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I need some blind grommets of various sizes to blank off some holes in fiberglass. These need to be quite thick to work with fiberglass. All the boxes of mixed grommets one can see (eBay etc) are cheap and nasty ones and only suitable for thin metal.
I need a few sizes and don?t wish to buy them by the 100, any suggestions for U.K. supplier?

NYK

I bought from grommets.co.uk. They have a minimum order charge which i thought was high at ?35 (if I remember correctly) but I bought most of the grommets for the car at one go, and they do have a large range available.

Hope this helps,

Richard Hawkins

RichardHawkins wrote:NYK

I bought from grommets.co.uk. They have a minimum order charge which i thought was high at ?35 (if I remember correctly) but I bought most of the grommets for the car at one go, and they do have a large range available.

Hope this helps,

Richard Hawkins

Thanks Richard

I did manage to find some thick grommets after much rummaging on eBay - I'm afraid I can't remember supplier - but they are available.
Or you could consider blanking plugs in plastic which are more readily available and just as effective in practice if you can only see one side.

When I was looking for some grommets that would work with a fiberglass car, I wound up making them myself. Used some two part urethane rubber with a hardness number of 60, that you mix by volume. I made my three piece molds from aluminum, but they could be made from just about anything, even wood. The Sabra holes in the body were all 1 inch, with the exception of the main wiring harness hole and the large hole in the firewall for the air intake for the heater, which is the same size as the ducting for an Austin Healey. I made them all blind with the exception of the heater grommet, with the blind section being about 1/8 inch thick. This way I could use an arch punch to make the hole match the object that was to run through hole. Worked for everything including the heater hoses. The material is a bit of a pain to work with, as it sets up quite quickly, and is on the thick side. Pours slowly into the mold and would work better if you had a method to inject the mixture into the mold. In the beginning, I had a significant amount of scrap as I worked too slowly, and wound up with voids in the grommets. The end result was exactly what I was looking to accomplish. The center section of the mold can be made as thick as one needs to get the perfect relief for the thickness of the fiberglass panel in question, as some sections of the body are thicker than others.

prezoom wrote:When I was looking for some grommets that would work with a fiberglass car, I wound up making them myself. Used some two part urethane rubber with a hardness number of 60, that you mix by volume. I made my three piece molds from aluminum, but they could be made from just about anything, even wood. The Sabra holes in the body were all 1 inch, with the exception of the main wiring harness hole and the large hole in the firewall for the air intake for the heater, which is the same size as the ducting for an Austin Healey. I made them all blind with the exception of the heater grommet, with the blind section being about 1/8 inch thick. This way I could use an arch punch to make the hole match the object that was to run through hole. Worked for everything including the heater hoses. The material is a bit of a pain to work with, as it sets up quite quickly, and is on the thick side. Pours slowly into the mold and would work better if you had a method to inject the mixture into the mold. In the beginning, I had a significant amount of scrap as I worked too slowly, and wound up with voids in the grommets. The end result was exactly what I was looking to accomplish. The center section of the mold can be made as thick as one needs to get the perfect relief for the thickness of the fiberglass panel in question, as some sections of the body are thicker than others.

Sounds interesting, were the moulds complex to machine?

Nothing too difficult as I have a lathe. Should have mentioned, I also cast my own brake and clutch pedal pads as they are a weird size and the originals were quite worn. As a first class luddite, I am having trouble attaching photos of the grommets and their molds. Will keep trying.

The pedal pads are slightly easier to obtain this side of the pond as I understand that they are the Same as a Hillman Imp - probably not that common in US!!