Just broke the plug out of it. Doesn't look the best, but considering normally you can toss acouple before finally getting a successful mold I won't complain to much. I do have a few spots I need to bondo around the outside of the ring, but since it's not on the mold face I'm happy.

The black is gelcoat tooling layer and the redish and pink is from the spot putty and bondo that came off the plug... lol I don't know why it pulled off but oh well at least my mold surface is flat now.

 

not seeing it

 

That's what I get for using FireFox.

 

LOL This is taking forever... stupid dialup connection

 

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to do that

 

I should beable to get the hybrid design done over winter. Planning on making another AC delete box that will reuse the 4 speed AC blower and accessories so all existing hardware can be reused... except for a few bolts and nuts of course.

Course that'll mean another mold to be made, but of well I'm out in the sticks anyways so I got nothing better to do.

 

That has definite profitmaking potential. A/C delete boxes are getting harder and harder to find (like so many other parts for our cars......)

 

I know I came up with this idea when I seen a bare rusted non ac delete box sell for 152 bucks + shipping on ebay without any connectors, fastners, or blower motor.

 

I think I was the first to list a non ac heater box on ebay and it sold for over 150 bucks after that I saw a couple more sellers scrambling to pull 'em off the junk cars and list them. I paid like 10 bucks for it outta the junkyard and kept one for my own car. I just started playing with fiberglass myself and if I woulda known how easy it is to work with I woulda been making parts long ago!

Congrats on the work, looks nice!

 

My friend made me one about a year ago, which accomodates the 4 speed blower fan and all.

 

Looks pretty good, deepstage.

My 4 speed design would probably be pretty similar but keep the ac delete flare corner looks... especially now that I can make them and if I mess one up I can always just make another to play with.

But first plans is to make some replicas so I can make my money back I spent on mold release, gelcoat, resin, glass, and other materials.

I forsee more molds coming in the future to show you guys. Next on the drawing board is how to do two part molds. I think I have it pretty much figured out.

 

nice looking mold.. definitely a good choice of parts to replicate. Do you have a source for the gasket that mounts between the heater box and the firewall? I recently got a non-ac box from a junkyard and cleaned it up... but had to destroy the gasket in the process.

 

I would assume about anything would work... silicone Gasketmaker. Plumber's putty might also work too, it's used in tiolet repairs. I also destroy'd my gasket in the process of hte mold making. I'm just going to use some blue 3m silicone gasketmaker (bought 2 cases off ebay... don't ask).

I imagine as long as you pick something you can pinch tight, moisture/heat resistant, and have a continous bead it'll be ok... it's not like it's highly pressurized.

 

I’ve posted pics of this thing before, but this is one that I made that works with the larger AC style blower motor with a mount for the blower speed coils in the stock location (hard to see in the pic)…:


As far as sealing it, I just used some weatherstripping tape.

 

Here’s one of the back side:

FWIW, this is just a test fitup of things before it got cleaned up and stuck in the car… it looks and works dead factory in the car, no one notices it unless I point the thing out. They just sit and stare trying to figure out where all the room on that side came from

 

Yeah I've seen that before Crossfire. Good work with using the duct tape as molding surface. Looks very much like a 2nd gen heater box.

 

mold looks good..


i just got lucky.. a friend of mine had a 4 banger 83 camaro he got for free..

i got the alum bumpers and AC delete box assembly from it...

its getting media blasted for me by a friend right now.
i had to make a little notch in the edge to clear one heater core hose, but other then that, all the holes line up. no one will ever notice the curved notch unless i tell them.

should be nice.

 

Good deal! Just wondering going back to the question before. What did you guys use for replacement gaskets?

I'm going to produce a fiberglass replica then test fit it on my car. I'm planning on stripping off the AC junk around christmas break. I imagine I will just use silicone gasket maker stuff since I only have 20+ tubes of it left

 

no! you dont want to glue it on there! lol...


goto lowes or home depot... theres a type of foam tape ment for weatherstripping... it will stick on there like the stock gasket did, and it has the same soft, sealing foam texture.


if you cut the excess off good with a sharp knife, it'll look stock.

 

Nifty. I might look into that.

 

I would definatly be interested in buying one!!!! As soon as someone make one for the orginal a/c blower. Keep us posted.

 

Mr Dude, thanks for the tip on the foam weatherstrip. 83 crossfire, it doesn't look like the right side of your heater box would be tall enough to cover the rectangular hole in the firewall. do you have any pics of it installed yet? Aside from that concern, it really looks awesome. very smooth and clean.

 

Here's a pic of crossfire's box installed. I seen it on another thread awhile back.

 

wow, a picture of crossfires car! i don't believe i have ever seen one!

crossfire, great work...willing to build another?

 

Hey, I said it half a page above where he said it!


It’s sized to cover the opening with roughly an even ¾-1” overlap over all the edges… the idea is that it takes up as little space as possible with no hassle to get it to seal or install. It also moves all the fastners but one to the engine bay side of the firewall to make installing/removing it a little easier.

One thing that bugged me about the “available” AC delete box (besides the prices they were going for) was that it was sized for a smaller blower but was actually much bulkier then necessary. Most of the area that the OEM box covers is just flat firewall, very little of it actually covers the opening in the firewall. I also made it somewhat more angular then it needed to be to match the look of some of the OEM parts so it more easily disappeared under the hood.



heh, that’s one of a few of my f-bodies (actually, I’m looking for another)… that one happens to be my Formula 350 piece of crap that I bought for a parts car for the crossfire car that is mostly a beater and a test mule for “things.”

I believe that I actually took that pic of it to show how a single turbo header that I was working on fit and how easy it would be to adapt to an intake box like the SLP one, although eventually I’ll probably build another filter box out of ‘glass or maybe sheet metal that would hold an 11” cone filter dropped through the battery tray, has 4” ducting and didn’t look so much like a gift wrapped elephant.

I’ve been asked that literally dozens of times.

Nutshell answer, if I took the time to make a real, reusable mold for it I’d make it slightly cleaner and probably want about $150 for them. Is that likely? I doubt it, I don’t particularly want to go into FRP production… It’s nice to be able to make whatever I want out of the stuff, but it’s not really fun stuff to do.

OTOH, I do some custom fabrication work and if someone really wanted something similar custom made, well, great, but then I’d just charge for how many hours labor whatever they wanted ran + supplies.

 

Back from the Dead!

I was able to lay down my gelcoat mold layer yesturday (70 degrees outside). Sadly it's 32 degrees today so I couldn't fiberglass. Hopefully it'll warm back up over Spring Break and I'll get my first replica piece to show you guys. I'm just hoping it will come back out of the mold after I'm done.

In the mean time I've started my AC removal so I can test fit the first plug. Pretty much done with it only the lower AC box screws to remove left.

I had an awesome surprise too! When I removed the compressor the serpentine bracket fell off the motor! studs broke off in the head and broken ear off the lower mount hole by the fuel pump blockoff plate. That might have been why the car was making that awful clanking sound (reason why I stopped driving it 1.5 years ago... yeah I'm lazy I just got around to fixing it now). Looked at my intake duct work and the compressor pulley ground about 1/2 way through the plastic! Oh well I'm swapping motors eventually anyways. Now I have an excuse for my $1550 dollar AFR 210cc heads, I'll just tell people yeah I didn't feel like tapping out the holes so I just bought these instead.

 

I made mine from a blower box off a 78 full sized pick up. It looks good and works but it would be nice to get a fiberglass clone.

 

Finally got around to fiberglassing yesturday. The replica leaves a lot to be desired. It's still stuck in the mold! I'm rethinking my design now. It seems like the sides are sticking way to much because of all the different angles. I'll probably end up cutting mold/stuck piece in half length ways. That will allow me to make it into a cheap 2 piece mold. Then hopefully I can get the piece out easier. If it all works out I'll go buy some metal latches and JB weld the hardware on the outside of the mold. That way I can latch it together, gelcoat, fiberglass, unlatch, and pry the mold apart in 2 pieces. The replica will still be one piece with a little flashing (gelcoat from the edges) which can be easily sanded down later.

What do you guys thinks?

 

Temp really doesn’t matter for FG, you can lay it up cold and add some heat to help it cure, or I believe that it will react to UV light also (ever notice how fast polyester resin, even bondo sets up on a sunny day outside?)

WRT to your mold problems, you never want to have straight sides on a FG part, without some slope to them you’ll never get them out. that being covered, anything thick and waxy works as a decent mold release and for something like this you might want some strategically placed thick spots on the mold where you can pry in some wedges (I’ve used the backs of cloths pins before, almost exactly the right size for parts this size and made of hardwood) to put pressure the whole way around the mold to help it “pop.” If you try prying on one corner, typically you’ll break the piece before you get it loose from the mold.

 

it's funny how these non-ac boxes seem rare at times, yet i found a junkyard around here that has 3 or 4 non-ac 6 bangers with everything you need for a complete swap. Also, you can get a new 3-speed blower motor from a regular parts store for around $20 so you don't need to adapt your 4 speed blower to fit the non-ac box. I'm thinking about buying the boxes and cleaning them up to sell them, but I don't have the time right now with working on my T/A.

 

I'm using a PVA mold release compound. I did have slight tapers on the mold. I'm guessing they were not enough since a heater box is a decent size. Once the piece is casted the only places that are avaiable to use to wedge around is the gasket mounting area. I've tried wedges but I can not get the proper force to get the other areas to break free.

I'm thinking about going to a 2 piece mold that will allow me to split the mold shell in half. Then it will only have one straight wall holding each half. After it's casted I can unlatch the pieces and have a much wider area I could pry on. So instead of trying to pry the replica out of the mold I would just be prying the mold off the other mold half. I think it would be much easier to get apart.

Below is a picture oh how I would divide the mold into 2 pieces.


Comments?

JeremyNYR: That's good news! I've searched 4 different yards in the area of about 100 miles around my house and have yet to find one. Yards around here are outrageously high also. Such as wanting $150 for a lower TPI intake. One wanted me to pay $50 for one manual seat rail (one side not a pair).

 

that might be a function of being in western NY (I grew up in Orchard Park). Up there AC is still somewhat of an option on cars, where around here (DC) a car without AC is something that sits on the lot and can’t be sold.

I say grab them and put them up on ebay, you’ll probably make enough money from us poor suckers down south that you’ll be able to buy some nice stuff for your car.

Personally, being able to use my existing, bigger 4 speed blower was one of the reasons that I made my own.



Sounds like you’re having less luck using the “right stuff” then I am just using whatever I had laying around. You need to get the flanges on your mold and on the cast piece thick enough so they do not flex much when you pry on them, or it won’t work.

The factory piece has ribs cast all the way around it which helps stiffen it. they are not needed for the finished piece, but they are to get the piece out of the mold. Another thing with molds is that it’s not uncommon for you to have to break the first 2-3 pieces out of the mold before it gets sorta “seasoned” and the pieces start coming out easily



I think that you’re making yourself too much work… if you do that make sure the flange at the parting line is heavy to maintain it’s shape and clamp well, and I’d make some alignement pins to make sure it can only get clamped together one way.

don’t you love it how some of them think that their **** is made of gold? I recently tried getting some parts for my truck through the shop at a JY that is owned by a friend of the shop’s owner. When the part came the invoice was actually more then what I would have paid at the dealer, and that was “cost.” Yea, right… a lot of JY’s around here feel that their stuff is worth somewhere between ½ and ¾ of what the part is new, and actually check new parts pricing from a dealer for their price. The end result is that you can get almost everything at an autoparts store or someplace like gmpartsdirect for less then the JY…

 

How much are these things going for on e-bay and in the classifieds? If I can make a decent profit, I'll buy them, clean them up, do a decent spraypaint on them, and sell them. the toughest part is removing them from the car. There's that one bolt that has a stud coming through from inside the car. It rusts up and is hell to get out!

 

I think in one of the threads here people were saying $200 or 250 for one in OK shape... but do a search, I could be wrong. I know that when I was looking I couldn't find anything even remotely in a price range that I was willing to spend.

 

Right now I think theres acouple on the classifieds for around 60 to 80 including the motor. I've seen them go as high as $125 + shipping for the rusted out sheet metal no motor or other things on Ebay. Other times I've seen the box and motor in excellent shape sell on ebay for only $50 + shipping.

Dave sells them for around $80 and he includes the wiring and blower motor too, but he usually sells out within acouple weeks.

 

Thanks for the clothes pin idea, Crossfire!

Drilled acouple holes in the backside of the mold so I could tap the fiberglass loose. Then I used 12 to 15 pins and slowly worked my way around the mold gently lifting the edge and inserting them in between the fiberglass and mold. After they were all in I slowly tapped them in tighter, working my way around the mold again. Finally a few choiced prying places with the screwdriver it popped and echo'd off the roof in the work shop. Then I worked the fiberglass out of the mold by lifting it around the edges slowly.

Still need to cut the excess off the edges, but I wanted to show you guys the pics cause I'm so excited.

I have it out baking the gelcoating in the sun today.








About 1/2 the weight of a OEM pressed piece. Not to mention I could probably make 1 or 2 a week easily. Now I just need a dremel so I can cut off the excess and put the motor in there to see if there is clearance.

Comments?

 

looks good so far. Now just get a finished product and set a price.

 

UPDATE:

Excess fiberglass cut off. Cut out blower, tube, and resistor locations. Test fited non-ac motor plenty of clearance still. Pilot holes drilled. Gasket ring surface holes drilled. I drilled the rectangular shape holes on the gasket ring. Should allow for plain bolts and nuts to work. Test fitted the empty box in the car came a little close to one of the heater core tubes. I'll just take off another 1/4" strip in that spot and it will be fine.

Planning to go to the hardware store tonight to pick up the screws, bolts, and nuts I need.

GF ran off w/ my digital, so no new pics.

 

OK, picked up my hardware. I decided just to get machine screws for everything then put a washer and nut on the inside of the case. Not really a point to using screws now that I think about it. You'd never beable to get the motor out anyways with the box in place and you can always unplug the resistor. Not to mention it'll make the boxes last much longer and provide more clamping force. Went ahead and got new machine screws, washers, and nuts for the lower firewall attachments too. Decided just to buy stuff in bulk so I spent $16+ on all the fastners.

Later this week I can hopefully get around to drilling everything out to the right sizes and do a full bolt up and mount.

Also decided to test fit my AC blower in the non ac box. Looks like if I brought the box out another 1" or so I'd have the clearance. Course with the fender right there it would have to be pretty exact.

I'll keep you guys up to date.

 

Could a person make a 1" spacer to use the a/c blower motor instead of making a different box?

 

Yep!

 

Thats what I had in mind. Nice job look great!

 

That's an awesome spacer! I could probably build that into a box with a little work. Would take me far less time to make a mold of another box than to make 1" spacers seperately and get all the additional hardware to mount them. Especially if I were going to be making a batch of them.

 

How much do you plan on charging for one? I'm Very Interested.
I have a standard blower motor and cage and an AC blower motor and cage. Would the AC blower motor and cage from the standard one work in the box you have now?

 

well done!

somthings going to have to be done shortly...... there is a high demand for these babys and short supply.... i remember when iroczdave used to sell them for 85, now there 100...... man i need to pick one up before too long.......

 

I can remember 8 years ago I bought three of the non A/C boxes for $5.00 a piece....shesh, I wish I would have known then what I know now!

 

Don't worry guys, they'll get done eventually. I've gotten tired of seeing empty boxes sell on ebay for $152+. That's just way to high for a item like these. Kind of like having to pay $50 for one seat rail... *mutter*. I'm not going to rush it though. I want these to work perfectly once there done. Sad thing is if I do sell any they'll probably cost around $65 + shipping and that's without the motor, cage, or resistor. So then figure in another $20 for the lifetime blower and $20 for the cage from a parts store like Autozone. The material cost and the overhead for making the mold was fairly expensive not to mention the labor time.

 

Ok, it's bolted up to the car well half the way... I have the box with the non-ac motor and ac resistor instead of the non ac one. That let me keep my factory harness with only modifications to the 2-prong weather plug (ground and hot), which I just used a jumper since I plan on using the AC motor eventually. I didn't take the time to bolt it up to the firewall cause I haven't bought the weatherstripping yet. So far it moves plenty of air through the defrost and floor without the metal lip in place (one that allows only 1/2 the outlet of air from the blower wheel). I imagine it hurts the efficency of the blower a little though, but that can always be added later. Course could be my imagination since I did have a 4 speed blower with a larger wheel in the car previously. I didn't have my vac lines hooked up so I couldn't test out the vents. Now that I know it'll work I'll take some pics this weekend then pull it back off to do some touch up bondo work. Hopefully in a week it will be primed, paint'd, and weatherstriped. That'll be one less project on the "to do" list for my car.

 

That wire on the lip was the temporary ground I was using. Please excuse the mess as the headers, plug wires, and most of the other wiring and accessories have been disconnected and moved around.



Little rough around the edges since I haven't put any bondo or paint on it yet. Added a small cardboard flap to the inside seemed to improve air flow a little bit. I'll fiberglass one in when I do another box. Cleaned out the mold with some warm water and Dawn. It received another layer of PVA today and once that dried I put the black tooling gelcoat on it. I should have another box popped out by next week hopefully.

Little off topic but I might be doing acouple more molds in the future. Test fitted one of my two fender flare spats today with masking tape. Not looking forward to fabricating the front spats.

 

hey chris, i can't wait til you start molding the fender flares and front chin. i really want those. will you have a buddy discount??