Is there some secret sauce or technique to use to maintain the flexibility of race bodies when you repair them with glass? Mine have always stiffened up significantly, leading to more extensive damage the next time I went down. The Sharkskinz on the new race bike have only been down once with a couple of holes in the lower and I'd like to keep them as flexible as possible. Thanks.
Bondo and typical hardware-store/boat-shop fiberglass resins are polyester resins, which cure to be very hard and brittle. Bodywork factories use epoxy resins, which are much less brittle and much stronger, but more expensive. It can be worth it to use the good stuff when you're doing repairs however. Use as little resin as possible.
Having done some extensive research and reading on this very subject over the last 10 days I have some to 2 conclussions. 1. Use only epoxy resins. They take longer to cure but remain more flexible. 2. Vacuum bagging with the appropriate peel ply and batting material to soak up excess resin are the keys to making parts and repairs void free with a good cloth to resin ratio.
