Whats the best sticky stuff?

[PeteC]

I am part way thru a flip front conversion and I will soon be attaching the formed fillets that bonnet lands on along with the ally slats along the bottom edge, that guide the bonnet sides into the correct position.
I tried using mixed resin to attach ally to fibreglass once and it just wasn't very strong so whats the best method for attaching f/glass to f/glass and f/glass to ally?
Pete..

[stylussprinter]

I've used Sikaflex , boat glue and matt/resin . My ally angle needed to mount side screens I used boat glue but you need to half drill holes through the ally about 20mm's apart plus rough it up ---- they've been there for 12 yrs with no prob's . Sikaflex is the easiest , just rough up the areas of f/glass and ally , spread a nice layer over one part then clamp it . The next day it's solid .
Also used some glue from an F1 team but no idea what it is or how to get it but it's brilliant .

[MattD]

Sikaflex gets my vote too, plenty on ebay, but it isn't cheap.

I've been using one of the "ultra high tack" tubes from B&Q/Homebase, seems pretty similar, is about 2/3 the price, & comes in black or white. Will check the brand when I get home.

Its adhesive rubber you need, not silicone frame sealant.

[PeteC]

Thanks for that gents, I did drill and roughen up the ally but I used resin and it just fell of!!
I used sikaflex for bonding the tub in and it was brill..

[flipper123]

Ct100 is good it's similar to sikaflex but you can get an assortment of colours

[josephmoore]

As a general rule, if you're expecting some movement (bedding in fittings etc) use Sikaflex or equivalent.

If you're looking for a stiff (and stronger) bond then use resin mixed with microfibres. Plain resin on its own has no real strength whatsoever and will just crack under load.

As for which type of resin, well... don't expect polyester to form any kind of reliable bond with anything. It's fine for "brute force" layups of the shells and stuff like boat hulls where the sheer mass of material in the layup takes care of any likely loading, but little else. I've been rather impressed with vinylester recently - it'll never match a proper (ie, not Araldite but West/Sicomin/SP etc) epoxy but is a very good cost effective alternative. Don't expect to use anything other than polyester with ready made chopped strand matt glass though as it's usually got a coating on it designed to work purely with polyester.

http://uk-cherub.org/doku.php/tech/howto generally has all the info an amateur could need and most of the theory can be transferred to these cars.