well ive been toying with the idea of making the top plate on my speaker box out of fiberglass and making a different design with it. i have never done anything like this b4 but i know i can use foam and shape it then fiberglass over it. what i dont know is what things do i need to do this and where can i get them besides the internet. thanks in advance for the help guys.

 

i know i will need the cloth and resin but is there a sertain kind i should get and will i need anything else?

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=259377

 

hey thanks for the info fireturd. that article really helped but after reading it i decided that could be a project for later down the road. but i still want to learn to fiberglass and i picked up a shorty spoilier today for mw66nova and i would like to mess around with that considering i can do that and not tie up the car since its my daily driver. anybody have any suggestions for that like what weight cloth to use and can i get the cloth and resin from a local store?

 

I'd order online if I were you. I tried using regular store brand resin and mat and it got way to expensive. The online sources of resin are generally thinner so it goes much further than regular 'Bondo' Company brand. Sure you might have to pay a hazard fee, but it will still save you money in the long run if you do additional projects.

I would start with mat to begin with. It will have the most flexibility. I prefer using the 0.75 oz. I like to get an overall shape before I mess with cloth. Sometimes it can be a real pita. I've used everything from near 10 oz up to 40+ oz weight in cloth. I'd recommend a biaxial type if you're looking for something easy and strong. That's what I made my AC delete boxes out of they support 35 lbs dumbell once done.

Ebay is also a good source of biaxial cloth. I bought 35+ lbs on there for under $100 shipped. I've done countless projects and only about 1/2 through the box. From the looks of the pieces it came from a boat hull company and is the excess trimmed pieces. I still have to cut them smaller so it's no problem using scraps.

 

I'd suggest getting your stuff from an online supplier like www.uscomposites.com I've had great service from them.

I also bought some scrap pieces from a boat company in bulk off of ebay, just make sure the weight is what you are looking for. The stuff I got is a little heavy for what I like to do, chalk that up to inexperience. It's perfect for making molds though so I'll use it eventually.

 

what oz. cloth should i use for the top coat of the spoiler. i figured id make a box or what i want the spoiler to look like and then fill 2 part polyurathayne (sp?) then go over that w/ fiberglass. but you suggest i use the 3/4 oz mat first to shape it, then go on to the cloth?

 

also i know you guys suggested buying the stuff from the internet in bulk. but this is probably going to be the only fiberglassing job i do for a while at least and i was wondering about how much cloth, mat, and resin i would need just to do this spoiler? and if it wont need that much material i would probably be better off getting it in town and avoid shipping and waiting for the stuff and all. thanks guys for all the help.

 

bump

 

I plan on doing a Z20 spoiler replica for my car far down the road. I planned on a 2 or 3 part box mold. If you do some searching on google you should get some ideas.

It's really hard to say. For a spoiler depending on the size and how you described it I would probably say a gallon or so. They also make special filler type to add since this will be a surface coat as you described. It should save you a lot of time sanding. You'll probably spend darn near the same amount of time sanding and paint prep as you did in the fiberglassing process.

Spoilers are generally very curved, so regular mat should be pretty strong. If you insist on going with cloth, I would use a really low OZ due to flexibility. Just remember doing it the way you described you will more than likely be spending some time sanding to get the surface flat again for paint.

 

so you recommend just using the mat and no cloth? if so how much mat am i going to need and how many coats. the spoiler will not have much curves in it im trying to do one like the hawks 5 inch. and you also said i need to get a filler type resin? i know there will be alot of time sanding im just worried about messing up the fiberglass part b/c i dont know what im doing.

 

I wouldn't even attempt anything until you've done some reading, it will save you a lot of time and headaches. This took me about two minutes searching google... "how to" and "fiberglass" were the search words.

Some pretty basic step by step stuff and it's from HOTROD! coolest mag ever-
http://www.hotrod.com/howto/60478/index.html
Haven't read any of these, i'm sure some of it's relevant though.
http://composite.about.com/od/howto/
About 20? links here...
http://www.uscomposites.com/related.html

There's a lot of info on this site too if you just type in "fiberglass" and disregard anything from the audio forum. LoL To answer your question though 3,4,5,6 oz. material is what I would use. about 3-5 layers and try to keep a ton of resin off the part with a plastic spreader between the layers, well if you want it to be somewhat light anyway.

 

Here is what I let a friend do with mine, i didnt like the hawks 5 inch, it looks like it goes straight up to 5 inches, and i liked the angle of the stocker. I dont know much about the oz. and other stuff.

 

i did a search for some boat forums. i learned alot from those guys. my neighnor does boat repairs he showed me cool stuff

 

Yup a boat guy would be the best, However, a lot of the time you can downgrade on the materials they use. Some of the structural stuff is hard to sand too, since theres really no need when its used to laminate up a floor.