How To Do Fibre Glass Repairs

The chances are, sooner or later. you’ll have a (hopefully minor) tip off – and I’m not talking about one from the bookie on the 3.15 at The Vaal. If you’ve got a dedicated track bike or race bike the chances of you throwing your bike down the track will be higher.

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Fibreglass is widely used with good reason. It’s reasonably light weight, lends itself well to moulding, and it’s fairly easy to make a decent repair with patience. So why not have a go at fixing it?

Factory fitted road bike bodywork is generally made from increasingly flexible plastic-based material, so a specialist repairer will be a better bet. But if you can’t afford it, or if your bike doesn’t need the perfect professional touch or there’s a long wait for a new panel, a temporary fibreglass fix could be right up your street.

With the delicacies of paint matching, and the specialized (expensive) equipment needed to get a spot-on finish, we’re not going to be applying the final paint finish here. You should however, be able to get your panels in good enough shape to take to the paint shop without being embarrassed to be there.

1 PERFECT PREPARATION...

Make sure your working area is clean, clutter-free and you have a soft base to rest your body panels on. Have plenty of disposable gloves to hand. Fibreglass splinters in your fingers are not your friends and under the wrong circumstances, grounds for divorce. Using aggressive (gritty) emery cloth, remove any gel coat, and “key” the inside of the panel where the first part of your repairs will be focused. Make sure to get right to the edges of the panel, and work on the entire area that you want to repair. You should end up with a matt, dusty finish.

2 SMOOTHER STILL