Interior fiberglassing?

Just curious if anyone knows of any good walkthroughs/guides or has any knowledge to share on the art of making a custom console from fiberglass? I'm not doing a full dash or anything hardcore like that, just looking to make a slick little overhead console for my XJ... I would like to put a ScanGaugeII up there and all my switches and maybe a reading light for the passenger.

I was thinking of making a skeleton form out of wood, then filling it with high density marine foam and carving that to shape. Then take a mold of that and use the mold to lay my fiberglass in... Then cut and sand and bondo etc... till I get what I'm looking for.

on pimp my ride I've seen them use wood frames and stretch cloth over it, and fiberglass the back. I think the cloth used may be cotton t-shirt material, but I'm not sure.

As for foam skip the high-density marine foam, too much money and you don't need it to be structual, just to work as a form. "floral" foam is pretty popular. What is often call styrofoam, eps, and even actual styrofoam, xps, can be used with epoxy resins. Polyester resin will melt it so you'd have to protect it with something.

Another question I have is how to fasten it up there. I plan to use the visor clip bolts to hold up the front of the console, but what should I use in the back? I was thinking of using some 1/4" nutserts or something... but I have never pulled apart the roof of an XJ so I don't know what's up above the headliner.

fiberglass isnt really something you can dabble in, and make a nice looking project with only a weeks experience. to get a good finish result, you need many composite skills!

that being said, youtube is full of GREAT how-to videos! search for 'fiberglass how to' or something similar...

i will say, creating your original plug, you gotta be carefull on your angles, negative angles will make pulling a mold very difficult.... pva and gelcoat are your friends! you must master their usage.

uscomposites.com has the cheapest materials ive found.

one thing about composites that ive found, is youve GOT to have more then 1 project going at a time, or else you will go crazy!
for example, you need to wait 30-40 minutes between each coat of PVA, then another 30 between pva and gelcoat... 3-6 hours later you can do your re-inforcement layers of fiberglass... if you get tied up w/ other stuff, your project can be ruined by not fallowing thru with all the steps, in proper order and time-line. its very time consuming! multiple projects! you might as well be learning while you wait!


its kinda a hobby for sadists... it stinks, causes long term health conditions ammong many, and its itchy! gotta love it....

A friend of mine made a haloween costume for a contest out of fiberglass, won 2nd place in the world... and a week later he blacked out, woke up in the hospital with tunnel vision and right-side paralysis.
A week later he was fine, back to running the national's level in sprinting and lifting weights, etc - but the chemicals involved in fiberglass are Nasty.
Careful!

wow, interesting story, and sad.
when i first got into it, it was drilled into me to use a respirator, and use it often. mixing, layout, or even just cutting...

its nasty, but if you look at carbon fiber in the light when you cut it, you can literally see the dust and fibers expelled away from the cut explosively! nasty stuff!

i have sinse setup a small composites shop on the side of my house, anything to keep the garage a little bit cleaner! the open-air also helps fumes dissipate.

but yeah, safety first! no cheap 3m dust masks! you need that $30 respirator at least.

MEKP (polyester resin hardener) is also very bad for skin contact, it gets in your bloodstream like xylene (is it xylene?) very easily

again, anyone interested in this subject, needs to checkout youtube! tons of great informative and entertaining videos!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsvgaWHPMF4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzng9HeGNPE