Fiberglassing the Bodycast

Cover the table with a drop cloth of some sort to protect the table. Place one of the casts on a table.

PreCut the fiberglass Mat and Cloth into rectangles that are about the same size as the bowl you are going to use. Do not cut overly long strips. They will be more of a hinderance for you than a help.

 
 
Use a release agent to cover the plaster bandages and protect them from sticking to the fiberglass. We used Vaseline. It worked okay... but some areas we didn't cover fully and it locked down. You might want to purchase a fiberglass release cream from an automotive store that would carry such products.

"Critter Creation Shop" out in Texas recommends using Johnson's Paste wax. It is the wax used on woodfloors and furniture, and will be in a yellow can about the size of a car wax can found in Hardware stores and Grocery stores. Plaster copies will also release very well by using paste wax instead of soap or vasaline. Simply brush a thin coat of wax onto the mold, and let it dry.
 
 
I used two people to do the Fiberglassing. One "wetted" the Fiberglass Cloth/Mat while the other layed it into the bodycast. The whole process took about 2.5 hours to fiberglass both sides of the cast. We averaged about 45 minutes laying down each half in fiberglass, The rest of the time was spent in preparation.
 
 
Let's get started....First measure out about 8 oz. of fiberglass resin in a measuring cup.
 
 

Pour that into the mixing bowl.
 
 
 
 
Now pour the proper amount of hardener into the mixing bowl. NEVER mix the hardener and resin in the measuring cup. Doing that will ruin your measuring cup, and you need this measuring cup for the next 2 or so houurs.
 
 
Stir the contents for 45 seconds to a minute, mixing the two together well. Depending on the type of fiberglass you are using it might turn colors as it is mixed.
 
 
Now take a strip of Fiberglass cloth and drop it flat into the mixing bowl. DO NOT FORGET TO WEAR GLOVES.
 
 
Move the cloth around to get the cloth wet with the liquid resin.
 
 
Take the cloth out. You might need to slide it against the edge of the bowl to get a little of the resin off the cloth. The cloth should be very wet, but not dripping excessively. The resin will harden to form a solid outer surface of the final product.
 
 
Now just lay the cloth down into the cast. Smoosh out the airbubbles that form between the fiberglass and plaster bodycast.
 
 
Repeat the "Wetting" process with the next piece of Fiberglass Cloth. Lay that down next to the piece of fiberglass cloth you just placed into the cast, overlapping the two by about 1/2 inch. This will strengthen the fiberglass cast overall.
 
 
Continue to "wet" strips of cloth until A) the fiberglass is hardened and unusable or B) you run out of mixed Fiberglass Resin. once you run out of Resin... mix up another batch and continue till the entire cast is covered with a layer of Fiberglass Cloth.
 
 
Once you are done laying down a full layer of fiberglass cloth... put down a layer of Fiberglass Mat, Wetting it in the same manner that you used to do the Cloth. You might need to mix up more than 8 oz. of resin for the Mat, it likes to SUCK up alot of resin. The coarse fibers in the Mat will strengthen the fiberglass mold even more.
 
 

Now that you have finished with one layer of the mat you can put another layer down if you want to. It depends on how thick you want the Bodycast to be. I only did one layer of Cloth and one layer of Mat. It turned out thick enough for the use I needed the bodycast for.

Once all your fiberglass layers are down, allow 30 minutes for curing of the resin before attempting to move the cast off the table. The fiberglass will need an additional 48 hours to totally cure before attemtping to separate the fiberglass away from the plaster cast. You can attempt the separation earlier if you like, but I recommend waiting a couple days just to be sure the cast does not warp due to the force neded in the removal process.

Note: This particular bodycast has lasted 9 years (1998-2007).

 
 


NEXT: SEPARATING THE FIBERGLASS FROM THE PLASTER