06 Mar Firefly Fixed!
This is one of Wellington College’s fleet of Fireflies.
It had a significant point of impact very close to bottom of the bow which had crushed the whole lay up right through. Once Kimberley had belt sanded away all the crushed/damaged fibreglass there was a hole right through the bow.
The structure around the hole was very wet, so we allowed it time time to dry before continuing with the repair. We then ‘letterboxed’ a small solid glass fibre sheet from a sheet laid up on another firefly bow that had completely cured.
This formed a solid inner skin that Kimberley could then lay a filler resin layer against bulked out with glass bubbles and milled fibreglass.
Once this had cured she laid up 3 layers of glass fibre across onto good strong fringe. Kimberley coated these with filler gel, that is gel bulked out with glass bubbles and colloidal silica to make it a thick paste.
Once cured flattened, she applied finish gel coat which was then rubbed down with 4 different grits of wet and dry and papers.
Finally the whole bow was power buffed to give a really good finish – good as new and ready for the next battle!
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