I have a 2002 Bison Alumasport Horse Trailer with a fiberglass roof.
How do we clean the roof? We would also like to seal the roof or paint it or …? to keep it nice once we get it cleaned up.
Thank you in advance!
SCM1959
Look to boat solutions, boats are fiberglass and boat paint may be your answer. Also, I am not sure what you are trying to seal? Holes? If holes, you need to rebuild with fibreglass, just like a boat. If seams between sheets of fiberglass, you need to lay down fiberglass over the seam. If you are trying to seal between fiberglass and another material, like say the steel frame, you need to talk to someone who builds with fiberglass. I would start at my local West Marine, a hardware store for boat paint and stainless steel fixtures. You can get the fiberglasss patch kits there, everything.
You’re looking for West System resins and fiberglass http://www.westmarine.com/resins-fiberglass. You might be looking for gelcoat, if you are looking to put a coating over the fiberglass, not sure what you are talking about, in that case here http://www.westmarine.com/gelcoat-repair
Good luck.
Also, you clean fibergalss with oxyalic acid, which is also Bartender’s friend, found in a powder form where you buy bathroom cleaners in shaker containers, you know. YOu can buy it in a gel form for boats (and your trailer roof) at any West Marine. Probably you can order it online from West Marine, too.
NOTE: Never use bleach on fiberglass. It reacts and creates yellowing and rust out of nothing, its the oxalyc acid you want. You can buy it in powder form and mix it into a garden sprayer to spray onto the roof, which is what I would do, if it were me, then scrub it with a long handled soft brush and let it sit for a long while to “bleach out” all the old stains. Then rinse really well with the hose. Just use rubber gloves; it would make your skin red to not use gloves. If you do get it on your skin, just cold water rinse off and its fine. Its very much like using bleach, only, of course, its a mild acid instead of a base.
You sometimes also can find it in home stores where you buy things like tile grout, heavy duty cleaners, etc.
I was just thinking of posting a similar question! My Brenderup’s fiberglass roof has black crud on it. I tried to wash it off once and got nowhere. Hopefully the oxalic acid will take care of it, but if anyone else has successfully removed this stuff, I’m all ears.
The black crud is exactly what my husband wants to wash off the roof of my trailer!
We have a West Marine in our town so I will go there tomorrow.
I love COTH – an answer for every question can be found here!
SCM1959
I have used Simple Green cleaner and degreaser (the purple stuff) to clean fiberglass roof and the rest of the trailer.
I am thinking that we need to wax the fiberglass it after cleaning it the next time. Looking into what they use on boats is a great idea
So now my husband tells me that the glass of the fiberglass is sticking up in places on top of my roof! So, not only does he want to clean off the black stuff, he wants to fix this stick-up glass problem. Plus he wants to seal it all once everything is done. How would I know this since I am not the one up on the ladder.
I assume West Marine will be able to help me with this problem as well. I am going there later today and I will report back on what they suggest.
SCM1959
Yes, talk to them about the fiberglass. The problem is that boats put a gelcoat over the fiberglass, its one of the products on that page I linked up above, and that’s the product you can paint and wax. Gelcoat makes a smooth surface and I don’t know what it is. However, there is a polysester resen here http://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-marine--polyester-boaters-resin--P004_120_002_501 which they are advertising as something which gives a great finish after the fiberglass sets up.
My suspicion is that you will either have to do a layer of fiberglas resin and then a layer of this poyester boaters resin to finish it (no gelcoat) or else the polyester boaters resin will do the trick all on its own, but the west marine guys will be able to tell you, at least the ones in our stores in CT there was always one of them who could talk about that stuff. You’re on the right track, I think. FOrge on, to West Marine
And SonnysMom, that Simple Green really is a great product, it might clean it really well, too, I use it on my car, and boy does it get barn clothes clean and smelling good in the laundry. I just don’t think it will take care of the kinds of stains which soaks into fiberglass, for that you really need the oxyalic acid stuff, but you never know what products clean up what kinds of crud. If its black mold, say from sitting under trees, the oxalyc acid will clean it up like nobody’s business and kill the mold as well.
Sounds like your fiberglass blistered. The guys at West Marine can definitely help you with that.
I hope your husband is handy and looking for a project. 
Says someone who helped put and epoxy barrier on the bottom of a large enough sailboat as a kid. If either of you wear glasses, Now would be a good time to pick up a cheap pair at Zinni’s.
If you get in over your heads, ask around at the nearest marina for who does boat repairs. This may be a great time to get a boat repair guy to do the job cheaply because most boats probably haven’t come out of the water yet, so they shouldn’t be busy. (And I bet lots of boat owners procrastinate anyway and say ahh, I’ll fix that myself over the winter, and then give up and hire the boat repair guy when the weather turns nice ) RV repair shops also.
