First fiberglass project underway, Instrument panel

**shotgunefx** · 04-06-2005, 01:56 PM

I've done a bit of fabrication (used to do fx when I was a teen) but never got around to using fiberglass. So I finally bit the bullet and decided to get around to molding my touchscreen in my gauge cluster. I aborted my first attempt halfway through as I could tell the front was going to be a ***** to get right. I didn't think I could get it flat enough without using a ton of filler. (I'm trying to not mold it in, more rather behind for easy removal but still have it look molded in).

Here's basically what I'm going for from eye level. (The outer gauges will be hidden and the whole shaped styled.

As an aside, I love my car, but they've done such a horrible job with gauge placement. The steering wheel blocks everything which is why the screen is higher. I might even go a little bit higher this time around.

I decided that I was going to make a mold that I could use to fabricate a front fiberglass bezel, then I could mold that in and still have the front to put back on, or in case it doesn't come out make another. I looked around to see what I had on hand that I could use and found some plaster bandages.

First I cleaned off all the tape residue from the first botched job. Not having much in the way of releases on hand these days, I sprayed the bezel with PAM cooking spray. I covered it with the bandages, trying hard to work the plaster down towards the bezel surface and avoid overhangs.

I let it setup a bit and gently pryed the bezel out. Figured if I did it early, it would still be a tiny bit flexible. Turns out, it didn't need to be.

It came our pretty easily. There was one or two places were it overhung that I easily dispatched with a putty knife.

It worked pretty well as you can see.

The next step will be to smooth out the little airbubbles and imperfections with some spot putty. Then I seal it and paint it so I can glass it.

I'm hoping to have this done over the next week. I'll post progress and updates as it comes along for anyone interested.

-Lee

**shotgunefx** · 04-06-2005, 04:39 PM

Smoothed out some of the rough spots with Bondo Spot putty

Painted with some cheap hi-gloss paint.

Start glassing it soon.

**jtrnp** · 04-06-2005, 05:17 PM

I might be misunderstanding something, but if you fabricate your monitor there, where are your gauges going to go?

**Scouse Monkey** · 04-06-2005, 05:22 PM

That plaster bandage is cool stuff to use but make sue you strengthen it to stop it snapping.

I used it during some of my art work so make a cast of my hands anf face and it picke dout every fingerprint on my hands. I manged to make complete hands from the wrist up and then used wax to make models! never thought of using it...nice one! can't wait to see how it works out.

**shotgunefx** · 04-06-2005, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by jtrnp

I might be misunderstanding something, but if you fabricate your monitor there, where are your gauges going to go?

The ultimate goal is to have a digital dash. I'm going to leave the gauges embedded back there as the circuit does some other stuff and for easy vehicle inspections. I only have 4 guages, speed/tach/fuel level and engine temp. Nothing I can't estimate in case of a failure.

**shotgunefx** · 04-06-2005, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by Scouse Monkey

That plaster bandage is cool stuff to use but make sue you strengthen it to stop it snapping.

I used it during some of my art work so make a cast of my hands anf face and it picke dout every fingerprint on my hands. I manged to make complete hands from the wrist up and then used wax to make models! never thought of using it...nice one! can't wait to see how it works out.

I imagine it will break when taking it off which might be a good thing depending if I missed an overhang. I used to do a lot of casting for the FX stuff (more than decade ago), though I'd use alginate backed by plaster. It's weird, it would actually take out the light hairs that cover your body and put them in the stone. Weird seeing a stone head of someone with that light body hair.

**cfcrafting** · 04-06-2005, 05:47 PM

use fiberglass to make your molds.

**shotgunefx** · 04-06-2005, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by cfcrafting

use fiberglass to make your molds.

Fiberglass to cast fiberglass? That seems wrong. Casting rigid materials into rigid molds is kind of perilous. If I had planned this out a bit, I would have used some RTV silcone to make the mold.

**Scouse Monkey** · 04-06-2005, 06:21 PM

nah people always use firbregalss to make moulds. It is cheap (you have all the materials at hand if you mould fibreglass anyway) and it is damn strong, tough and it has the same expansion coefficents if you decide to use heat to cure the item so the mould and item should expand and shrink a similar amount and this will prevent residual stress and cracking.

**shotgunefx** · 04-06-2005, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by Scouse Monkey

nah people always use firbregalss to make moulds. It is cheap (you have all the materials at hand if you mould fibreglass anyway) and it is damn strong, tough and it has the same expansion coefficents if you decide to use heat to cure the item so the mould and item should expand and shrink a similar amount and this will prevent residual stress and cracking.

I'd be worried about them getting stuck. Multipart plaster molds used to give me a lot of grief. Not so much on a square part like this, but complex objects were often problematic.

Anyway, here's two more pics. I've got it glassed.
I threw some tape over the center as it had some depressions I didn't want to get it hung on. Plus I'm not glassing it anyway.

Definitely need some practice. Maybe it's the mat I'm using but whenever I cut it, it frays really bad at the edges. I mean almost comes apart.