Fiberglassing

Edited: 10/12/2008 5:53:05 AM by bagged4doorcivic

Well I got to mess with some glass friday. Here are some pics I took of the s10 door panels. I am not done with them yet I stilll have to do the body work on them. Please let me know if i'm doing it right and if you see something wrong tell me.

stock door panel



Door panel with the arm rest cut out, a 6" speaker pod, and wrapped in fleece.



I covered the fleece with fiberglass resin and then layed down some fiberglass cloth over that and this is what it looks like with a second coat of glass.

Ive heard kitty hair and plastic filler mentioned to cover these with.
Kitty hair is so thick its very very hard to work with. regular plastic filler has no structural strength. Its best to use Dynaglass or someones ripoff. Napa has their version. Most auto paint stores have some knock off version. its best to cover any areas that need structure with dynaglass and really good to cover anything you make with fiberglass with it. You wont have to worry about shrinking and cracking down the road.

also, mixing resin you should not mix it hot, by that I mean dont use alot of hardener because this allows will make it crack as well. The heat and chemical reaction is what makes it get hard. You can mix it light then put it on and help it with a heat gun or hair dryer.

also, as a base material when making door panels.. Most people use some fiberboard or similar. These dont work well when putting screws in or plastic door panel clips. There is a very thin flexible wood product thats sold at Home Depot and Lowes called "door panel" its used as the cover for making doors or reskinning a door. its very thin, flexible and still has structure, plus being a wood with grain plastic filler, resin and dynaglass all stick to it very well

If you go to my cardomain site I have a ton of pictures of my counsel I built. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2143892 It is on page 5

Feel free to ask any questions you have.

^^looks really good

Thanks Corey. Thanks to everyone that has put any bit of information in to this forum it has really helped me out alot. I will post more pics up once I get the body work done.

no sweat, i've left this one alone cause everyone has had some very good advice & like i said, everyone has their own way & it's all just personal preference, practice, & patience. please do post up pics, no matter what it comes out like...we were all rookies at some point! & with the ammount of POSITIVE feedback & advice i've seen out of this thread (& i'm vrey happy to see that by the way) i have a feeling that even if you f'k it all up, people will help you out even more & give you pointers as to where & how it went wrong.

good luck man & keep us up to date!

Edited: 10/13/2008 12:52:28 PM by puddin

Well since Walter and i are kinda splitting the thread here i thought i would post where i got to yesterday.

sorry they are kinda blurry it was taken with my phone.

I still need to add the piece for the switches and get the gauge piece mounted. then i am going to cover it in fleece.

Do i need to fiberglass underneath around the subs for more strength or just do many layers on top?? After i sand it down do i need to use body filler all over it to smooth it out or just to fill in low spots?

let me know what you think. oh its holding 2 10 inch subs my gauges my switches and goes around my shifter. its alot to fit in a single cab tacoma

Looks good guys. Only thing i would recomend is try to get the fleace as tight as possible. The wrinkles will make it hard to finish. The tighter the better. You could also use CA glue on the edges or supper glue to hold the fleace to the panel. On the console I would try to reinforce the speaker rings as best as possible after you get the fleace resined. Get in there with some fiberglass mat so it will be really strong then just smooth it out on the outside with some filler. You will end up covering the entire thing with mud but sanding alot of it off to get it smooth.

just what andy said...but walter, you're fine with just the fleece & bodywork since 6" won't move enough air to worry about cracking anything, but jacob...i'm going to assume those are going to be for at least 10's & if so definately reinforce it inside & out with matting & more resin.

both of you guys have the right idea & are on the right track. looks good & keep it up. post more pics as it comes along...

Edited: 10/14/2008 7:18:44 AM by puddin

Well i got a good start last night but im not done. i still have to do the inside. I fiberglassed the outside last night and it looks pretty goood for my first time i thought.



i am going to finishe the inside tonight and hopefully start sanding the outside then mud it and hopefully a final sand tomorrow night