Fab, in Detroit, and he convinced me that we could handle it in the shop. That was a confidence builder, but I still didn’t like the notion of grinding fiberglass in the shop. Nasty shit.
Much of the above paragraph came true over the last month. The Redhead hooked me up with Lupe, a local Marine mechanic and fiberglass guy. He brought over Willie, and then Santos and told me the whole process could be handled in a week. We discussed the timing and schedule, but it never happened that way.
Every day, I learned something more, to the chagrin of our fleeting schedule.
Two gallons of Epoxy 105—slow setting
Two pumps for measuring the epoxy and hardener
A box of 6-inch paint rollers
Two Gallons of lacquer thinner
A box of plastic gloves
Five 1-gallon buckets
Five 1-quart buckets
A roll of 1-inch blue tape
A bunch of cheap 2-inch brushes
One gallon of Acetone
Four jumper suits, large
A sheet of thin veneer
I’m on a mission from the lord of the Piston Pirates. I finished painting Jeremiah’s landing and built a railing for working on my roll-up door. I needed a can of red Rustoleum paint to finish it off.
I wish I knew what the hell I was doing. First, I used the wrong Bondo. Lupe kept asking for a gallon. We ended up using the low-strength Bondo, and probably over two gallons.
We laid the first round of fiberglass this weekend, just before it rained. That was a Saturday. At that point I didn’t know shit about what was happening. We were using a very thick biaxial glass cloth and it was very difficult to work around these curved surfaces.
It’s not as if I don’t believe Lupe, but he’s loopy with alcohol every day and his schedule shifted from working every day to once, maybe twice a week. I watched a couple of tutorials regarding fiberglass over curved surfaces. I started to quiz Tony at the local Marine store, and he gave me another type of fiberglass. I trimmed away the excess glass and sanded the first layer. I bought and learned about new tools, and types of fiberglass. The second layer was a thinner mesh and was easier to work into the shapes, but I was still making mistakes.
Lupe told me Tony was full of shit and we needed the thicker cloth to get the thickness and strength we needed without multiple layers of cloth. The first thick layer had lots of overlaps, which caused lips in the shape.
I tried to overcome that problem with the second layer. I minimized the number of overlaps, but I was still doing it wrong.
Originally, we were going to fiberglass the existing piece of the top of the tank together, but it dawned on me—that wasn’t Lupe’s plan.
We are currently working with the existing fiberglass as a mold for the Salt Torpedo. I thought we were going to add fiberglass to our top, but now Lupe is going to make a mold out of the top and fiberglass over it. I don’t know why, but I’m edgy.
I watched YouTube and read about fiberglass advice. It’s tough to find just the right information without spending hours watching slow, ponderous instructional films. On the other-hand, I was learning and picking up tips everywhere I could.
I needed to cut the glass into patterns for the next round of glass, two more to go. But I was disturbed by the puzzle notion. I started to investigate and found this photo.
We went to a small Memorial Day gathering on the bluff over-looking the Pacific. It was mellow until I brought up the Salt Torpedo, and suddenly everyone wanted to come to Bonneville in August to see the action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFaA6wbZ4ac
Shit, I feel like every minute I’m snorting the sands of time. I just scoured through the internet looking for advice on making fiberglass patterns or laying fiberglass over a curved surface.
I’m going to try to take my ’72 F250 to a car show this Saturday in Carson, with a for sale sign. I would like to load a bike in the back just to grab some attention. We’ll see. It’s already another wild week
Friday, I bought a 2018 Nissan high-top van and immediately started to modify it. It turned out to be a very basic model with just 85 miles on the clock. I think I got a reasonable deal but discovered it doesn’t have cruise control. Any suggestions?
First newish 4-wheeler in the last 25 years. I drug my feet long enough and needed to move on something for Bonneville this year. I drove it directly from the dealership to Wellington signs to have it emblazoned with our 5-Ball Racing Logos, but fuck, they weren’t ready; maybe another day.
It came with racks and a bulkhead, which will need to go. The bulkhead is gone, and Don brought me a Condor wheel chock. I’m working on installing it and some fold down seats in the back.
I discovered I had no way of seeing my way clear to back out onto Harry Bridges. I had to modify my convex mirror mount and raise it almost 2 feet. Now it works but a palm tree needs to leave.
I was constantly running back to the Marine store for more epoxy resin. Between the second layer of glass and the third, Lupe recommended some Bondo work using an epoxy filler. I bought some. I filled the areas, which shrunk as it dried. Then I cut the thick glass for the final layer. No over-laps this time.
I like to work out on Saturdays, but halfway through my workout I realized I was burning daylight and went back to sanding, then spent the afternoon prepping the liner for a mess with resin.
I prayed this could be the final layer of glass. I made three two-layer panels of glass for the parachute box, and it seemed strong, but it was maybe 0.040 thinner than the belly tank. The belly tank also has a thin additional layer of gel coat. Our body would be two thick layers and one thin layer. It was touch and go.
Also, I was learning how to make glass patterns and about overlapping glass. I’m still not confirmed on this, but I don’t believe overlapping is the answer during a single coat. I cut the pattern for the final coat and made the pattern areas touch but not overlap. I think I’m beginning to get it.
Lupe was a no-show on Saturday, but Sunday we rocked. I had never done anything like this before, but I found myself coaching the team. We worked our asses off spreading slow-curing epoxy resin, rolling it into the glass fibers and Lupe worked at rolling the bubbles out of the glass. Then it started to rain.
When we finished, I asked Lupe if I could come back and give it another coat of resin. “No,” he said. “We will use epoxy primer next.”
I accepted his advice but was concerned about the thickness of our body and the rough surface. I watched another YouTube video from a glass and resin manufacturer demonstrating laying fiberglass over a curved surface. Interesting. The curve was a single plain and a very easy surface to deal with. But they recommended three coats of additional resin to fill the area left uneven by the resin soaking into the glass.
I went to work adding more coats. I sanded between each coat and this time was the first time I was in charge of mixing it 5:1 resin to hardener. I also took into consideration the weather and the sun. Warm and sunny, less hardener. It seemed to work. Over the weekend, I added four more layers of resin and the surface is still slightly uneven, but I’m hoping it’s strong and thick enough to let us move to the next stage.
I’m nervous about pulling the body away from our make-shift mold, but that’s next. I’m hoping to trim next, peel the body away and work on the box for the parachute.
The goal is to get the top of the body out of the shop for canopy and windshield work, so we can get back to the mechanical.
Lupe wants another relative to handle the paint, but I’m not going there. I’ll pay to have someone down the street paint it. And I’m hoping Yvonne will paint Atomic Bob’s Salt Torpedo bomber girl on the sides.
Hang on.
Jim’s Machine
Hot Rod Underground
Paughco
BDL
Strictly Hawgs
MetalSport Wheels
Custom Cycle Engineering
LowBrow
S&S
Bassini Exhausts
Twin Power
Lucky Devil Metal Works
