The paper describes surface treatment methods to improve adhesion between copper and vinyl ester in glass fiber-vinyl ester composites. Surface treatment methods were developed for commercially available copper that was optimized for epoxies and adhesion performance was compared based on 90 • peel strength measurements. Four surface treatments for copper were tested: (i) co-cured Epon/vinyl ester; (ii) fully cured Epon; (iii) epoxy film adhesive; and (iv) γ -MPS silane along with two baseline systems: copper/vinyl ester and copper/epoxy. Measured average peel strengths for the surface treatments were 21%, 101%, 110% and 91% of the baseline copper/vinyl ester system, respectively. Compared to the copper/epoxy system, fully cured Epon, epoxy film adhesive and the silane treatment generated comparable adhesion between copper and vinyl ester. For all samples tested, mixed cohesive/adhesive failure modes were observed. Overall, the surface treatment with the silane coupling agent is the most appropriate method for obtaining comparable and uniform performance compared to copper/glass fiber/epoxy system (FR4 materials).