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Author: Subject: Entire Fiberglass front end
derf

posted on 30/3/04 at 04:52 AM Reply With Quote
Entire Fiberglass front end

I am cheap, instead of buying the nose and the dash, and making the hood out of aluminum I kinda fell for the idea that a 1 piece fiberglass front end would work better, and be cheaper. So I bought some insulation foam, made a brace, cut and sanded the foam to the shape that I wanted, then wrapped it in industrial pallet wrap plastic. I couldnt get the shape for the nose right with the indent for the air intake, but I will be adding that after I finish the initial couple of layers. I think I will wind up doing 2 or 3 layers of 3oz fiberglass removing the foam from the buck then doing 5 or 6 layers on the inside, until I am satisfied that it is strong enough. I did the gauge hump for the dashboard already, and used almost all of the glass that I had laying around. Here are some photos of the buck and the dash hump:

Image deleted by owner

Image deleted by owner

Image deleted by owner

I have 1 layer of glass on the hump, I was going to do a 2nd, but it is way too cold and the resin wound up having the consistency of jelly, and the glass wouldnt sit right on the piece so I scrapped the work fro tonight, and I'll go back when it's warmer.

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Hellfire

posted on 30/3/04 at 09:12 AM Reply With Quote
Can you make a Imax screen for your pictures to go on? They're massive!

AITBPT






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Peteff

posted on 30/3/04 at 09:20 AM Reply With Quote
Editing pictures.

You can crop the untidy, unnecessary stuff out and save space. It makes it easier to see what you mean and read the post that goes with the picture. It helps them load quicker as well by reducing the file size. Anyway, how much will all that weigh when it's finished? I want to have a go at glassing when I get further on with my present project so I like to see how these things are done. What kind of finish will you get on the bonnet using this method and will it involve a lot of filling to smooth it off?

[Edited on 30/3/04 by Peteff] Rescued attachment glassfront.jpg
Rescued attachment glassfront.jpg






yours, Pete

I went into the RSPCA office the other day. It was so small you could hardly swing a cat in there.

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derf

posted on 30/3/04 at 01:57 PM Reply With Quote
I have no clue how much it will weigh, definatly more than traditional aluminum hood, but I plant to make it 2 piece, a dash and a flip forward hood. I just think it will look better, and be more convinient.

As far as the finish I dont see it being anything less than imacualte. Having multiple layers I can sand all the high spots down, until it is almost dead even, then lay a final layer of bondo across the entire piece, sand that as best as I can, prime and paint. Sounds easy, I'm sure it's a decent number of hours worth of work, but I have a few friends who do glass work for a living and they are helping me. One of them made a bunch of custom interor parts for his car last year, adn the basic molds looked worse than mine, but after (I think) 10 layers of glass he sanded everything down bondoed, and painted, and it looks immaculate.

The last 3 sections of insulation board will be cut off after the glass work is done this way the hood will fit perfectly with the dash. I have a few other tricks that I want to use too, I saw a small little scoop that the dirt track guys use (its fairly small maybe 4 inches wide and 1 1/2 deep that will tuck into the nose.

My real plan is to make the first piece, see how that turns out, and if it is nice hopefully I'll be able to make more. With my luck, I will destroy the mold,but it pays to dream.

Oh yeh, I got the idea from looking at the guy down in florida who makes the stalker v6 www.stalkerv6.com. And from looking at the meerkat (look in mid engine car forum) I beleive that it is entirely possible to do this in less than a months work, and have it turn out good.

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Dale

posted on 30/3/04 at 03:00 PM Reply With Quote
Here is a link showing the use of a final coat of dacron cloth and reson to make the final sanding / bondo job much easier.
http://www.streetrodstuff.com/Articles/Body/Play_With_Fiberglass/

Dale

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