[7chevnova4]

I am making a custom dash on my 72 and I am stuck. I started shaping the dash with sheet metal and it wasn't taking shape like I wanted it to. I looked around and decided to fiberglass it.

I made all the gauge clusters and speakers out of mfd and mounted them to the sheet metal and it looks great. I now am going to lay fleece over it and fiberglass it in. My question is I was going to glue the fleece to the metal so I could mold it but I want to be able to pull the fiberglass off the mold of sheetmetal.

What should I do?

thanks

 

[74 hatchback]

lets see some pics so we can help out!

 

[new2novas]

My question is I was going to glue the fleece to the metal so I could mold it but I want to be able to pull the fiberglass over the mold.

can you rephrase that, at least for me its not making sense on what you are trying to do....do you want a way to attach the fleece so it holds shape, but then are able to remove it once its hardened

 

[7chevnova4]

can you rephrase that, at least for me its not making sense on what you are trying to do....do you want a way to attach the fleece so it holds shape, but then are able to remove it once its hardened

exactly! .

 

[firebird77clone]

cover the mold with tin foil.

 

[MANGOPUPPY]

Waxpaper. Comes right off.

 

[7chevnova4]

cover the mold with tin foil.

I am going to have to glue the tin foil to the metal as well to get the shape I need. If I then glue the fleece to the tin foil and soak it with resin......will it release?

 

[MANGOPUPPY]

I am going to have to glue the tin foil to the metal as well to get the shape I need. If I then glue the fleece to the tin foil and soak it with resin......will it release?

If you've ever worked with fiberglass moulds, the first thing is waxing the mould itself. If you spray some type of wax to the foil, there's no reason why it wouldn't release. You'll always miss a spot here and there, but you'll be sanding the new glasswork anyhow so it's really not a big deal. Could you send a picture for us?

 

[Burke]

Wax it then spray it with a mold release like PVA [poly vinyl acetate] available at fiberglass shops or tap plastics. If your mold wraps back on itself you may need to make the part in more than 1 piece in order to get it to off, then glass the pieces together.

 

[new2novas]

i see what the problem is....if the dash was, for example, out of the vehicle and you could attach the fleece to the backside with screws, etc. you wouldn't have the question....but you need to know how to attach the fleece so that you can pull, tug, whatever and not have it move on the one end.....i am tryin to glass something for my car and haven't come up with a good solution for this situation yet, other than going past what i need, attaching it with whatever will work and then just not putting resin on that section or using vaseline or something to have an end line

 

[7chevnova4]

here is the pic of the dash so far. Little bit of everything mixed in there!

 

[Custom Jim]

here is the pic of the dash so far. Little bit of everything mixed in there!

Here's how I might approach it now seeing a picture.

I'm going to assume the top flat section will stay that way but you want to mold from the rearward edge away from the windshield downward to the other sections of MDF. If this is how it will be I wouldn't worry about stretching over the whole topside of the dash but staple the material to the topside rearward edge of the top board down to the other sections (and with staples if you get down to a spot and want to change things you can remove the staples and put more or less tension in the covering material and staple it back down a second or third time). Later if you are using fleece or a thick stretchable material come back later and butt more material to the front edge of the top board and go forward towards the windshield and into your defroster vent slots.

Depending on how the curved sections are between each other you may want to add filler boards between them to where later after the front fleece has the resin added to it and hardens the whole assembly is more triangulated so to speak (boxed in). You might even get away with some strap steel or aluminum to tie the different sections together.

Another option is to tape off all of the metal with the MDF pieces removed and shoot some expanding foam on the metal building it thicker than what you need and then reattach the MDF panels and let the foam cure all the way (all the way into the core of it) and then go after it with different shaped cheese graters to get the desired shape and then lay fiberglass cloth and matting over that. Once it's all dry you can probably remove the foam from the backside to add more material in from the backside to make it stronger.

Jim

 

[7chevnova4]

Here's how I might approach it now seeing a picture.

I'm going to assume the top flat section will stay that way but you want to mold from the rearward edge away from the windshield downward to the other sections of MDF. If this is how it will be I wouldn't worry about stretching over the whole topside of the dash but staple the material to the topside rearward edge of the top board down to the other sections (and with staples if you get down to a spot and want to change things you can remove the staples and put more or less tension in the covering material and staple it back down a second or third time). Later if you are using fleece or a thick stretchable material come back later and butt more material to the front edge of the top board and go forward towards the windshield and into your defroster vent slots.

Depending on how the curved sections are between each other you may want to add filler boards between them to where later after the front fleece has the resin added to it and hardens the whole assembly is more triangulated so to speak (boxed in). You might even get away with some strap steel or aluminum to tie the different sections together.

Another option is to tape off all of the metal with the MDF pieces removed and shoot some expanding foam on the metal building it thicker than what you need and then reattach the MDF panels and let the foam cure all the way (all the way into the core of it) and then go after it with different shaped cheese graters to get the desired shape and then lay fiberglass cloth and matting over that. Once it's all dry you can probably remove the foam from the backside to add more material in from the backside to make it stronger.

Jim

Thank you much and I appreciate your time. Never thought of using expanding foam so I think I will do that.

My plan is to wrap the top dash board (mdf) in a leather or other fabric and have the dash below that painted body color. Now that I am think about do really need to able to remove the fiberglass. I should be able to leave it there as long as I have access from underneath. right?

 

[7chevnova4]

One last thing....I bought evercoat rage extreme for the finish coat but no sure which resin to buy. Can I just buy the bondo brand or I there a good stuff?

 

[crazy88]

us composites sells good resin, i get my resin locally from a friend in a manikin company.

 

[firebird77clone]

Think how easy it could be if you were to just screw and glue the MDF forms to the dash ( permanently ) and glass it in place.

Also: be sure to roll the bottom edge. It looks like a real knee-buster.