A little shade tree fiberglass tech

[ZukIzzy]

I am pretty much a hack at glasswork but the Team Slow Speed crawler wanted to be an FJ Cruiser this year. Who am I to argue. Any comments are more than welcome I am learning as I go.

Started with some Polyurethane insulation I had laying around. "A famous artist was asked by some high ranking dignitary. "How do you carve a statue of an elephant?" the artist replied " Well you take a block of marble and a hammer and chisel. Then you chip off everything that does not look like an elephant" I am trying my hand at this method



Started shaping with a drywall saw, filet knife, body file with 24 grit paper,and rasp I made from a peice of wire lath and a 2"x4". Plus spray foam to fix my screwups and glue more peices of foam together.



Ive never looked close at a FJ so I went off of a sales brocure I got in the mail and a pic or 2 in a magazine. Getting there but still not quite an elephant yet




Now it is starting to look like an FJ. one of the hardest things was to keep the FJ look and still fit our rig with enough taper to keep it from being a rock magnet.



A few little details I would change if I did it again but considering this is 10 hours work over a week. I think it looks like and FJ or an elephant whichever you want .

Now the body work to prep it for the mold making process.

Wayne

[88_Pathy]

Damn that is sweet. Good work man.

[skipnrocks]

Wow that was pretty sweet!!   I may have to do something like that to build a front end on my jeep.  Where did you get the blocks of foam?

[Duffil]

holy batman!! that thing looks tight...especially if you've never done it before.  You see that on MuscleCar a few weeks back?

[ZukIzzy]

holy batman!! that thing looks tight...especially if you've never done it before.  You see that on MuscleCar a few weeks back?

My dad and I built an Airplane like that when I was a kid. Not quite the same thng cause we just sanded the foam to plywood forms and glassed it. But the princaples are the same. I did see it on Muscle car but knew this system for years. I used it to make Shoyrtt's fenders work.

Wayne

[ZukIzzy]

Wow that was pretty sweet!!   I may have to do something like that to build a front end on my jeep.  Where did you get the blocks of foam?

Home Depot has them. I got mine from a roofer freind of mine.

Wayne

[Shoyrtt]

Looking good Wayne. What is involved with the bodywork to create a mold?

[ZukIzzy]

Looking good Wayne. What is involved with the bodywork to create a mold?

Same as if you were going to paint it. What shows in the paint will show in the mold.

Wayne

[Shoyrtt]

Same as if you were going to paint it. What shows in the paint will show in the mold.

Wayne

How much time would you estimate is needed to produce the final product? What again are the remaining steps? Your shade tree fiberglass tech looks a little, no a lot more high tech than patching a broken surfboard.

Edit: A side by side view of the FJ and the buggy is in order 

[skipnrocks]

Looks like a doved fj!  nice work!  Are you going to get a plastic mold made that you blow glass into?  Or are you going to have a form mold made that you can glass over?  Or something completely else?

[ZukIzzy]

Wel I'll try to answer a few questions here but they are just a SWAG.

I'll have another 20 or so hours into this plug. To finish the plug I will sand off the high spots and boggers left from the not so profesional layup. Flip the thing over and finish the turned in edges withg kitty hair,  Then apply body filler and sand till I am happy. Then several coats of high build primer, lots of block sanding, more primer and sanding til I am happy then a couple coats of Epoxy paint. ( just cause I can).

Then the mold 20 or 30 hours
Sand the plug with 600, 800 and 1000 grit sand paper, buff with mold compouds, wax with mold release wax and coat with PVA release agent. Somewhere in there I will prep the plug for molding with modeling clay and reinforcing if nescesary. Then 2 coats of tooling gell coat, a couple layers of heavy mat, a couple layers of cloth.  Reinforcment, possibly mold dough if it needs it. Wait a couple days and presto out comes a mold.

Then its on to making final parts

I hope

[stoken82]

that looks awesome.

cant wait till i have more time (and money) so i can start stuff like that

[Loosekannon]

Wel I'll try to answer a few questions here but they are just a SWAG.

I'll have another 20 or so hours into this plug. To finish the plug I will sand off the high spots and boggers left from the not so profesional layup. Flip the thing over and finish the turned in edges withg kitty hair,  Then apply body filler and sand till I am happy. Then several coats of high build primer, lots of block sanding, more primer and sanding til I am happy then a couple coats of Epoxy paint. ( just cause I can).

Then the mold 20 or 30 hours
Sand the plug with 600, 800 and 1000 grit sand paper, buff with mold compouds, wax with mold release wax and coat with PVA release agent. Somewhere in there I will prep the plug for molding with modeling clay and reinforcing if nescesary. Then 2 coats of tooling gell coat, a couple layers of heavy mat, a couple layers of cloth.  Reinforcment, possibly mold dough if it needs it. Wait a couple days and presto out comes a mold.

Then its on to making final parts

I hope

Have fun with that, I hate making molds  When you are done with the mold and go to make your part, are you gona prep the tool then spray it with primer? We do that at work and it helps with the prep for painting the part.

[ZukIzzy]

Have fun with that, I hate making molds  When you are done with the mold and go to make your part, are you gona prep the tool then spray it with primer? We do that at work and it helps with the prep for painting the part.

Thanks for the tip Chase I had never thought of priming the before layup. If you have any more sugestions let me know.

Are you coming to KOH? If so look me up and say hey. I am riding with  Scott @ Rockstomper. If Shaun dosen't have a job for you we could use some pit help.

Wayne

[Loosekannon]

Thanks for the tip Chase I had never thought of priming the before layup. If you have any more sugestions let me know.

Are you coming to KOH? If so look me up and say hey. I am riding with  Scott @ Rockstomper. If Shaun dosen't have a job for you we could use some pit help.

Wayne

Damn I wish I would have known that earlier, I would helped you out for sure. But I already have been PMn with Shaun about helping with the race. Since I don't have a crawler right now he was gona put me at a road crossing which sounds pretty boring. But I got a friend who said he wants to go so I let Shaun know I could get up to a check point or something that needs a crawler to get to.
Just saw on PBB right now that you are riding Scott, good luck, and I'll see you out there.
Are you doing just a standered layup with polyester (SP?) resin or are you gona vaccum bag with Epoxy resin this hood. Just curious.

[Loosekannon]

And if I can think of anything that might help you with this I'll let you know. 

Are you gona add some strips of say 1x1 wood down the length of the hood to keep it a bit more rigid? Kinda like stringers in an airplane? Instead of wood you could get Uni-directional fiberglass from Aircraft Spruce. Get a roll off 3" wide, and before you lay it in, wet it out and fold it into 1" wide strips then lay it in there.

[ZukIzzy]

Damn I wish I would have known that earlier, I would helped you out for sure. But I already have been PMn with Shaun about helping with the race. Since I don't have a crawler right now he was gona put me at a road crossing which sounds pretty boring. But I got a friend who said he wants to go so I let Shaun know I could get up to a check point or something that needs a crawler to get to.
Just saw on PBB right now that you are riding Scott, good luck, and I'll see you out there.
Are you doing just a standered layup with polyester (SP?) resin or are you gona vaccum bag with Epoxy resin this hood. Just curious.

Hey, Jeff, Dave and Shaun need the help to put on the race so no worries. I'll have my sammy out there if you need wheels. Not hard core but lots of fun to bash in the desert.

Standard layup for the plug and mold. Don't know on the finished hoods, I don't have a vacume table and never used one although I have done some research and found baggin does not look too hard. We want em light as possible and really flexable to take the abuse and spring back, similar to Daves Tacoma skins. If that does not work I Will add stiffners. Still don't know exactly which cloth and resin but I am leaning to S-glass and West systems epoxy that what we are using on dads Current KR2s project.

Wayne

[Loosekannon]

Doing it with a vacuum bag would make it lighter cause it will pull out alot of the extra resign that is not needed. But to do a vacuum you need a tool(mold) that is real rigid cause the vacuum could colapse it. You don't need a vacuum pump for it, you can use an aircompresser with a vortex pump. They are pretty cool. I think I have one at the house. Doing a bag can be a little difficult at first. But they are easy to learn, if you do do that route I would be willing to come down and show you some tricks to doing it. The West Systems kick a$$, that is what we use. But with a piece that big I would get the 209 hardner, that will give you the most working time. I don't know if West System's make a 24 hour kit, but finding some would be your best bet for the longest working time. I'll double check with our painter to see if the primer he use's is anything special. I really don't think it is. After the tool is prepped, spary the primer then when its cure do the layup. And when you pull your part the primer is already in the part. Pretty cool.

[ZukIzzy]

so after 10 or so hours this weekend here is the plug almost ready for the making the mold.



Primed and ready for spot putty and hand sanding



electric blue was the only epoxy I had so I used it.



Wayne

[skipnrocks]

Cool!!!

[Duffil]

damn that thing looks great man.

[86bobbedtoy]

that is a great job!

[Shoyrtt]

Very nice.

[Just2Much19]

That looks great, awsome job!!

[ZukIzzy]

Last update for a while

[Doof]

thats sick.... how are you planning on the lift to work on the motor?

front hinges? rear hinges? what are you going to do with the lights if its a rear hinge?

[unclejpl4x4]

holy crap.............. thats sweet

man great job bro

[ZukIzzy]

thats sick.... how are you planning on the lift to work on the motor?

front hinges? rear hinges? what are you going to do with the lights if its a rear hinge?

Hood pins, and plugs for the wires. Its a rock crawler and thats what we have now.

Wayne

[Doof]

nice. are you making the plugs something easy to take off unlike the stock ones that are pains in the

[ZukIzzy]

nice. are you making the plugs something easy to take off unlike the stock ones that are pains in the

Yes if it goes anything like everything else I do I will use something I have in the pile. probly end up with spade connectors or something. I would leave the mounting to the customer if I were to sell some.

wayne

Wayne