question about making a mold

zaxxon · 07-23-2004, 11:16 PM

I have a portion of my dash with two storage pockets with flip up doors. I want to use that space to mount a 7" touchscreen. To make it as "built in" looking as possible, and to preserve the original parts for later use, I thought that making a mold of the curved exterior surface would be ideal. Then lay up fiberglass in the mold to achive a shape just like the original. Then cut a hole for the monitor etc.

My question is, what's the easiest way to make that mold? Has anyone done something like this with clay? What kind of clay would dry/harden enough without a lot of shrinking? I know I could use fiberglass for the mold, but I would rather not do that on the dash if I can avoid it. (Did that in the trunk for the sub enclosure, messy.)

Thanks for any help.

ste1806 · 07-24-2004, 07:01 PM

i think it would be easier to get another dash piece from a breakers yard and work on that, will also come out looking more stock than making your own from a mold. This is the route i took and it came out great, Still have stock piece to put back.HTH

meddler · 07-24-2004, 08:09 PM

I would have to agree with ste1806. Just go and buy another one from the wreckers. It will save you heaps of drama's. Making a mould is very time consuming. When you add up how long it will take, it is cheaper to buy a replacement part and just modify that.

Tidder · 07-26-2004, 12:03 AM

One of the easiest ways I have found to make a mold is to put like plastic wrap over the piece you want to mold, then fiberglass over that. That way your piece will pull right out, and you still have the right shape. With the plastic wrap, make sure to get the bubbles out, and use water to get the wrap to suck up against the original piece.

zaxxon · 07-29-2004, 01:43 PM

Thanks for the advice.

Now that I actually have the 7" lilliput in hand, I realize that it will use up almost all of the available space here below the HVAC controls and in front of the gear shift :

I originally wanted to keep the flip up doors, but somehow change the lower door so that it "flipped down". Now I am thinking that may be too complicated.

Next idea is just to remove those two storage compartments and build some sort of frame to fit in there without modifying the dash.

I would like to have a dash from the wreckers, (aka junk yard), but the car was just introduced in the past year, and they only sent 15,000 to the US. Not likely to be many in the yard.

mykolJay · 07-29-2004, 01:45 PM

for hondas or acuras, try ebay for replacement parts.

Demolition Man · 07-29-2004, 05:29 PM

if it's a plastic area with no seams (at least none that go into the insides of the car, or worse, through the floorpan), you could try to make a plaster of paris mold. i use plaster all the time when doing emblems, but the guy i learned from does it on car parts (fenders, dashes). i will say he does it on old cars, all metal, not these new ones made of plastic

. it will ruin paint, so be careful. The best part is, if you ***** up, it washes right off (jsut don't get in on carpet, trust me on this one). plaster actually expands when it hardens, so all your cracks and crevices will be marked on the reverse mold.

pop that plaster mold out, lay your fiberglass around it, let it harden, pop off, and voila, you have an exact copy of that cubby. you could acually create two if you treated your mold right. then you can just fill in, drill, what ever needs to be done.

JaxPt · 07-29-2004, 05:36 PM

http://web.njit.edu/~cas1383/proj/main/

try that site, use tape to cover the area, lay up the fiberglass, pop out the mold and viola