Fibreglass flares, spoilers and other parts.

[rossie]

Yes, that would be great, but then someone will take away your busseness Ben

[ben]

im not worried about that rossie. most people dont want to deal with fibreglass cause its messy.. and thats why i love it he he!

if they are that keen they wouldnt do bedford bits. not enough turn over. only reason i have lots of bedford moulds is because i had an interest because of my own vans.. i turn overa lot more from hq - hz, torana and comodore stuff.

ben

[Bedfordcrazy]

Hey ben,  here is a suggestion, i can read and look at pics of things like this, but nothing beats actually seeing it done step by step, if you and mty want to do something, how about a dvd showing start to finish on a project, regardless of what it is, you can then use the knowledge to adapt to our own project.

I would love to build a set of mirrors for the van, steel i recon will be to heavy, so doing them in glass would be ideal, but how to start ? i can sort of see it in my head but as i said seeing someone do it is how i learn new skills. How do you start the mould from nothing, that is what would make a great video or dvd, from sketch to polish.

george.

[hotrod]

George you make a plug, which is the exact finished product you want, out of timber, steel, clay whatever. Then from that you take a mould and from the mould you produce your product.
Or if it is something simple you just construct a mould (in reverse of what you want
I teach fibre glassing and have students make things like eskies, sandboards, skateboards, bonnet scoops etc

[ben]

I teach fibre glassing and have students make things like eskies, sandboards, skateboards, bonnet scoops etc

wow thats awesome hotrod! i think we could all spend some time being your students. where do you teach this hotrod? sounds like a really fun course!!


george yes you can use anything like hotrod said to construct a plug.

but if i were to make mirrors from scratch i would..


on a budjet id pull apart some oldfridge doors and use the yellow foam inside, id stick it together with hot glue to create blocks big enough to shape with 36 grit sand paper in the palm of your hand to the desired mirror shapes.

if money not a problem go get some green floral foam (stuff you get flowers in) the right size already, less mucking around and the green stuff is marginly easier to sand too.

you cant use white foam because the resin eats it as soon as it hits it. and it wont sand either..

once you have the perfect shape you can lay down a 225 or 300gsm layer of matt with resin of course, let it cure. then body filler it smooth.


you can then mould straight of polished bog if you want but it will create extra work in the mould (always pin holes), better to 2k undercoat, wet sand up to 1200. its much easier to sand undercoat than tooling gelcoat so put your effort into the plug and it will save you effort later.

your mirrors will have to be  a 2 part mould. how to make a 2 part mould is on youtube i think.

i will up load some pics of some fibreglass mirror moulds i have for the beddy when i get a chance. have not made any parts off them yet  george


saftey warning....

atry keep the yellow or green foam out of your eyes, pretty uncomftable!! but with catylist very dangerous if you get it in your eyes.. can make you blind within 15 seconds so im told.. keep an eye wash bottle handy george because your eyes are gunna be closer to the catylist than mine too because your sitting.


cheers
ben

[Bedfordcrazy]

and also, i only have 1 eye left benny. 

I have been looking at a few videos on you tube last night and it all looks easy, but as you guys have said there are things that can go wrong. Where would you buy things like the green foam from ? or we have some fibreglass places here, so the WWW tells me, would they sell the foam. As for putting benny out of business, well not in this lifetime.  I recon most of us on here are spoiled, we like to give benny a call and have the item turn up on the door step. I think i will sticking to small stuff like gauge pods, my power mirrors and one day maybe a custom dash.

To do a dash, do you just carve what you want in foam, or is that one of the reverse plugs you were talking about. Anyhows when i do get started i will video and document the whole thing.

george

[ben]

To do a dash, do you just carve what you want in foam

if its fairly squarish id make it out of wood instead of foam but for crazy shapes foam is nice.. also you can use a mix too. flat bits out of wood curvy bits from foam:)

dont worry about reverse plugs. probably confuse you. its confusing me lol

ben

[Jonbongjovi]

i need one of these visors more than i need air...or beer