resin and fiberglass

[QuickMick]

I have some crazing and slight cracking topside and am going to repair it. At home depost i found bondo brand resin at 15.95/qt and fiberglass matt for 7$. West systems has resin at 35$ and the matt at 35$ too. is there any reason not to buy the home depot version? the hexcel on sailnet is more reasonable, i just dont know if there are material differances between these products.

any suggestions?

thanks
Quinn

[LookingForCruiser]

No personal experience with Bondo on a boat, as everything I have read has warned me away from using it on boats.

I got my epoxy from Progressive Epoxy, the web site is a mess and hard to navigate but the epoxy they sell is fairly inexpensive in comparison to West Systems. It's also a no-blush epoxy, so less surface prep if you need to do things in multiple layers for some reason.

Couldn't tell you anything either way about the suitability of Home Depot fiberglass mat for marine work.

[tager]

The resin is not the same thing as "bondo." Its just from the same company.

[cruisingdream]

one is polyester resin the other is epoxy resin
apples & oranges

[deniseO30]

bondo absorbs moisture. bondo resin is polyester as mentioned, west is epoxy.
bondo and poly won't stick to wood and poly sometimes won't stick to itself! epoxy bonds with wood, poly, and fg. the fg cloth from HD is ok to use though.

[sailingbud]

Bondo resin is meant for auto or home applications and has wax premixed so it will finish smoothly but you have to sand the surface between layers. Use the Epoxy resin, you can shop around for fiberglass supplies but you will be looking at $60+ per gallon and well worth it.

[mitiempo]

I agree you want epoxy, not polyester or "Bondo" brand resin. Epoxy has a very good secondary bond to polyester (ie fibreglass) where polyester only sticks well in a wet layup where the previous layer hasn't fully cured. Here's a link to West Epoxy's fibreglass repair manual http://www.westsystem.com/ss/assets/...aintenance.pdf and most applies to any brand of epoxy.
sailingbud - $60 a gallon? Where? I spend that for a quart of West Epoxy.
Brian

[sailingbud]

Last year I recored a flying scott and bought my supplies from FiberglassSite.com They were very helpful with all of my questions and had a great variety of various mat and cloth. The epoxy resin was in 1.3 gal quantity for $85 including hardner.
I will be their customer again when I start glassing the peeled hull that is waiting for me.

[sailingdog]

I'd second Progressive Epoxy Products out of New Hampshire for the resin and FiberglassSite.com for the cloth.