Advice for drilling into fiberglass

I am installing a starter button into my dash. Does anyone have any do's and don'ts when it comes to drilling a port into the fiberglass?

George Brown's article in the 'Knowledge' section:

https://www.speedsterowners.com/knowledge/article.asp?id=120

For those tiny holes for trim emblems that you'll just plug up again with epoxy (during the sealing process after drilling), try a little clear nail polish. Probably not as permanent as epoxy but it works

You'll probably want to have rubber gloves on, and a vacuum handy. Other than that, measure twice, drill once. George's article 'bout covers it.

Always start the drill in reverse to go through the gelcoat . If you don't you do risk a possible chip.

I always tape the site to drill and counter punch it. This prevents the dreaded drill crawl.

When we were building Lane Anderson's car at Carlisle last year, we were always careful NOT to have Lane around watching when we had any holes to drill. He always seemed to turn a little pale whenever we got out the drill and headed toward the painted parts. We also managed to talk him out of installing his IM-supplied side "arrows" - those narrow chrome strips along the belt line, as they were the kind that needed a bunch of holes drilled for the clips and we didn't want to take the chance of drilling that many little holes (or getting them slightly off by using primitive alignment techniques).

He got a little squeamish, too, when I was free-hand trimming the excess fiberglass off of the headlight buckets with my Dremel, too. Used a cut-off wheel and kept just a few thousandths from the painted surface. Take a look:

http://www.theta.net/~nichols/speedster/carlisle06/target14.html

I remember finishing the Driver's side bucket like that and got a round of applause from a couple of Factory Five (Cobra) reps watching me...

gn

I still turn pale at the thought.

How do you punch fibreglas?
That sounds like cracking or checking or worse, waiting to happen? Check the archive article, use the tape for sure.

I think it was also posted here once that a dull drill bit is a good idea.

I use a counter sink and give it a lite tap. Don't whack at it, just a little tap. Just enought to mark the surface.

Also try using Dewalt self tapping bits. They have a nipple at the tip that keeps the bit in place.

Drill sloooowwwwwww and let the bit do the work. You might also start by drilling in reverse.

This is more applicable for large holes, than small ones. I recently drilled two 2 inch holes for additional gauges through the dashboard. Mentally - that is a real trip. What worked best for me was first a small pilot hole, followed by the hole saw to about half the fiberglass depth. Finally (with a right angle drill adapter) I finished the hole by sawing in the reverse direction. The advantage was I had a nice clean cut line on both the front and the back of the dashboard. Any small jagged edges were in the middle of the fiberglass, where they were easily smoothed off.

Have you painted the car yet? If not, don't worry about it. Bondo does wonders.

Thanks for all the info. I drilled the holes and I think the the most important thing was masking tape and the pilot hole. I used a new drill bit, but filed it down. I had now problems whatsoever.