Custom fiberglass work

[dfarres]

I know that there r a few ways to work custom fiberglass items. People use glass cloth, mat & some use fleece to do boxes and pods & such. Has anyone heard of using burlap? i've been gathering material to do a custom speaker box, rack and panels in my hatch and saw some burlap at the fabric store. i'm thinking it would work really well, it's very strong, flexible when wet & thick. A couple layers and u would have a very strong box. Tell me what u think or what you've seen.

[ci5ic]

No no no... the reason it's called fiberglass is because you use woven glass matting.

I've been experimenting with fiberglass alot recently, getting ready to build a custom sub enclosure and 6.5" speaker pods. People don't use fleece as the main material. Fleece is only used to provide a natural shape for a base, which is then fiberglassed over with the woven glass matting.

For instance, to make some sort of speaker pod, you could cut a square piece of MDF (medium density fiberboard). Then cut a circular ring of MDF for the speaker to mount to. Then, using dowels or some other wood spacer, mount the ring to the square piece several inches up. Then, stretch a piece of fleece over the entire thing, stapling it to the back of the square piece. Then coat the fleece with fiberglass resin and let it cure. Then add several layers of fiberglass matting and resin on top of the fleece to create a strong structure. Then, sand it down and bondo it. Then, you can paint it or whatever. Then, cut out the fiberglass from the inside of the ring and mount the speaker in there...

So don't use fleece or burlap as your main material, just as a base.

[dfarres]

i understand the fiberglass thing, i been doin glass & bondo to different projects 4 the last 15 yrs. I was just thinkin of different materials that r cheaper & just as strong 2 experiment with. I was just wonderin if anyone's heard of it. Thanks 4 ur input though, a lot of people look at my ?'s but never comment.

[obsidian66]

Im getting ready to make a spare tire sub enclosure. And i have some fibergalss resin, and some fiberglass mat. Where do i get chop matte? Or what else do I need?

[ci5ic]

Well, I'm assuming that since you say you have resin that you also have the hardener, and I'm not quite sure what you mean by "chop matte", but you probably want to get some Bondo (or other fairing compound), some paint-brushes, some mixing containers, some plastic squeegees (to work out air-bubbles), some PVA Mold Release or Wax of some sort, tin foil, saran wrap, masking tape, plastic drop cloth (to keep resin off of your car), sandpaper, rubber gloves, a Dremel tool comes in really handy sometimes, face mask (resin is some nasty stuff), some MDF for making the top/baffle, etc. That's all I can really think of off the top of my head. Several of these items aren't 100% necessary, but they are the ones that I most often use...

Also, dfarres, I think that burlap would function decently, but I think it would look like crap... If you finished up fiberglassing and then went to sand it down, I imagine that you would end up with a bunch of frayed strands of burlap sticking out everywhere... Just my thought though, I'd say give it a test and see what happens.

[1990civic]

i just got done making the spare tire enclosure. it turned out great. the only thing you need is fiberglass, and resin. just do a whole bunch of layers. i will be posting pics every soon!!

[obsidian66]

Well i was just looking at this site, and it said something about chop matte. So just use some bondo? to form it?


http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...=Honda%20Civic

[dfarres]

Originally posted by obsidian66
Well i was just looking at this site, and it said something about chop matte. So just use some bondo? to form it?

chop matte is shreds of natural fiberglass in sheet form, unlike the mat which is more like fabric.

[obsidian66]

Well i have a fiberglass sheet. It looks like a blanket sorta thing. Will that do?

[1990civic]

to make it hard use resin, and the harderer. you can use BONDO Brand Resis Its Good Stuff!!!

[obsidian66]

OK Sweet, I will give it a whirl. Thanks for the Help.

[DRCustom]

I don't know about burlap, but fleece is used only to get the shape, it is not very strong by itself.

I would almost say gloves are necessary, but a mask is really a must. That shiz is hella bad for you, and not having a headache makes it alot easier. Take your time masking everything off, if there is a possiblilty fiberglass resin can get on something, it will.

You'll need acetone (or equivalent) also. If you get it on something, and you need to get it off, it will probably set by the time you get some acetone, and then it's too late.

Instead of regular mat or cloth, use knytex, or combo mat, or the thickest mat you can get (go to a boat shop, or fiberglass distributor to get it, they will answer you Q's there too probably, maybe even give you a demo).

Be prepared to be a little frustrated your first time or two, but it's not that bad, and is very cool stuff once you get comftorable using it.

Good luck

[ci5ic]

Yeah, I haven't actually started building my fiberglass pods and sub-box yet, but I've experimented with alot of different ideas so I can get the hang of it and figure out what works best for me. That way, instead of screwing up my entire sub box, I just mess up some scrap wood or whatever I'm experimenting on...

[chzdhippt]

Originally posted by obsidian66
Im getting ready to make a spare tire sub enclosure. And i have some fibergalss resin, and some fiberglass mat. Where do i get chop matte? Or what else do I need?

I recommend TAP Plastics http://www.tapplastics.com/fiberglass/index.html
for anything fiberglass. They have good prices and if you need any questions answered, their sales people are top notch.

[obsidian66]

I almost have my spare tire fiberglass enclosure done. I have the mold, i just need to trim it and put a top on it.