Has anyone made fiberglass replacement panels?

I'm picking up a new to me parts car next month and will be stripping it of lots of bits, including, but not limited to, the hood, both doors and hatch. 

Since I'll have them off and able to table them. I got to thinking about making a fiberglass version of each. 323 doors and hatches actually have some weight to them, even without glass, the doors are over 50lb each. 

I've viewed some YouTube overviews. Has anyone done any fiberglass panels more involved then a hood? I'd likely be looking at having to do a 2 piece mold for the door and hatch, then trimming and glassing together after curing. 

Check out how opera performance did it on their s2000 build. They lay up over the panel then release from it and cut out the steel parts so all that was left was the outer edge/ framework, then rivet the fiberglass or carbon panel onto the old panel's framework. 

In reply to captdownshift : I’ve done that a lot.  It’s not much more expensive to do it in carbon fiber.  What I do is make a splash mold out of Fiberglass, wax up the mold and do it in Carbon fiber.  

A 50 pound part will weigh about 25 pounds in fiberglass. There are three ways to do fiberglass. Either sprayed with a chopper gun or laid up with Matt or cloth.  Cloth will be lighter and stronger if you are careful to orient the threads at 45 degrees to each other.

In carbon fiber maybe 10-12 pounds unless you vacuum bag it and then it’ll be under 8 pounds.  

Because I’ve done it enough  I can get carbon fiber Down to near vacuum bagging without the cost.  You need to carefully soak it with resin until you have full penetration and then squeegee the excess off .  Careful mixing of resin and catalysts is called for in order to get the longest working time  

One other trick I do is  wait until the fiberglass/ carbon fiber is starting to kick off and turn leathery I use a fresh blade on the utility knife. And cut right at the edge. Cut down against the mold so you don’t lift the new piece off the mold. 

By doing that you won’t make all the dust and fumes you do when you leave it in the mold to dry and trim the edges later.  It’s 10 times faster.  

Making the first splash mold. I don’t mind rusty dented parts.  I’ll cover rust holes with masking tape and then bondo over the tape. Plop a bunch of Bondo in a dent and  feather  it out. 

Then blow a coat of quick drying paint ( Lacquer) on top of the repairs.  The fastest and worst kind of bodywork is fine.  It might not last a week but all it needs to do is last a few hours until you pull the mold off. 

A Splash mold is just a mold you can pull a part or two  from. Usually doesn’t use Gelcoat.  

A production mold might be 10 times thicker  with plywood  or something to add rigidity for repeated use.  The surface will be Gelcoat and waxed every every time it’s used.  

Anytime you make a multi dimensional mold make sure it’s not reversed drafted. A part trapped in a mold is reverse drafted.  It can be dealt with either by a removable flange or something else to  make removing the part possible.  

Great info, thanks!

In reply to Carbon :

That's an interesting and unusual method. For an s2000 like shown it's pretty pointless since you can readily get composite fenders.

The S2000 seems odd that they're making a fender slightly larger than stock. It's larger by the thickness of the composite, but that is enough to mess with panel gaps.

I've got lots of experience with glasswork but my only car adventure was doing Beetle floor pans when I was 16. They were strong, ugly and heavy. The real ticket for a strong/light/cheap part would be epoxy biaxial cloth vacuum glassed with resin infusion.

In reply to buzzboy : it’s not bigger, you make a mold of the part and yes the mold is bigger but the part you pull from the mold is back to original size.  

Thanks for sharing. I've also considered replacing my [fiberglass canoes]

thank you Mr Canoe , 

I do not remember seeing this when it was first posted and frenchyd made it sound too simple !

the car we built 30 years ago  had the glass done at the end of the workday at a boat company with material that was left after the workday.....

the shop just charged by the pound !

YouTube has a couple of good videos about making carbon parts, using an original part to make a fiberglass mold which is then used for the CF. Like any other body work, the amount of prep and detail you put in 100% affects the end result. It doesn't seem difficult at all, just time consuming. I'm considering giving it try at some point. 

C.A.Z.C.
(Canoe Assisted Zombie Correction) 

frenchyd said:

In reply to buzzboy : it’s not bigger, you make a mold of the part and yes the mold is bigger but the part you pull from the mold is back to original size.  

 

That would be how it works with most fiberglass replacement, but if look at the specific example Buzzboy mentions in this thread, the fiberglass is only pulled off the original part and then riveted over edges of the existing bodywork, making the resulting part larger than original bodywork by the thickness of the fiberglass.

In reply to Cooter :

There is a right way and a wrong way, er,•••• several wrong ways obviously