FG help please

[yakcam]

Hey Everyone

I have a problem, I bought a Fett helmet off a reputable maker a couple of months ago. As excited as I was, I started working on it ASAP and came across a crack, I thought to myself, hmmm, maybe I put too much pressure and caused the crack, so, a little annoyed with myself, I left it for about a week. When I picked it up to start working on it again, to my horror, there's more cracks. I left it for a few weeks to let them all come out and now there's more, LOTS more.......

That's not all of them either.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, they haven't gone right through to the FG, I think it's the Gelcoat only. Is there any way I can repair this? What would be the best method?

I was thinking about filing the cracks down in a V to the FG and then filling with Bondo, would this work?

I'd like to make it clear that, I'm in no way blaming the maker for shoddy work, he has many VERY happy customers and his helmet is known as the best. What I think probably caused this is the trip over the equator. Considering the time of the year and the country and state of it's origin, this freshly made helmet would've travelled from a pretty cool climate, through an extremely hot climate and ended up in a warm climate. I know that may sound silly but, when I was in the music industry, I saw many, many guitars, drum shells etc warp and distort travelling downunder.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Kraig

 

[Beagle Bill]

Hey, Kraig. I'd contact the guy about a replacement. You could fix the cracks with bondo only to have even more cracks show up later. It sounds like the gelcoat is separating from the fiberglass, and once this starts, it can really get ugly. Changes in climate shouldn't affect fiberglass like that. I've had whole patches of gelcoat "pop off" from sections of unbonded fiberglass before by just barely touching them. I hope you can get it fixed. Good luck.

Bill

 

[frosty]

I remember a similar tread with a vader faceplate cracking, i have also had this happen on a couple of hockey masks i made in fibreglass, i asked the supplier and they where stumped, i would also like to know why this happens, i think you will need a replacement, it started out with a few cracks on mine, then over time it got worse pieces started coming away from the fibreglass.

 

[yakcam]

Thanks for the advice guys

I'll contact the maker and hopefully get a replacment.

Cheers,

Kraig