Back in June ‘08, I brought my Diamond dual band antenna to Field Day. We were hoisting it up on to the roof. Long story short, the tip of it got jammed into something and it cracked and broke the fiberglass shroud.

Now, I have done some fiberglass work before on vehicles with excellent results, but this antenna is something that I probably wouldn’t claim to fixing if you asked me about it.

I tried to get a picture of the break, but my camera would not give me that fine detail in the white antenna.

Here’s the materials needed:

1. Fiberglass Resin (Gel works better than resin on these small parts)
2. Fiberglass cloth (Cloth works better than glass mat on these parts)
3. P95 Mask to keep the fumes out
4. Outdoor spray paint (I think these are CFC free sprays, as it’s illegal now to manufacture aerosols that way)
5. Latex Gloves (you don’t notice the little bits of fiberglass in your hands until later, when it is too late)
6. Sandpaper (both coarse and fine, not pictured)
7. Safety glasses (not pictured)

(click for full size)

I started out by taking some 80 grit sandpaper and rouging up the surface where the crack was in the antenna. This provides a good surface for the gelcoat to adhere to. Then, I mixed the gel in the bondo kit with the hardener per the directions, and ended up with something like this:

(click for full size image)

So then I smear this on the antenna where the crack is using the paintbrush, and wrap a small piece of fiberglass cloth around it to reinforce it. Then, I smear some more of the gel resin on there. I made the mistake of putting gel on parts of the antenna that didn’t need it, calling myself trying to use it so it didn’t get wasted. Don’t do that! Whatever you put on there, you are going to have to sand smooth, and trust me, it’s nowhere near smooth when it hardens. Also, normally, a paintbrush isn’t the tool of choice here, but, I had one laying around. After the gel resin set, I was left with this:

(click for full size image)

Quite a bit more than I wanted to sand. I’m an idiot. Bear in mind, at this point on a vehicle, one would normally fill in the slight imperfections (less than 1/16″ deep) with plastic filler. I’m not doing this here, so I just sanded it down the best I could, which, honestly, looks like crap, but it is still structurally sound:

(click for full size image)

So all’s that is left to do is to put a coat of paint on it to seal all of that nice bodywork in. Normally, you would get the dust off with some kind of fast evaporating cleaner (I’ve always used Naptha, but I’m not sure how “green” it is (probably not much, since it is a byproduct of petroleum refining), so I’ve stopped pending research), and a lint free cloth of some sort (cheese cloth works here). Use whatever you have handy. The finished product:

(click for full size image)

As you can see, I didn’t take a close up of it. I don’t want anyone in reader land to laugh at me (any more than you already do). I can say, though, that it is structurally sound thanks to a small amount of fiberglass resin and cloth. Now let us see if it holds up during tornado season!

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