About Our Boat Fiberglass Repair

For me, it started in 1984; my ex-father-in-law was a contractor. I spent a year at 18 just thinking that construction was my path. Then came winter. I didn’t mind too much as it gave me some time to ride my BMX bike; I was a young pro with ambitions. After a few weeks without work, another new home site came into play. At the same time, a fellow BMXer’s dad owned a place called Fibertech and was looking for help with an Aerojet project. Looking back now, I couldn’t have asked for a better place to learn what I have learned. Fibertech was a great shop and cared about quality. We had a pretty diverse group: Steve was the best hand-lay guy I’ve ever seen to this day. Larry was the best chopper gun guy I’ve seen, except Jack Keaton (Keaton Boats). I quickly worked up to a full-time gel coater, waxing, putting molds together, and then applying a gel coat. Once the gel coat was cured, the molds would go to hand-lay and chopper gun departments for fiberglass. Fibertech had a guy named Mark, who could take ideas from drawings to final products for Aerojet, the Air Force, the Navy, a custom sprint car wing, and so on.

The owners, Jim and Sharon, were great employers and allowed me to experiment with my artistic side. I made a mold from my premier BMX helmet and made a couple of helmets that I still have. They saw that I had a natural artistic talent, so they moved me over to Burt. He was an older guy, probably the age I am now. I watched him cut the front of a Volkswagon beetle off, build a subframe, and weld it to a Kawasaki street bike. Then, he made a complete custom front end that resembled the pro-formula race bodies we made and repaired. As a creative young artist, I knew I found my passion. As far as making money, in the long run, I should have stayed with construction. But for me, at the time, construction was hacker work, and getting to create something from nothing or an idea was much more appealing.

So Burt was our repair guy. As a young man, I got to see AJ Foyt’s driver come in with a car that was wrecked, I’m assuming at Sears Point. In this rig was not only the race car body that needed repair work but a brand new Ferrari Testarossa. I couldn’t believe it, the car from Miami Vice was at our shop. I’m going off memory, but I think the body of his race car was a Lola body. It was in bad shape, and at the time, I didn’t understand why you’d repair it instead of buying a new one. Obviously, Lola bodies are very high-end, with a cost to match. I witnessed the highest level of repairmanship during that week and knew what I wanted to do. Over the years at Fibertech, I became very good at hand-lay and running a chopper gun, and for a time, I was the main chopper gun and hand-lay guy.

Over the years I was there, Fibertech manufactured several different things. I may get some of these names wrong, but here’s a quick list of what I remember: Wemco Belt guards for mining equipment, SCALA antenna covers for weigh stations around America, water sample items to pick up water from ocean in an Airforce helicopter, JB (John Boy) sprint car hoods, Tognotti’s sprint car hoods, L88, Z28, and other items, Kit Car bodies from Bucket T, Chop top sedans, to ‘32 Fords, and so on. I think we made about six bodies. We made Swift race car bodies and a version of Pro Formula race car bodies. We repaired all race car bodies on a regular basis, along with anything fiberglass-related. We made all Emmick shifter cart items from fairings, seats, side bodies, and cowls. I got to be the guy tasked with their first lay-down-style seat. We made trash can lids for Herington, pre-cast out of Auburn, California, and I still see some of those lids to this day. I don’t remember what they were called, but we made these big cable guides for trucks. One of the cooler, obscure things we made was the three-piece front for some kind of heart machine that GE made for hospitals. Obviously, we made many more products, but this covers some of them.

I’m thankful to Fibertech for being a high-quality manufacturer and repair facility. I’m very picky about quality and craftsmanship. I went back to construction a couple of times, and it just didn’t do it for me. I had worked at other shops, but I quit because the quality was an issue for me.

Finally, before I started my business, I worked for Mel at Morrison Marine. I learned how to match colors, polish gel-coat/paint to perfection, and improved my repair skills. Also, Mel was great to work for, as like me, he was picky about craftsmanship and quality.

I’ve been in business for 23 years now, and I continue to improve my skillset to what I believe is the best around. I care about what I do and often go the extra mile when it’s not needed. My biggest challenge over the past ten years has been finding quality help. I continue to look and am hopeful that I will find the right employee. But for now, I’m off on a mountain bike ride.

Jim McCarty