Well, I was all excited about my brilliant sand/fiberglassing the heater box in the cougar.
Didn't work so well... boy, what a dope I am.
I used epoxy thinking it would stick well, and sort of glue the whole thing back together.
Well not so much, There were a couple of problems:
1. Lumpy fiberglass.
2. The epoxy didn't stick.
I think the root cause for no.1 is the following.....240 lbs of sand was not nearly enough. I didn't think about what it would mean from a psi standpoint. the surface area of each half is approx 240 sq inches, therefore, the max psi gain of all that sand is 1 psi, and probably more like .5 due to the box used to contain the sand is bigger than the part itself.
.5 psi will just not do it, hand layup would come out better as there is the opportunity to work the fabric as the resin cures.
I think the root cause of no.2 is the following.....? not sure it's possible the epoxy resin to hardner mix was off, or that there is something in the 42 year old GRP that inhibits adhesion.
The upshot is that I've figured it's not worth the hassle. I'll just hit what there is with some black paint to clean it up, and install it.
If the case falls apart down the road, it will be an opportunity to re-asses and determine whether I want to install a vintage air ac/heater unit to provide modern heating and AC for the cougar.
