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Old 10-07-2006, 07:09 PM   #5 (permalink)
turboguy
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Your going the right way starting with fiberglass instead of cf. What you should buy greatly depends on what your making. When it comes to making a part out of a mold (or making a mold for that matter) chopped strand glass is the way to go. You can cut it into smaller pieces to form around the more complex shapes and still easily bond to itself. Also, it builds much quicker (chopped strand is typically thicker than woven) Lastly, mat is normally stronger than woven glass too. The mat is a multi-directional fabric. The randomness of the glass strands help support in many directions. A woven fabric is bi-directional.

You will find that things such as hoods, wings, bumpers, etc. are made from chopped strand. Either from a chopper gun that sprays the glass/resin mix into a mold (lower quality and often oversaturation leading to thick or brittle areas) The other way is hand laid. This is much higher quality, but also more time consuming. You can easily control the amount of resin and glass that you put in a particular area. This also helps fitment since the part is one uniform thickness and cures at the same speed. Higher end companies like Border or Greddy/Trust hand lay their parts.

I'm sorry I went off on a tangent like that. I do that alot. I hope I kind of answered your question: FG mat is cheap and easy to get good strong results.
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