My First Fiberglass install

[einstein57]

So i finished glassing this morning and pulled the part. As i expected my crappy mold was not smoth enough for a clean pull so i had to destroy the mold to safely remove the part. It needs alot of filling and sanding to make it worthy of making a master mold from it. I might just drop it off at the bodyshop and let them deal with it. I tried the 3m spray on the remaining portions and it ate the PVA. Might be cause i have the 3M 90. But i will definitely use it when i make the back of the box.

[george graves]

Did you check out the instructables website? I'm going to take a fiberglass course this spring at my local community college. They even offer certification for aerospace.

I did - and have been doing some reading. Interesting stuff. I'm most interested in one-off small part.

[jflip2002]

Word of advice: get a can of 3M 77 and glue cloth/mat before throwing resin on it. Makes thing really easy.

Thats fucking genius, lol. Whenever Id try to FG anything, Id get ticked that the fibers kept moving, or the cloth wouldnt stay in place. I never thought about that. What an idiot, I coulda saved some headache.

That box looks bad ass chuck, nice job.

[einstein57]

I actually have a few cans of the stuff from prior boxes. I'll give it a go on the backside.

[Mless5]

Word of advice: get a can of 3M 77 and glue cloth/mat before throwing resin on it. Makes thing really easy.

[einstein57]

I've been reading up a bit on mold making - subscribed.

Did you check out the instructables website? I'm going to take a fiberglass course this spring at my local community college. They even offer certification for aerospace.

[george graves]

I've been reading up a bit on mold making - subscribed.

[einstein57]

So after making several trips to paint supply stores, an ebay + google search lead me to the west coast distributor for one of the nations largest composites supply companies. And the best part is is i get the stuff for the same price as retailer. No business license, no membership cost, no minimum orders. :D So i got my PVA and some honey wax for about half of what i was expecting to pay. Unfortunately they only sell fiberglass in 100 yard rolls but they referred me to one of their retail customers. I picked up 3 different styles of glass along with some sweet tools of the trade. My Dremell came up missing so I bought a Ryobi cordless speed saw and an angle grinder. So 3 days and $200 later i can finally move forward. I started with sanding and grinding the mold and filling in major imperfections with Evercoat glaze. I then applied 2 layers of honeywax and 2 thick layers of PVA. I started applying the resin doing a third of the mold at a time since the contours made it hard for the fiberglass cloth to hold its shape. I ran out of sunlight so i'll finish glassing it tomorrow and pull it from the mold.

[einstein57]

Sweet box. I've never had a problem with amps overheating. Even when had 15" subs. I don't really push my systems that hard. I say at most i push my speakers to 70% of their potential. I get bass headaches pretty easily. Any recommendations on a nice woofer. I've been considering some shallow mount woofers but have not heard any. The last woofer i purchased or installed that was under 500watts was the MTX4000 that I bought 5 years ago.

[aintnothang]

I like your guns.

[chuck90m3]

finished box. Ignore the homeowners protection package

[chuck90m3]

I hate FG work as well here are a few pics of the box M4TT and I built for my wife's X3

[StereoInstaller1]

First try, huh...not too shabby.

I fucking HATE fiberglass work.

I am highly allergic to it, so I swell up, sneeze, itchy, just miserable.

BTW...use baby powder on your arms before you start sanding. Use enough to clog the pores...makes life MUCH better.

What did you plan on for cooling of that 200.2?

[einstein57]

So got sick of looking at an empty spot in the trunk and was starting to get bored so after coming up short on the PVA I decided i'd try and use silicon spray as a mold release. Since i was not planning on keeping this as a master mold i made it as quickly and cheaply as possible. Notice the old torn up t-shirt in place of fiberglass. Unfortunately the silicon did not work to well and i'll probably end up sanding out stuck pieces of tape and the speaker support shape.

[einstein57]

Was not able to do much today. My other side projects took more time then expected. I went to my paint supply store but they don't carry PVA. I'll have to order some online. So i decided to work on the skeletal structure. Very simple but effective. I'm going to use some OEM speed nuts and secure the base o the frame with some L brackets. The base fits great behind the panel. Not much more to do with until i can start making the molds.



Oversized amp




Test fitting base



Base snug behind the panel