Fiberglass

Does anyone have any experience with glass fibre art? I have a
problem with the surface of the laminated fibre glass--the upper
layer called the gel-coating. The gel-coat, which contains the
colour pigments, looks milky in the upper surface. It is not
homogeneous whitening, but it looks striped as if the whitening are
done by a brush. The surface does not have microscopic cracks and it
seems to be in good conditions in the microscope. I assume that the
colour differences are coursed by additives of the laminated fibre
glass, which migrates to the top of the surface.

It is possible to grind and polish the surface to the right colour
again, but the gel-coat is only 0.6-0.8 mm, so I would like to avoid
this method.

Does anyone have experience in these matters? Do you know if the
white layer will come again? Has anyone tried to regenerate a
gel-coat with success? And if there are cracks or loss of surface in
the art object, which material did you use to fill up and retouch
the damage?

Anette Aalling
Vejle County Conservation Center
Postbox 55
H.O.Wieldenskovsvej Brejning
7080 Borkop
+45 76621151
Fax: +45 76621154


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 15:14
                  Distributed: Friday, August 3, 2001
                       Message Id: cdl-15-14-009
                                  ***