Home made fibreglass replacement panels

[obey wan boenny]

Just wondering if anyone knows how to make an exact copy of any removable panel on a car out of fibreglass (properly)? I've tried to make a mould of a front quarter panel on my mates Celica but it turned out looking like schyte. Any tutorials or hints will do as we need to replicate all the front panels and the rear bumper.

Thanks.

[.wolfwood]

fiber galssing isnt to hard if you have the molds. i think making the molds would be the hard part

[obey wan boenny]

yeah, making the moulds is what we are struggling with, none of us have a clue what we're doing and we're just following instructions on the back of a fibreglass repair kit box. I scrambled through some old magazines cos' I remember I saw something in one of them about fibreglass panels/bodykits, I came across Autosalon Magazine issue 14 (I think) that had a brief feature on how moulds are made from panels and things....might have a read of it later tonight and see if I can understand it. http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/dry.gif

[DRFTAE86]

A few months ago i was looking into this and did sum research on the net, i had a few sites that were helpful. There was even a forum on fibreglassing (theres a forum for everything now a days) and it had a FAQ section which awnsered questions like yours. But i dont remember what the sites are, but just have a search through google and u may stuble across it. http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/smile.gif

[obey wan boenny]

sweet, thanks for the tip.

[DRFTAE86]

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/smile.gif

[Monster]

If all else fails, PM Keni (MFX_Neko_86) she's an awsome glasser and will be able to point you in the right direction

[JDMJNKY]

i just made molds for my front flared guards if u want help email me

[JDMJNKY]

The first step it to make sure all the holes on the panel, you want to make, are blocked up from the inside (back) of the panel. I used tape to cover the small bolt holes and fiberglassed and bogged the big holes into shape (around the back of the park light on an 86 guard. Sit back and think when you start glassing is there anywhere the resin will sneak behind the panel so the mold will no be able to be released from the panel and rectify it now. Once all this was done i painted my panels in 2 pak paint so there was no chance of the mold sticking to the panel. The way i learnt was to use a wax to stop the panel from sticking to the mold but opted not to use it this time. **I just used the mold release agent which is PVA (poly vinyl alcahol) this is thin and is sprayed on lightly(with a spray gun) then left to dry (about 15 mins on a warm day). It is water soluble and leaves only a minimal layer inbetween the mould and the panel and when the mold is released water can be added and the thin layer is disloved and the mold is easily released. Then comes the CSM (chopped strand matting) fiberglass mat which is not used yet but it is a good idea to measure up and cut the ammount and shapes you need i would sujest to do 2 layers of 600 gram per SQM (i didnt use this much and my molds are tooo flexible use more if you can)! Then comes to the gelcoat, this has to be applied first so the gelcoat will end up on the inside of the mold. I just got 4l of black gelcoat and it easily would do 4 mudguards. The gelcoat needs to be mixed with 2% of MEKP (methyl ethyl ketone peroxide) (wich is the hardener for gelcoat and fiberglass resin) then i just brushed it on about 1mm thick and dont miss any spots!!!!!!!!. let the gelcoat get touch dry but still leave a thumb print, hot day 20 mins cold day 30-40mins. The resin needs to be mixed with 1% of mekp for a hot day and 2% for a cold day for one mudguard mix up to 1L but it will probably go hard before you use it all. The resin needs to be brushed on the gelcoat then the csm layed on top then the resin poured (i just por it on because its quicker) onto the matting and STIPPLED into the matting with a paint brush which is like stabbing the matting till it goes clear and looks like the resin has soaked in. Then the process repeated with more layers of matting till the thickness is desired. You will probably have to stop and let the first lot of resin go hard on the panel before you have got as much matting as you want. The resin goes off quickly with 2% of hardener so work very quickly. Once the panel has been released using water to disolve the PVA then wash off all the pva off the mold.

**Repeat the process from the pva step to make the guard inside the mold.