Suggestions on dashboards?

[wmd2_108]

Anyone have any suggestions on how to form the shape of a custom dashboard for fiberglass?

I've looked over and over at the process for making items out of fiberglass but haven't been able to figure out how to custom craft freeform parts.

Thanks
Matt

[curtis73]

I've had moderately good luck making a frame out of something easy to bend; like depending on the item, brake line tubing, wire hangers, soldering wire, welding wire, or shaped wood work well. Then (again depending on the item) I stretch something over it. In some cases I use fleece fabric since it stretches easily in all directions without wrinkles, sometimes I skip straight to the glass mat, or sometimes on bigger items I use chicken wire or screen. For a dash, I would consider wood braces (something easy to work with like luan or MDF) and then stretch welding wire or something over it to make the profile, then glassing over it.

If you can make the dash out of flat panels, you can use a piece of glass as your mold. Lay your glass mat and epoxy or resin out on glass that has been waxed with mold release. Once it cures it can be popped off and its a perfect finish. Then you can trim it and assemble pieces. You can make curves around things like vases or curved windshields.

If you make a freeform dash like the first suggestion, you can just sand it down and use body filler to achieve the final shape and then paint it or cover it with padding and fabric.

[wmd2_108]

What about using an existing dash, modifying it, then covering over it with fiberglass? If not, how would you mount a dash thats custom made... same question with any other panels that you make...