Need some fiberglass advice on these two sections, images should be attached. The first image is my gas tank cover and appears only damaged from the exterior. Should I just drizzle in some resin into the cracks here and apply filler, or use some chopped fiberglass and resin and try to get it into the divets, or something else? I should mention there is some squish to the damaged spot. The second image and you might not be able to see it, excuse the horrible repair job (I was told to sand down the piece before bringing over to a friend to help repair it and didn't realize he meant the inside and not the outside) is of my seat/tail fairing and I guess I did a crappy job from behind. I left a small gap where the resin created a valley between the outside fiberglass work. I can fit a thin piece of cardboard in the valley (see third image). Can I fix this without sanding the whole thing away?
Use fiberglass on the inside for support then use body filler (bondo) for the outside.. sand, prime, prep again and paint..
Polyester resin, by itself, is very brittle; it's the glass fiber's that give it strength and flexibility. Using just resin as a filler would not work. And yes grind that paper out. TLR67 is correct. From the inside of the fairing, get a dremel and grind out everything that looks white (an indication that the laminate is broken). Go back and use fiberglass mat and resin to repair from the inside. Sand down and grind out all the cracks from the outside, then use bondo (My Father actually had a chance to buy the brand once - shoulda!) to build it back up to finish...
Thanks for the advice. I did do the sand down from behind on everything, but the tank cover, and layed down new fiberglass and resin on the back. I was mostly worried about the exterior on how to get it better looking, but doing some more research it looks like I need to: sand the exterior pull apart some fiberglass mat and make a resin mat soup lay the soup into the exterior Sand once dry Lay body filler to make it pretty Paint to make super pretty
IMO.. This for outside after you have a nice surface to fill. Inside as already stated. With a good dust mask grind it out and a couple of layers in different directions will be stronger than before the damage.
And a long sleeved shirt and a facemask (when grinding). That shait will itch like nobody's business if you get it on you....