by GreenLake » Wed Sep 14, 2011 10:42 pm
There are techniques for applying fiberglass overhead. One way would be to take a strip of wax paper about 1" wider and longer than the strip of laminate that you would like to apply to re-form the seal.
Lay up the laminate on the wax paper (even multiple layers), saturating each layer with epoxy, then squeegeeing out the excess. If using more than one layer of glass, make an inverse stairstep, by making each strip wider than the one underneath. (The uppermost layer will later be the one in contact with the repair location, and a stepping down the width of each layer avoids "hard" spots in the join).
Before the epoxy cures (or even gels), lift the whole strip, and paste it, wet side up, to form your seal. A stiff sponge or similar material is great to provide pressure to hold things in place until the epoxy cures. You probably want to tape the edges of the wax paper flush to the repair site as well. After the epoxy has stiffened up, you can pull off the wax paper.
If you have a sharp L bend, fill the inside of the corner with a thickened epoxy of a pre-formulated filleting agent, like SystemThree's EZ Fillet, to make a gentler curve before applying the fiberglass. Fiberglass does not
like sharp bends.
Ideally you would work this in sections, as manhandling anything over about 18" in length will likely prove very tricky, but it should be possible to apply shorter sections quite neatly.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~