I moved the front suspension forward on a car I'm building, and I have closed up the extra space behind the front wheels.

My question is how many layers of matt do I need? Oh, and this is on a fiberglass front body clip.

Here is a picture.

Based on "where" that is, I would say at least 3 layers of mat and it would also be a good idea bond some cloth on the inside. When laying up mat I usually try to mimic the thickness of the existing fiberglas but in areas that are prone to vibration, stone chips, etc., I also do that cloth layup on the inside. Rocks can be thrown up and "star" up through your layup. Cloth helps stop that. I also use a good quality catalyzed bedliner coating on the inside of these fenderwells which also helps with the rock chip thing.

DarrelK wrote:Based on "where" that is, I would say at least 3 layers of mat and it would also be a good idea bond some cloth on the inside. When laying up mat I usually try to mimic the thickness of the existing fiberglas but in areas that are prone to vibration, stone chips, etc., I also do that cloth layup on the inside. Rocks can be thrown up and "star" up through your layup. Cloth helps stop that. I also use a good quality catalyzed bedliner coating on the inside of these fenderwells which also helps with the rock chip thing.

Thanks Darrell, that was what I was looking for, and thanks for the extra tip on the bed liner.

Fiberglass cloth comes in many different "weights' and several different weaves. The lightweight plain weaver cloth you get with the fiberglass kit from bondo is crappy.. Twill weaves and harness weaves are stronger than a plain weave and can be bought in a heavier weight fabric, you sacrifice drapability and the ability to use on complex shapes when you go with a heavier fabric but your job looks pretty straight. If you type "fiberglass cloth" into a search engine you'll find tons of places that sell it by the yard. The polyester resin in the "kits" doesn't have to be used either, you can use a better grade polyester, a vinyl ester resin or a epoxy laminating resin which would be the strongest. There is a lot of info on the net about wet lay up with reinforcement cloths, if you take some time you'll be much better equipped to do glass repairs.

Painthead