Hello all.
Newbie here, with a question which i thought someone on here would know. What i want to do is build a sculpted dashboard with various curves in two planes. I've never used fibreglass before and am a bit reluctant to try?

Anyone any tips on how i should go about making it? I could easily make it from cardboard, is there anything i could then cover this with to make it solid before having it trimmed? I guess MDF is an option but will be much more work. Or am i missing something obvious here?

Thankyou muchly.

hmmm, cardboard would be too thin, mdf too heavy... i'd bite the bullet and learn fibreglassing myself. i've not done any fibreglass moulding myself, but repaired fibreglass panels. with a bit of practise, its not too difficult to work with

Plywood is good to use. Make the cross section templates and space them accordingly and secure. Then screw a really thin sheet of plywood/mdf etc to the surface. Recess the screws and fill with body filler. You could use this to then make a mould, or just use it to make a one-off. It all depends how comfy you are working with GRP and how many parts you plan to build. I would think for one dash/interior, it wont be worth building a complex set of mould tools. You would be better just making a simple tools then putting in the time to fill/fair/finish the part to the desired standard.

Thanks all. If you think mid 90's TVR, thats what i'm aiming for. There is no point making a mold as it will be a one off in-situ.
Anyone know any good books on interior trimming? Once i've made the shapes i've got to work out how to cover them without them looking amateur....

There is an easy way!!

Get a flat dashboard - lots of companies sell them, then stick foam to it, the best stuff is that used to make surfboards, but there are lots of other sorts... shape the foam with saw / file and eventually sandpaper (not too fine) then put a couple of layers of fibreglass over it (again surfboard glass or finely woven, rather than chopped mat is best) this really isn't difficult, especially if you use UV activating resin... fill any holes with body filler - and get the whole thing covered....

more details here - dash step by step...

finished article here - page 4


Any probs - let me know!

Chris

Try looking at car stereo sites for how to's on speaker pod or fibreglass subwooofer making. This makes forming smooth curves quite easy by stretching sweatshirt fabric over formers and then impregnating with resin. T.hese sites give you the general idea

http://www.girlsnmotors.co.uk/car-modifying/fibreglass-sub-box.html

http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=33394

as we modellers say use the old 'pink foam' for that kind of thing, then top it of with some soft stuff

red22 - exactly what i needed. I wasn't too worried about making the basic forms, but how i made the curvey bits solid without looking a real mess was the issue. All i need to find now is some form of stretchy material which will go over the former without and creases etc and the rest of it looks pretty simple.

Cheers chaps.

I'm looking to do this too and gone down the former route made out of foam. I have smoothed it all out but not bothered too much about making surface completely faulteless as this will be the back of the dashboard. I have selaed the foam with several coats of PVA glue which feels like it will be a pretty good surface for fibreglassing onto, although having not done this before may have got this completely wrong.

One thing that I did start to realise while making the former is how to get it out again so make sure you have an exit route!!

quote:

---

Originally posted by grazzledazzle
red22 - exactly what i needed. I wasn't too worried about making the basic forms, but how i made the curvey bits solid without looking a real mess was the issue. All i need to find now is some form of stretchy material which will go over the former without and creases etc and the rest of it looks pretty simple.

Cheers chaps.

---

How about heat formed ABS covered with padding and vinyl?

Following on from this... Anyone got any good links to trimming? If i have the finished curvy shape in rough fibreglass anyone any suggestions on how i go about covering it? Aiming for a high quality brushed suede type finish but presumably i would have to do it in pieces to get the material to cling to the peaks and troughs of the shaped dash?

Mmmmm.. maybe i need to leave that bit to a proper coachbuilder, although i would like to have a go myself.

I'm in the process of doing this, although with a ally dash, and with leather. I'm not padding the dash and so will be using spray adhesive. But you will have to stitch any joins. It's not that hard you just have to be careful and you do end up with the nice stitching on show.

Rich

By way of an update, don't rely just on PVA glue on foam as I have found out with lots of scraping! Use cling film!!

Oh and put the top back on the catalyst as soon as, it evaporates very quickly!

Cheers all. Will keep you updated.