Hi Folks,
A few weeks ago I raised the question of painting fiberglass to prolong its
life. There were quite a few suggestions as well as many requests to share what
I end up doing. So here we go.
The idea behind the project is to attach a X-arm at the top of my tower and
suspend wire elements for 80m 4SQ. As the X-arm will be just a couple of feet
from the 4el 40m yagi, I prefer the use fiberglass and avoid any interaction
between the X-arm and the yagi.
I purchased 2 x 2.125" OD and 4 x 2.0" OD fiberglass tubes from Max Gain, 8'
each. I glued the 2" tubes into the 2.125" tubes, overlapping about 6", using
3M's glue for fiberglass boats. Paid extra attention to the joints to make sure
water cannot get into the tube. The glue cures in about a half a day with the
tubes left outside in the sun.
Next the 23' tube assemblies were sanded with 150 sandpaper to eliminate any
wax there may be on the fiberglass. Personally I think this was unnecessary,
but this is what the primer suggested.
For primer, I used Rustoleum's primer for wood and fiberglass, $10 from Home
Depot. Applied two coats of primer, leaving about half a day between coats. The
primer dries in 1h at 90F and in 4h at 70F.
Finally, I applied two coats of Rustoleum Topside marine paint, which really is
a no-mix (one part) epoxy. This paint has a naturally glossy sheen so the final
product is simply beautiful. I used black paint and the finish looks like the
finish of a car. It looks so nice that I'd hate to put it up on the tower :-)
Used eye bolts at the end of the tubes, about 6" from the tips, to attach the
rope that will suspend the wire vertical elements. The X-arm is going up the
tower later today.
Rudy N2WQ
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