okay i keep getting questions about vaccume forming so im posting the steps to build it to create your own machine and how the process works to make all of your custom interior pieces....
material you need is.......
6' by 4' peg board can be purchased at a hardware store

2'' by 4'' by 6' piece of wood that is fairly knotless and smooth you need two of those.

2'' by 4'' by 4' same piece of wood that is knotless and smooth you need two of those

6' by 4' plywood sheet fairly good condition also purchase at hardware store.

a shop vac

some tape preferable reflective heat tape the kind they use on duct work and vents also its at a hardware store...or the other option is silicone seal but its hire in price and messy

and you need a heat source i used a electric grill that has the coils with a simple plug.

but here is how you assemble it


put the boards togather it should be self explanatory but you attach the 2by4by6 to the 2by4by4 and it should make a square frame of 4' by 6' frame that is when you attach the plywood to the frame then drill a hole for your shop vac tube in the middle than attach your peg board all this you use screws to attach before i get to far after thats assembled use your heat tape to make it air tight .than run your hose up from your shop vac and air check it by putting a sheet of plastic or paper over the entire sheet of peg board and a good seal would be its making indentions of the peg board .then after thats done you can build your frame for the machine use your imagination on that some use metal some just on whatever is available but you want you heat source over your pegboard so build your frame like a cube around the machine.but after you get there you mount your heat source and your ready to start.


use a screen frame clamp your plastic to it heat it up you want it to be soft a paper like and stretchy but not to much when it starts to sag put it on your mold
important make sure your vac is on and you have a heat gun on hand sometimes the corners dont get enough heat and that is when you apply it on the mold where its not molding

but when it hits the mold it will suck to it in a perfect copy if done right so you can reserch it better online on youtube and google cause i explained it the best i could .

but what i did was my dash my plastic pieces interior and made my own custom console with it own oil gauges and design but the whole ideal is think it up and make it .its less messy than fiberglass and lighter or the same weight but just helping out

 

pictures to go with the steps and finished product would help. thanks!

 

Are you sure a simple shop bad will be enough for such a large area? That's a lot of surface area to suck on for a little shop vac so I can't see how the plastic will be pulled tight enough around the mold. Thee other thing is, don't think you can just add another shop vac to double the suction... Doesn't work that way. Every aditional vac gets half it's suction added.

The other thing is you need the heat to be applied evenly. Heating one area at a time then going to the next and then the next and so on will give very poor results. With a frame this size, if you manage to keep everything up to temp, congratulations! However, you will still have some hot and some cool spots in the plastic. And those cool spots won't want to stretch and the hot spots will have to stretch extra to make up for it. Yes a heat gun can help around corners and what not but you shouldn't be using that too much.

You also have to connsider material thickness when you are making the mold. If there are slot of sharp edges, the material will be stretched more over those areas which also means the final thickness will be much less around the corners then the flat and slightly curved surfaces are.

I'll post more later but I need to go now.

 

will do i can build another one but after the holidays all my funds are going to gifts but you can google diy vaccume forming the website has pics steps and how to all in all easy steps but i will post mine soon im having issues posting pics to this site and idk why i even got new pics of my redone interior and other mods there not letting me post

 

i usely use .80 thickness and never have problems but ive had alot of trial and error but got it down now also i use alot of my molds for fiberglassing which i suck at but getting better .have you vaccumed formed before you sound a little negitive about it and i dont use heat gun all the time just when the plastic dosnt get soft enough on an area i help it.