Simple Subject, Fiberglass

[Dynoroom]

Thanks Tom, great insight. You can't be to basic for me.............. I know nothing!! (in my best Srgt. Shultz voice)   

[Sumner]

................Some projects are never finished..................Tom

Good, then I expect an infinite number of pictures and commentary to follow  ,

Sum

[836dstr]

Dyno,

Some more stuff on fiberglassing that may be helpful:

It takes one oz. of resin to wet 40 Sq. In. of mat.

At 70 degrees it takes 12 drops of catalyst per oz. of resin (30 drops = 1 cc of catalyst). Hotter less, colder more.

Auto paint supply shops sell various sizes of calibrated plastic cups that are great for mixing resin. Since resin is dark you can see the level through the opaque plastic.

After you layup the fiberglass puting in outside in sunshine will speed up the set of the resin (UV rays), heat lamps work good too, as long as they are not to close.

Hope this is helpful!

Tom

[dwarner]

Mike,

Tom has much more experience than I on this subject. Good posts Tom.

Mike, you could call Jim Miller 818-846-5139, he taught himself how to do glass work with Jack Kelly as his mentor. The body on his lakester is really nice. He also did work on Eco Fire/Speed Demon.

DW

[836dstr]

Dan,

My favorite Roadster was the Kelly and Hall '34. The proportions and stance, and specially the nose are great. Jack is definitely the "Glass Master"!

Dan Hostetter is also a very creative Fiberglass guy with his constantly evolving '32 Coupe. He's the only guy I know that has large sheets of high density foam in his dinning room.

His projects are on a grand scale, like the one piece streamlined front end. I'll keep to my smaller pieces.

Mike, I can put you in touch with Dan H. if you like.

Tom

[Sumner]

...............Dan Hostetter is .........the only guy I know that has large sheets of high density foam in his dinning room..........

......... along with a flathead on a stand in front of the window and a 50's color TV with a remote as big as a bread box  .  His whole house is a time warp and I loved it.  I forgot to ask if he allows pictures  .

Tom has he shown you how he digitizes the car to keep track of it's previous frontal areas and such??  Talk about patience, Dan has it.

c ya,

Sum

[836dstr]

Hey Sum,

Yeah, his house could best be described as a "trip".

Off the subject but a good story. Dan had a coming out, or birthday party when he finished his first version of the '32. Party was on his front lawn. His garage door was open but the openning was papered over. Dan got in his fire suit and as I remember his helmet, fired up the engine, drove thru the paper and up the block. In making the U-turn the engine died and we had to push him home. Great fun!

Back on point:

Mike, I was just outside doing some glass work and thought of a few more hints.

I noted briefly how weather affects how the resin kicks. Today it's cloudy and cool here. Probably much the same up your way. Temprature and humidity both affect the working life of a batch of resin, and how long it takes to set. Today it's about 60 degrees so I used about 18 drops of catalyst per ounce of resin and it kicked at about 15 minutes while remaining a little tacky before finally setting hard. At 80 degrees I would probably have used a ratio of 10 drops. Sometines on cooler days it seems like the resin will never kick, but eventually it will.

One thing I learned the hard way is that applying polyester resin over epoxy resin doesn't work. The polyester resin will not set, even with a lot of heat.

The thing I forgot to mention is to have fun with it! Some really complex shapes can be made using internal /external molds and or HD foam. It's easy to cut, grind and sand.

Another quick story. Back in the late '60's local Drag Racer Randy Walls rented a '69 Nova for the weekend. As the story goes he used modeling clay to fill all the seams, waxed everything up good and made a mold for his Funny Car. Cleaned up the Nova and took it back with no one the wiser.

Tom

[Dynoroom]

I'm reading all of this guys just to busy to reply so keep it coming. I will post so pictures of the basic layout soon.
Thanks everyone.

[836dstr]

Mike,

Some more rambling thoughts.

A good way to saturate F/G Mat is to cover an appropriate piece of plywood with waxed paper (my wife keeps wondering what happened to her kitcher roll). You can pour some of the resin and spread it and press it in with a cheap disposable brush. Actually I use a two stage cleanup with acetone and the last a long time. When the mat is saturated with resin it us easier to locate on your plug or mold and will conform to the shape with just a little more resin needed to be brushed on.

As mentioned above by "Nitropyro", you want to get rid of any air bubbles. They make a special roller that has a series of pizza cutter like wheels with spaces between. Below is a picture but I don't know if the detail will be clear. Well, enough for now. I hope I'm not beating this subject to death.

Tom

[Dr Goggles]

Another quick story. Back in the late '60's local Drag Racer Randy Walls rented a '69 Nova for the weekend. As the story goes he used modeling clay to fill all the seams, waxed everything up good and made a mold for his Funny Car. Cleaned up the Nova and took it back with no one the wiser.
Tom

some guys in Perth(western Australia) did that a while back with a brand new model Ford sedan....got their mum to hire it and worked flat out all weekend .....quite a stir to come out with a drop on body at about the time the first replacement panels were arriving at dealers

[Sumner]

............ I hope I'm not beating this subject to death......Tom

I don't think so,  good stuff.  What ever you do don't go up and do it for Mike.  Make him do it himself, but you could come to Utah and help me   ,

Sum

[nebulous]

Roughen the surface your adding to, pile it on let it harden then grind and bondo to shape. next time you will have thought of improved ways to do it! Nebulous

[Dynoroom]

OK, here's what we did in about 8 hrs. time. The parachute box is done and the fairing around the roll cage is located. tomorrow we will lay the top part of the fairing and connect the parachute box to the top of the fairing around the cage. After that we hope to bond it to the body over the weekend.

This is what the back of the car looked like. It needed help............BAD!



Parachute box back on car.



This is the shape we are trying to get, it blends well with the tin work at the front of the car.





This is the basic shape.

[Harold Bettes]

Dynoroom and crew,

Be sure and follow through with photos of how the process progresses on the roadster.  That way the rest of us can learn some stuff without having to get the itches in the process! Good Luck.

The amazing thing about the fiberglass stuff is the way it can be shaped and still be strong enough to last for years.

Are you planning on stashing anything inside the nacelle other than the chute at the end?

Best Regards to you and yours,
HB2

[Ray-Dean]

Very good info here.

But I have a slightly different question concerning fiberglass. I will be adding 36" to the front of my CC Ghia. Instead of making it out of metal, I figure that a one piece 'glass nose will be the best route if/when I need to recreate it.

The question is, would it be better to take the existing nose (all one piece metal), add in the 36", and then use it as a plug for a fresh mold, or purchase a stock length 'glass nose and stretch it?

I'm no stranger to fiberglass work, but I've never attempted anything of this scale and size. So be gentle.