On Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 4:16:03 PM UTC-5, Andrzej Kobus wrote:
On Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 11:22:25 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 10:10:48 AM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
Well that might protect the glider inside the trailer but it does
nothing for the fiberglass trailer top.






On 2/18/2015 6:55 PM,
wrote:



The UV issue is solved by a black factory coating (gloss paint?) on the inside of the glass top. It was available in 1998+, maybe only as an option, but both my 1998 & 1999 have it.





--

Dan Marotta

When deciding what top to buy I asked myself this simple question: if you'd get an airplane that is going to be tied down outside year-round, would you want fiberglass or aluminum skin? Haven't regretted my decision to go aluminum, looks great after 14 years. My buddies' fiberglass tops are all crazed and dull.

They can be repainted and they will look nice again. If you have an accident with metal top the trailer is ruined for life. The fiber glass you just fix and it looks great again. I saw one metal trailer fixed after an accident. I don't think I would like mine to look like that.

I agree. I have over 30 years experience repairing metal and close to that in composites. It is relatively easy to repair the glass trailer to like new appearance and almost impossible to do the same on the metal ones.
Refinishing is not significantly different between the 2 unless you have to strip the peeling metal trailer.
A relatively inexpensive life extender is to store in a portable garage to keep the sun and rain off. $2500 will store 2 trailers and stretch the life before refinish greatly. Additionally, the internal weather system in the trailer that the glider feels is substantially reduced.
Best combo in my experience is 2 wall glass trailer kept under cover.
FWIW
UH