ok so heres the thing i have never used fiberglass before and am looking at tearing apart a spare dash that i have and then fiberglassing it. but i am not sure at all what i need products wise. what would i use for a job like this? also where would be a good place to purchase it?

Thanks,
Logan

bump

I doubt you're going to get any kind of answer. Although fiberglassing isn't hard, it's not something that someone with no experience can just jump right into. I could give you a list of at least $500 worth of stuff you should have to do a good fiberglassing job.

Your best bet is to watch youtube videos on how to fiberglass and buy instructional books on how to do it.

alright thnx stephen. was kinda gunna play with it first to kinda get the feel for it but ill take ur advice. thanks.

are you taking about the dash pad, or what exactly are you looking to glass?

You can get a kit from most autoparts stores, just make sure it comes with the woven glass material not the chopped ****.

Pick up some extra hardener, i usually find that a little more than is recommended works better.

You will need a sander of some kind. A random orbit sander will work well. 60 grit for the rough cutting, 180 or finer to smooth it out.

Usually after the glass hardens, and you sand it down, you will need to use body filler to fill in any imperfections then sand it again.

There is a lot of sanding involved. very dusty. Wear a good mask or resperator.

ya just the dash pad is what im looking at doing. and ok ill go around town and check and see what people have. and i have a good DA sander that should work. and have a respirator from spending hours sanding all the coats of primers on my car and stuff but thanks for the info. ill have to play with it for awhile before i feel comfortable doing it.

Fiberglassing is deffinetly a good thing to know about if you do custom work. It can be challenging to work with and there are lots of things to know when it comes to making molds and or even 1 off pieces. Theres lots of materials to work with such as fiberglass (or things like kevlar, carbon fiber ect) of different weights and designs. Theres different resins and things you can add to the resin for different properties. Theres alot to it. Although all hope is not lost for your back yard enthusist. The resins and fiberglass sheets you can find at your local autoparts store will work fine for many projects and you dont need alot of background knowled for simple things. What i can say is there are a few techniques that will ensure a good strong piece. First the materials. The type of fiberglass commonly available to you will be limited to one weight of eather chopped or woven fiberglass. Chopped fiberglass is strongest by weight and woven fiberglass is strongest by thickness. If you do use woven fiberglass you will have to use a special precaution for max streingth and that is to lay the fiberglass with the weave at a 45 degree angle to the previous layer. Air bubles are your worst enemy. Laying the fiberglass carefully in a similar manner to what you would do when you lay down a decal to prevent air pockets under the decal will help at keeping air bubbles to a minimum or you could buy a $13 resin roller to really roll out the bubbles although this probably isnt neccessay for a dash pad. Next is the application. Although the direcitons tell you to dip the fiberglass in the resin then lay it, this not only dosnt really work with the chopped fiberglass as it just falls apart it really over saturates the fiberglass making it a heavier piece thats not as strong. A better way to do it is to lay down a cote of resin on the piece your fiberglassing, lay the fiberglass, then take a paint brush dip it in the resin and then tap the tip of the brush onto the fiberglass working the brush like a sewing machine over the entire piece. Youll see if you try to paint the stuff on like you would paint youll just pull the fiberglass around and apart making a mess of it. Do this will you see all the fiberglass go from its normal white color to the yellow resin color all the way through. Make sure you leave no dry spots behind as thats worse than over satureating it. At this point you have the minimum amount of resin that still saturates the fiberglass at least the best you can do by hand with a brush. then lay your next piece of fiberglass down on top of that and repeat the process. Next is the mixture of resin to hardener. Ide just use the amount listed on the directions as if its mixed with too much hardener it will over heat and too little it will never dry so for a bigginer follow the directions till you get a feel for it then adjust as you see fit. Lastly keep in mind resin will eat certant foams and glues and a few other things. Im not sure if the dash pad foam is one of them so ide test it befor you do the whole thing. Sorry for the long post but theres alot to it even when your just talking about the basics lol.

I've done some fiberglass work (Used to build custom speaker pods and door panels for a living) Some speaker grille material and some resin as well as hardener is about all you need to get started. There is a REALLY good video I would recommend to you: "Custom fiberglass door pods" From M.E.C.P. (Mobile Electronics Certification Program) I believe it is available at amazon.com. I wont say that it's easy, as there is a certain amount of skill involved, but you can develop that skill with practice. I have glassed a few dashpads and I can tell you the camaro pad is much harder than the firebird pad. (Due to the speaker grilles) Also, I wasnt too fond of the texture. Too smooth and the glare was pretty bad. Finish painting in satin paints just made them want to hold dust and dirt.
Good luck!

Fiberglassing is generally pretty simple as long as you're not trying to make a structural piece or you need to have a mold, but every one of your questions can be answered on: fiberglassforums.com

Mathius

thank you all for the info especially the exact how to =) thanks again. if anyone else has any other info please tell.

logan. im going to be starting on this soon hopefully so i will post pics when i get the fiberglassing done.

Let us know how it works out.
At the least, your friends will be impressed that you did it yourself!
Good luck!

If your trying to fo a complete replica of the dash your going to need
1. Many yards of glass MAT depending on how many layers you lay obviously will determine the strutural integrity
2. Fiberglass Resin
3.gloves, mixing tubs, rollers to apply the resin to the glass and a mask capable of keep the vapors out of your lungs :P
4. Release wax (very important)
5. Sand paper 100 grit

Fiberglassing is not to hard if you have decent motor skills :P it does take some practice to get it right though but its not rocket science. Your best bet is to cover the "inside" (if you mold the outside your going to have a lager end product and it probably wont fit so dont waste your time trying this way) of the donor dash with release wax. This enables the mold to come out with more ease when your done. Lay down a layer of fiberglass mat through out the whole dash, and repeat. Keep in mind resin dries fast so it would be nice to have a friend mixing small batches while you lay to keep things smooth. The rest is where your artistic/motor skills come in. have fun