Anyone know anything about fiberglass?

[jg09]

I think I'm going to make my own flaired out fiberglass fenders and bolt on quarter panels for the OB. Something along these lines, but with a Subie:

http://www.mcneilracinginc.com/off-road ... index.htm# (http://www.mcneilracinginc.com/off-road-fiberglass/Ford/Explorer/91-94_4dr/00ExplorerConv/index.htm#)

So my question is, what do I need to do this in 'glass? I figure I'll make the mold out of big chunks of foam. I'll make one, then use it as my mold for the others. As for laying down the glass itself, what do I need? How should I do it? I've been looking around online and cannot find simple directions for this. It must be straight forward, though.

[xXGTBspecXx]

uhh ive never done it but i think you stretch fiberglass fabric over sumthin and then you lay the resin on it .. idk i just watched pimp my ride make sub boxes from fiber glas

[Okin DaVanh]

uhh ive never done it but i think you stretch fiberglass fabric over sumthin and then you lay the resin on it .. idk i just watched pimp my ride make sub boxes from fiber glas


:smt104

"You've officially been Pimped!" :grin:



Unfortunately, there are no outtakes and cutting room floor. All they do, is show the glamorized part of it.

Straight forward??? Whoever told you that, didn't make a custom pair of flared fenders for a car they never made them for in the beginning. What you want to do is gonna be labor intensive, but well worth it if you can pull it off.


I know how to work with fiber glass. Long strand and short hair as well. What do you need know exactly?

[chuckthefuk]

Some info:
-Resin when mixed with hardening agent becomes very HOT.. it will melt cheap foam
-Resin burns skin! it hurts..
-Fiberglass is very very very itchy when sanded
-Wear a respirator
-

Simple instructions:

1) Fiberglass + Resin + Paint Brush + Tinfoil + Release agent (oil/wax) + masking tape
2) Take some foam cut the shape you want the flares to look like.
3) tin foil the foam.
4) cover it with release agent
5) lay down 2 layers of fiberglass and apply resin
6) remove fiberglass from foam mold
7) trim the edges and attach to car with revits/fiberglass/screws/etc..
8) thin layer of bondo and a sand

Foam:
"I used two types of foam. The soft, crumbly foam (commonly used in "wet" floral arrangements and found at craft stores and usually green in color) is resistant to the effects of the resin (reacting or dissolving the foam for lack of a more accurate description) whilst the hard, crispy foam (found at same stores) will react to the resin, but is much more durable in its handling. If I use the later, I cover this foam with masking tape prior to covering it with resin to prevent it from dissolving away. Anyway, either foam cuts and sands extremely easily"
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/01/standard-1.jpg

RE: DIY Carbon Fiber thread.
Glass Fiber and Carbon Fiber are essentially the same.

They both use epoxy resin to cure and both have the same forming properties.

There are two different methods of forming:

1) Dry forming (air dry and not for structure)
2) Vacuum forming (vacuum bagged and the resin is forced into the fabric)


Making a mold:
http://www.instructables.com/id/%5bVide ... the-Negat/ (http://www.instructables.com/id/%5bVideo%5d-Large-Scale-Mold-Making---Making-the-Negat/)

The Homemade pump:
http://www.instructables.com/id/make-a- ... y-convert/ (http://www.instructables.com/id/make-a-manual-vacuum-pump-for-under-%2420-by-convert/)

Vacuum Bagging and Valving.:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Vacuum-bagging-basics./
http://www.info-central.org/constructio ... ging.shtml (http://www.info-central.org/construction_vacuumbagging.shtml)

Mixing the resin:
http://www.instructables.com/group/comp ... out=images (http://www.instructables.com/group/composites/?show=RECENT_INSTRUCTABLES&limit=20&layout=images)



Theres not much to it, the only difficult thing about carbon fiber is laying the fabric down without destroying the weave.

Cheers
-Chuck

[Black Sunshine]

What exactly are you planning. I want to see a baja legacy. I live in the desert and people drive tube frame desert trucks on the highway here. I see these fenders all of the time. The rears will be harder to make because you can't take them off. Are you going to install a lift kit? I wanna see pics if you do any of this.

[Plays_with_Toys]

Might be easier to just mount up some bushwacker fender flares and cut your fenders to match:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Bushwack ... enameZWDVW (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Bushwacker-20013-11-Fender-Flares-Cut-Out-Front-Pair_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33644QQihZ012QQitemZ220341406566QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW)

Making a fender is going to be some SERIOUS work. And you'll have to do it 4 times, as there's no way to use on pattern for each side like you suggested.

[Black Sunshine]

Somewhere around here there are pics of a wide body mock up using cardboard and blue tape. You could take your fender off and cut the wheel opening larger then use card board and tape on it for the mold. Just put foil or cling wrap on top of it and go to town. Then cut all but the fastening surfaces away from the original fender. Attach those to the fiberglass shell and bolt it right back up. Rinse and repeat for the other side. You could get a fender from the junkyard to try it on so there's no love lost. You have to do a lot of sanding to get the finished product looking decent. That's where most of the trucks around here come up short. Some of them never even get paint.

This method would save you a lot of weight in the front end. If you did it for the hood too the savings would be getting really good. They would probably off set the offroad bumper and winch you want. Combined with the South American bus luggage rack and super plexi vista roof this would be one serious geo-trekker.

Speaking of geo-trekker theres a forum for offroad trekking vehicles, I'm a forum whore so I don't remember what the name is now. They might have some insight. I was hanging out there when I was considering lifting my legacy. They said that Legacy's are pretty tough offroad cars and that they have run across them hundreds of miles from nowhere on mild trails. They told me that the 13" clearance that a 6" lift would provide would make one of these formidable and I know that deep down all of those truck guys where crazy jealous of symmetrical AWD. They said "Yeah, but I have 4Low." and I said "I don't care about 4Low the little computer that runs my engine thinks about all of that stuff. I just hit the throttle and go where ever I please."

[jg09]

What exactly are you planning. I want to see a baja legacy. I live in the desert and people drive tube frame desert trucks on the highway here. I see these fenders all of the time. The rears will be harder to make because you can't take them off. Are you going to install a lift kit? I wanna see pics if you do any of this.


Indeed, it's basically gonna be a trophy wagon (like a trophy truck, but yeah...) It should be interesting to see how it looks when it's done. I don't even have a good idea of it yet.

[bb.bloomquist]

if you want a very great source for glassing join the forum at Scream and Fly. These guys go nuts with there boats and have all sorts of ideas and resources. You can make your shape with foam plugs as suggested earlier, but instead of adding a ton of weight by adding multiple layers of glass cloth you could try laminating in foam core material. It is strong enough for boat bottoms but still flexes, might be a good option for the flares as they need to be strong but still flex some.

Check them out..there are some INCREDIBLE SICk boats on the site.

Brad