I'm making a custom radio bezel for my firebird since I added a 4th gen center console and I'm having problems making it all look good. So basically, how do I do it? Make a wooden frame, lay glass over it, then what? Remove the wood? Sand it? Paint? I've always said I'd do this but never had motivation until now.

 

That's pretty much it, lay the cloth, spread the resin, lay some more clotch, smear some more resin, repeat, repeat, then let dry. Sand with 40 grit or so, apply some body filler, let dry. Sand with 40, 80, 100, 220 grit, etc. until it's smooth and paintable. Something like that I would probably use 5oz cloth or so, about 4 layers should do it depending on how strong the part has to be. It may take as many as 6 if the radio is supported by it.

Read this stuff..

http://www.fibreglast.com/contentpag...enter-283.html

http://www.uscomposites.com/related.html

edit- you might be better off using foam instead of the wood unless you do da lot of woodworking. Use some car wax between the wood, pink styrofoam, or whatever and the fiberglass cloth/resin. The resin may bond to your mold otherwise and it can be a royal pita to get the two parts seperated. 3-4 heavy coats of wax works good.

 

Wow! Thanks so much! I figure since I'm basically making a smaller version of my radio bezel (basically a cube) then wood shouldn't be toooo hard to fabricate. I'll track down some foam though, that would be even easier to work with. Thanks agaiN!

 

If you intend to remove whatever it is that you’re using as a form to lay the glass down, I’d suggest that you cover it with duct tape and then wax over that, usually you can get it to release pretty well like that. OTOH, I’m not sure that I’d be that worried about it, since you need something solid inside to mount to, and if you plan ahead you can use your frame as mounting points…

When I redid the inside of my 3rd gen one I basically used aluminum for the structure and then epoxied/resined them in where I needed them.

 

I second the duct tape, I dunno how many rolls I've used making fenders, bumper covers, quarter panels. I can only guess at least 20 rolls. Ever seen the red green show?

 

that's what I lined my heater blower box mold with. I made the actual mold out of cardboard.

 

I love that show!!!!!!!

 

I am going to make a fiberglass mold using a small abs plastic part. The part is about 1 1/2" X 3". It has a small 'dip' in the center of it. Duct tape would be way too bulky for this job. If I just waxed down the part, would the fiberglass resin still release from the plastic? Do you have any other suggestions?

 

Car wax works good on plastic, I've tried car wax and even spray-on mold release over spraypainted metal. Nothing has worked better than the duct tape so far. Even putting on thick multiple layers of wax, I was still pulling up the wax and a few layers of paint when I yanked the 'glass parts.

 

Even though I keep throwing out the duct tape thing, I have had problems with it… seems like normal polyester resin dissolves the adhesive in it and reacts with it so it usually sticks around the edges of the tape, no matter how much wax/mold reliese… you use on top of it. It’s still better then it sticking to a solid surface, but has usually resulted in damaging the form that I’m using and some clean up work on the final part. You need a smooth surface on the part being “molded” for mold reliese to work well, it’s intended to be used over smooth gellcoat.

 

I think that's why I had problems using the mold release and the waxes. The surface wasn't smooth enough so the tape worked better for me. I wonder if some kind of shrink wrap could be applied with a hair dryer or heat gun? I thought of trying saran wrap also..

 

I've done saran wrap and aluminum foil (waxed of course) with good luck, but you have to be careful that whatever you use doesn't dissolve in the resin, some plastics do.

 

actually, thinking about it, the fiberglass heater box that I posted some pics on here I attached (stapled) my mold/plug to a piece of plywood that was wrapped in saran wrap, and besides the general pain in the *** of dealing with it (it's light and doesn't want to stay anywhere till you tape it down) it worked REALLY well.

 

Now you've peaked my interest, I'm gonna have to try using the saran wrap now. I've used thick plastic sheet before *think painters drop cloth* it never wanted to contour without leaving a couple seams or air pockets. I think the saran wrap would be just the ticket for what I wanna do, maybe some spray on adhesive or the heat gun will stick the saran wrap to the mold, something new to experiment with!