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Thread: Working with Fibreglass. Making a Hatch

  1. #21
    Veteran haveaparty's Avatar
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    Phone won't let me see the pics. But ill check em out later. Cheers man.

  2. #22
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    Making a fibreglass mold Part 2


    Trueno light bezels waxed minimum of 4 times, then sprayed with a few light coats of PVA mold release.



    We are now ready to apply the tooling gelcoat. Tooling gelcoat is a special gelcoat that is designed for molds. It is harder and more brittle than ordinary gelcoat, which gives a
    much better mold surface. Most tooling gelcoats are thin and need to be applied by spraying. This is a pic of a gelcoating gun I use for most of my gelcoating. Cost about $15.
    Gelcoat can also be applied with a brush. Ordinary gelcoat can also be used, but is not as hard or tough. Ordinary gelcoat also tends to contain many fine airbubbles when sanded
    or polished. Ordinary gelcoat can be used for small production runs if needed.


    Gelcoat applied. Gelcoat needs to be applied evenly to a minimum thickness of 0.5mm. Any less, and you will have problems with tripe (wrinkles). Slightly more you are just wasting money,
    more than 1.5mm, and your mold surface will be extremely brittle. Make sure you do not, for any circumstance, exceed the catalyst ratio recommended. Most gelcoats use a maximum of 3% catalyst
    to gelcoat ratio for a normal reaction catalyst. Best to read specs from your supplier.




    As the light bezel has some sharp corners, I am going to use glass tissue as the first layer. This feels a bit like tissue and ensures that the glass will conform to all the intricate shape,
    guaranteeing no airbubbles. The biggest problem with fibreglass components is airbubbles as a result of incorrect application of the first layer of glass against the
    gelcoat. The very first layer of glass on a mold or product is the most important in respect to strength and appearance. If there are any airbubbles in the first layer, you
    will get those dreaded air bubbles. Normally the first layer on a less complex shape would be a 225 gram split strand matt. Anything thicker, or the use of woven cloth will
    result in weave print through.


    Tissue being applied with a brush. You can see how well the tissue fits into the sharp corners. Ordinary weight cloth would have no hope.



    Both bezels complete. This took me about 30mins, including cleanup. You can clearly see how well the tissue works on these sharp corners







    If you look closely, you may be able to see where I filled the holes with gelcoat to make layup easier
    Last edited by jimmy19650; 10th April 2011 at 01:53 AM.

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    Havaparty, here is a pic of the back of my bonnet mold showing all the reinforcement. This mold is about 7 years old and a bit dusty. The ribbing you see is the
    cardboard centres of the fibreglass rolls cut in half and glassed over. This mold is about 6mm thick. Molds need to be kept rigid so the product doesn't distort.

    Last edited by jimmy19650; 10th April 2011 at 01:53 AM.

  4. #24
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    And here is some pics of the hatch. Excess trimmed, everything fits well. Next step will be to fit aluminium inserts for hinge, strut and lock bolts, then glued together.
    Last edited by jimmy19650; 10th April 2011 at 01:54 AM.

  5. #25
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    attachments arnt working man, unless its just my computer lol

  6. #26
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    Logged onto another computer and they worked fine from here. Dont know why the last set of pics I posted come up with a shortcut. The pics at the start of the thread had thumbnails. I must be doing something wrong

  7. #27
    Veteran haveaparty's Avatar
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    yeah i can see the thumbnails in the first post, make sure the pics arnt to big, that could be making it do that, or most ppl upload the pic to photo bucket and post the link. but i dunna how to do that,.

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    Dont know how to use photo bucket. All pics were taken with the same camera, so I assume sizes would be all the same.

  9. #29
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    Yeah not sure mate. Might hav to hit up a moderator.

  10. #30
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    Making Mold Part 3





    Light bezel mold starting to take shape. After 1 layer of tissue was layed up to fit into all the tight corners, a traditional layer of 225 (225 gram split strand matt was put on) Next will be 2 layers of 450 gram cloth follwed by 1-2 layers of 600 grams to finish mold
    Last edited by jimmy19650; 10th April 2011 at 01:56 AM.

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