Where to get fiberglass sheet material

[STRETCH1]

Over the years I cut my front dash many time for many different depth finders. Now I want to fill in the hole, my thought was to cut a fiberglass sheet for the hole and epoxy it in then put a few layers of glass mat over the top and smooth it out. It would then be ready for a new round of depth finders. Where would I find some fiberglass sheet material approx 1/8” to 1/4” thick to fill the hole? It is only about 12” x 12”.

I thought about grabbing some mat and making my own but certainly someone sells it at a reasonable price.

[billnorman1]

Front dash. I suppose you mean the deck at the front of the boat? Most of the fiberglass material I have seen is either cloth or chopped. If it's virgin material, just make a mold, add the new fiberglass and add resin. If you want it to stick to the existing fiberglass you have to break down (sand) the surface you want to adhere to. Once you put resin on it you have to break it down again if you want to add to it.
I advise going to West Marine they used to have a hand out on how to work fiberglass. One thing about fiberglass, it can always be reworked.
You can buy the raw materials almost anywhere.

[Scott S.]

My old POS ranger had some GIANT holes in the dash. I made my own panels, I did both sides. You DON'T need a mold. I used an old piece of shelf material with a formica top for the flat surface, anything that has a smooth surface works. I had some carbon fiber left over from the boat building days. Use mold wax to wax the surface, put on three coat (dry wipe off,dry wipe off). I used clear gel coat because I wanted to have a carbon fiber dash overlay. It's simple, you don't have to make it an expensive and complex venture.Build your fiberglass piece lager than what you need, make a pattern of the dash piece out of poster board and you're good to go.

[STRETCH1]

I am going to make a mold and form a piece of fiberglass for the hole then sand around the edges and glass it into the hole and sand smooth. I have a plastic piece for my front console that goes over it so not really needing it to be pretty. Seems like a lot of work that I cannot just biy a piece of fiberflass and gut it to the size of the hole.... This will mainly be used to anchor my front unit to the boat as the hold in there now is way too big..

[paulrodbender]

If your just glassing in a hole and really no structural support, I have in the past bevel around the hole, tape a piece of cardboard to the back and then skim coat it with bondo on the front side, sand bondo and applied a few coats of glass until desired height is reached and then sand smooth. Then I would peel the cardboard off the rear and hit it with some coarse paper just to clean it up or you could give the rear a layer of glass too.

[paulrodbender]

Another idea if you're using epoxy and can get the dash piece off and lay it down level is cover one side of the hole with tape and cardboard or something else may be used and fill the hole with thickened epoxy. let dry, sand, and apply one or two layers of glass on each side.

[STRETCH1]

If your just glassing in a hole and really no structural support, I have in the past bevel around the hole, tape a piece of cardboard to the back and then skim coat it with bondo on the front side, sand bondo and applied a few coats of glass until desired height is reached and then sand smooth. Then I would peel the cardboard off the rear and hit it with some coarse paper just to clean it up or you could give the rear a layer of glass too.

Thanks for the suggestion. This needs to support the weight and screws for my depth finder that will be in the dash. The problem is that I cut the hole too big then sold that depth finder and then got a smaller depth finder. I do have a panel for the trim on top but that is only thin plastic so I need some fiberglass under it.

[g352nv]

Thanks for the suggestion. This needs to support the weight and screws for my depth finder that will be in the dash. The problem is that I cut the hole too big then sold that depth finder and then got a smaller depth finder. I do have a panel for the trim on top but that is only thin plastic so I need some fiberglass under it.

Make a box and put whatever size you want in. Get some long dowels and hot glue. Make it up how you want in then stretch some fleece and pull it over the box then hot glue it to the under side. Then add fiberglass resin and mat. Do some sanding and gel it.
I can post some pics if you like but I'll have to find them.

[g352nv]

I just did my main dash. Hard to see the curves but the gauge site about two inches higher then the lowest part.

[g352nv]

Heres another one I did.

This might give you a better idea.