Plastic strip for gas tank

[tg]

Ok, now I'm getting confused. What is frp? Is it "fiber reinforced plastic", fiberglas, or what?

[diver dave]

yep, fiberglass reinforced plastic; like most of our boats. The sheets that are available premade are for various uses, but for the purposes of this thread, can be sawed into strips for use under fuel tanks. These strips won't deform (no cold flow) with load, won't easily propagate cracks, and will take adhesives (like 5200) well. A good quality sheet is made in a press and will have nice smooth surfaces, with no voids. It's usually NOT flame retardant, but can be made with that type of resin as an option.

[bradinhawaii]

Diver dave: Thanks for the advice. The HDP is just for spacers. My tank will have tabs that I can bolt to a cross brace. I'll probably still use 5200 to hold the spacers in place, but not to hold down the tank.

[Psycho D]

Hey Diver. How many of those strips did you end up using? My Formulas has 2 wood cored, fiberglassed strips (lengthwise) already built into the hull. This does not seem adequate for a tank (100 gal, 100 inch in length), but almost anything would be better than what was in there.
d

[tg]

Thanks for the clarification. I WAS going to use Starboard but got concerned when 3M told me 5200 wouldn't stick to it.

[diver dave]

D; I used 2" wide strips 24" apart. my tank is 60" long. I think it turned out to be 4 strips for each side (transverse). The other trick is to lower the tank using 4 or 5 people, using 2 straps around the tank to gently lower it in. There was a lot of exposed 5200 on the strips, so you don't want to make a mess of this process. When the tank is fully lowered, the straps pull right thru. Again,I would not recommend direct hull bonding for most boats, due to flexing.