Technical Fiberglass Bodies. How can I build one at home.

I know you mentioned you are not interested in dvds but I have and like the dvd from hopefully I can say this without any problems here seeing he is banned here but I really like the dvd set from spritz from fritz about building a fiberglass body. He does it similar to Big Daddy Roth. Just got an email not long ago and i'm getting this one to from him shortly and it is about how to build small fiberglass molds.

I also have a Tex Smith book that is great called How to build fiberglass hotrods, customs and kit cars. but I noticed that book isn't cheap to get anymore.

 

Aircraft Spruce company deals with home built aircraft which deals with foam Fab

 

I didn't use the Roth spit-wad method. I built a buck from wood, screen and building plaster (it has a lot longer working time. DO NOT use Plaster of Paris). I was trying to match an existing design by the master so didn't have the luxury of free form. Now I have a mold to make another body if I do something to this one! The book explains the whole process in detail.

 

The best thing to do, would be to make another set of parts and leave them in the moulds. This protects the mould Surface from damage, and adds stiffness to minimize mould warping in storage. The cost of materials and time needed to make another set straight away when all the tools etc. are ready to use is very small, when you see the big picture.

Used to work making fiberglass boats. NO moulds were put away empty. Just pull them out of storage, pop the finished product out, and it's ready to go back into production. Much better than being dirty, scratched, requiring polishing and possibly repairs.

 

Looking at the body size and simple shape there and considering his connections at poliform (Not to mention its nice to have a mold available in case of damage to the race body) I'd say in his case he is 100% better to do it with a proper mold.

I'm just thinking that some guy trying his best at home to make a passable...29 Roadster like something or other...might not need to go that deep effort and moneywise. Shape it out till you like it...lay the glass and then hit it with filler. Lots of sanding but thats just elbow grease and a learning curve.

Now if you had a good body to use as a plug that would be a different story.
Basicly, fill the seams with playdough or something, wax the crap out of it and have at it! LoL

Get into something with complex shapes and you got a lot of planning and construction ahead just locating your flanges for clean separation etc.
Lots of crossbracing for stability so nothing sags once the mold is pulled from the buck.
I can see a lot of initial expense and a high likelyhood of an unfinished eternal project.

Lets face it...we all want to build the CAR...not a buck...then a mold...then a body...and then start on the car.

Patience is an uncommon virtue...

 

I also made the fiberglass hood for my Willys by tacking the steel hood together and making a 'glass mold then the hood from that mold.

 

Making molds with flanges and separate pieces so the parts can be removed for one body. You are looking at a lot of work and planing!

 

Lot of effort is required no matter what. It is worth the effort to do it right. My book tells how to do the flanges and get a good mold pretty easily.

 

The advantage of the green foam is that you can make up a "scraper" to get consistent shapes in areas like the wheel openings on bodies such as I showed.Once all of the basically flat surfaces were established with thin plywood on the station buck I used the green foam to blend between them, dragging the radius scraper on the flat surfaces. It sands easier than the pink or blue and as you note, it does not melt from the resin.

Roo

 

A book: http://tinyurl.com/yas6eyvl

How to build a fiberglass car


Nick

 

I was going to mention that Full Custom Garage show.. Pretty interesting watching him go through the steps and thought process building that thing.

 

What channel is that on and what episode?


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It's on MAVTV. The latest build is the "sportscar build". I'm not sure of which episode, there were a few where they were doing that part.

 

The entire 2017 season was devoted to the building of a fiberglass body and installing it on a Porsche Boxter chassis. Mostly building the body.

 

I will have to see if I can find it somewhere.

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I think its on Friday nights, but I know they run reruns, seems like all the time.

 

I guess a good start is my dad owns an auto parts store he sells fiberglass stuff is that a good place to start what other tools does it require and oh i full intended on it being hard work but this 22 year old isn't gonna shy away from it, a little elbow grease never hurt anybody