Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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First off Don I wanted to say how pissed I am ........... sorry jealous. LOL You have a shop with 3 or more work's in progress. Fantasic works, your work and your sons work on the cars are top shelf. Your sons vision to see such a ride is beyond my comprehension. I wish my project is half as good as the work that I have seen here by you and your sons. It will be later this year before I get to start. Adding an expansion to my barn hope to be done by June or July, so I can run the air compressor and a 60 watt light bulb at the same time. Keep up the posting, I'm hooked can't wait to see the end cars.
Brad

Jim, thanks a lot, and I'm really happy to see you got some parts for your rod. You've got to do a thread on the build.

Brad, thanks to you too for the nice words. I am pretty proud of the kind of work Dan does. He is a pain sometimes with this perfectionism, but I have to admit it is paying off for him. Everytime I look at his '29 I find some detail that is really special.

Get going on that barn addition, we need more rods being put together on here.


Yesterday Tom (Supa Roosta) suggested a method of using foam to create a transmission tunnel, and Ken Thurm seconded it, saying he had done this too. I have only one thing to say to the both of them.............THANKS GUYS, I OWE YOU A BEER.........NO, MAKE THAT TWO BEERS.

I used this system today to build the mold for my transmission tunnel, and it is really slick. I bought a couple of bags of 3/4 inch thick styrofoam insulation at Home Depot and also picked up the carpet tape Tom suggested. The guy who invented double sided carpet tape has a strange sense of humor. This stuff is murder to work with and cut. It was the worst part of the whole ordeal, but even that wasn't as bad as what I had planned to do in wood.

What I did was cut a whole bunch of half circles that matched the aluminum hoops I had made yesterday, and glued them into one big unit with pieces of the carpet tape between each one. It made a pretty solid unit that I was able to rough out with an electric carving knife and finish with some 40 grit then 80 grit sandpaper. This stuff shaped like putty, and was great to work with. It makes a real mess in the shop cutting it, but the shop vac took care of that.

I am not finished shaping it, and still have to finish it back into the driveshaft tunnel area, but the hardest part is done. A little more shaping and I can start laying mat and resin over the top of it.

Anyway, Tom and Ken, thanks for this tip. I owe you guys one.

Here are some pictures of where it ended up tonight. Those black marks you see are where I painted the ones where my aluminum strips were. I painted them so that I wouldn't grind down any further than that level, or I would have been too close to the tranny.

Don

Way to go Don!
Lookin good.
Now that you have the mold building down, the next step on your next project will be vacuum bagging carbon fibre
After you clean out the foam, you might want to wrap some mat on the underside of the floorboard and up into the cavity of the tunnel to tie it in real good...

Yeah for sure I am going to fiberglass on the underside too, for strength and appearance. Don't want any groundhogs that I run over to be saying bad things about how it looks under there.

I will be very glad to get this part of the build done with, as it is the messiest part, what with all the fiberglass grinding and styrofoam shavings. At least when I start the bodywork I can wheel the body outside and keep the mess out of the shop.

Plan for today is to finish up the tunnel foam, and maybe get some mat laid on top of it. Thanks to you and Ken, I am in a better position timewise than I probably would have been.

Don

Oh, BTW, for anyone thinking of doing a fiberglass project, let me give you some advice on the supplies you are going to buy. Do not buy your fiberglass at any of the marine discount store chains (Like West Marine or Boaters World) They carry the prepackaged stuff and charge you 5 times what it is worth. You want to either find an old time marine store where they sell the mat and cloth by the yard, or a fiberglass house that sells it the same way. Also, you are going to need LOTS of materials. I bought 10 yards of mat and thought I would have enough for the rest of my life.......wrong. I may have to go back and get some more before it's over. I also bought 3 gallons of resin, thinking Don would have some for his T bucket. I am now half way through the second gallon, and will use a lot more before I am done.

You are also going to use lots and lots of throwaway brushes, plastic mixing buckets, stir sticks, and latex gloves. If possible, buy these in bulk. You can recycle the plastic buckets as the cured resin pops out of it when dry, but I have been just tossing them because I don't feel like fooling around with them.

You will want a couple of pairs of decent scissors........one to just cut dry cloth or mat with, and one that will get all sticky and ruined because you will use it to cut the fiberglass as you are doing the work. Buy some that you don't mind tossing when the job is all done.

It is amazing how much fiberglass, resin, and tools you go through doing this work. Everytime I go to the local marine store I am spending another $ 100 bill, and not walking away with a whole lot of stuff. Also pick up at least a gallon of laquer thinner and maybe some acetone for cleanup and dewaxing, and lots of rags to go with them.

Don i have read alot on this molding , but to see you in process really clarifies the procedure . Not that im planning to itch or anything . Great class and work looks really good.

Don,
I know it's messy working with the foam the way we instructed you, but there is a method to shaping the foam that is entirely dust free and gives it a final finish.
It's called the hot wire and bow.
The reason I didn't reccomend this off the bat is because you'd have to do searching for the components (all readily available, and inexpensive) and if this is a one time thing, you'd be using time that wouldn't offset the convenience.
It basically consists of a power source, rheostat, piano wire, some lamp cord and a wood frame.
Essentially the piano wire is strung between the open ends of a wood frame you construct in a u shape. The ends of the piano wire are connected to the power source. The rheostat adjusts the heat range (voltage to the wire).
This baby cuts like butter.
If you or anyone here, ever want to make one let me know and I'll draw up some plans and give you a build sheet.

NOW YOU TELL ME !!! I probably wouldn't have done it anyway because me and electricity sometimes aren't a good mix, but I see the concept. Even though I mentioned the mess it made, the particles aren't a real problem like fiberglass grindings or stuff like that. It is just basically white styrofoam popcorn that swept and vacuumed up real easy. (The cats thought it had snowed in Florida and had a field day playing in it. )


Bob, what's the matter? You haven't lived until you have laid in bed trying to sleep and the itching is keeping you awake. It's something everyone should experience once in their life. Knock on wood, I have been itchfree this entire build so far. I have been taking everyones suggestions, plus wearing my white paper suit and mask. Blowing off with compressed air also seems to be helping as well as sweeping up very often.

But I'm sure before this thing is done I will screw up and get a few slivers in me.

Don

No ploblem Glasshopper!

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

I probably wouldn't have done it anyway because me and electricity sometimes aren't a good mix. Don

My spies sent me a pic of Don doing a wiring job last week;

Don I did a 64 corvette that had rolled over, so I had to glass every panel. Now I can't even get near fiberglass, had bad reaction in my lungs even with a mask. Even the pink stuff that the house is insulated with takes my breath away.
Brad

Bob, that picture was taken the time I "welded" a screwdriver into a 220 volt fuse panel. For a week my eyes looked like cesspools. Now I only play with 12 volt stuff.

Brad, I can see how that would happen. Even the smell of resin is starting to get to me. No wonder our local boat manufacturer has an ad running for employees all the time, his turnover must be tremendous.


As for me, right now I have two Coronas chilling in the freezer, and they are NOT there for a celebration drink............they are pain killers. Let me tell you why.

Went to the shop today and finished making the foam mold all nice and smooth so that my tunnel would reflect that smoothness. I cut up lots and lots of mat and had it sitting there all ready to do my fiberglassing.

Here are a couple of pictures of that phase of the operation. Oh, I built the driveshaft tunnel out of a piece of cardboard, as it fit perfectly over the hoops, and needed no additional support.

Looks pretty smooth, huh?

So, I started to lay mat on the styrofoam and as I got into it I noticed the resin was eating little holes in the styrofoam, but I kept going. By the time I had the first layer of mat on the entire styrofoam mold was disintegrating from the resin. As I watched it, more and more of the styrofoam disappeared until the mat had sagged into about a two inch depression all the way around, and the sides had shrunk in.

I didn't know what to do, so I ripped out all of the mat I had laid up and cleaned up the gooey mess with acetone to try to salvage my floorboard. Luckily I was able to do it, and some sanding will get rid of the rest.

I don't know what went wrong, but I am not going to attempt this method again. I know Tom and Ken like it, and maybe I did something wrong like ommiting a barrier coat of some kind, but it sure didn't work for me.

Right now I don't want to see that car for a few days, but when I get back on it I am going to build the plywood pieces like I originally planned and maybe use poster board over it with a coat of resin to make a mold. That is what I did on my '27 and it worked great.

Time to head to the freezer and see if that frozen concoction is ready to drink. Shoulda stayed in bed today.


Don

Oh, here are pictures of the end result. First picture is the styrofoam after I pulled off the gooey mat, and the second one is the mat sitting in the garbage can.


Don

Originally Posted by Ken Thurm

Don,
I'm not trying to hijack either but I used Styrofoam from a arts and craft store. It comes in all sizes, anything from 3"x3" to 2"x4"x 48" sheets. They even have Styrofoam glue. It really makes it easy to shape by gluing the rough shape together then carving it exactly with a electric knife then with a file then sand paper. Just another way of doing it. I then use wax paper taped to it so it is easily removed no sticking.
Ken

You forgot the wax paper. I should of been more assertive.
Ken

Don----only a small disaster in the overall scope of things, but I feel your frustration. I have heard about that happening before (resin melting the styrofoam) but have never used that method, so haven't seen it first-hand. I hope your next attempt is more successfull. I did a post about 3 years ago while building the roadster pickup about molding compound curves for interior upholstery forms using wooden lath, masking tape, and drywall plaster.---but I just glassed over the form, (after giving it 3 good coats of Johnsons paste wax to act as a release agent,) then removing the plaster and lath after the glass had set up good. better luck on your next try---Brian