What's a CD changer?

 

whatever

 

This update unofficially sponsored by Amp Energy drinks and Coors Light.

Did some more cutting and fitting think I'm just about ready to start glassing this SoB.

Took the original storage compartment and cut it down to fit around the top of the box, as you can see I didn't remember to check that the box wasn't level all the way around should be a easy fix later on, this helps keep the shell tied together at the top and gives me another inch or so in the storage area.



To tie the back side together I cut the back piece of the shell where it fit. The only problem I have with this is that the sides are kind of flared out around the sides of the box and pulls when I attach all three pieces. My concern is that it will cause problems with paint later on.



Anyone know the easiest way to get the wire off the driver's side arm rest, does it serve a purpose? I think tomorrow I'm going to start shaving the arm rests down, unless there's another way to keep them w/o cutting into the top of the console off.

 

you have a wire on your arm rest? Electrical wire?

 

No, more like a cable. Only on the driver's side too, it felt like it went down the seat inside the material. Didn't look in to it very much, I'm sure I could just cut it off and be done with it. I read in a thread from 01 about it being there and one member said he removed it but didn't go into detail, he hasn't posted since 04.

As far as fiber glass material how much do you think I'll need?

 

how much are you trying to cover? Id do atleast 3 layers by how ever much square area you're covering with about 2" overlap all the way around

so probably one package of fiberglass cloth, and a quart of resin

 

I see (The)Jake used fleece on his under the fiberglass cloth, so that too? Also, what about using cardboard and/or duct tap to provide some shape?

 

yea i could have brought you a good chunk of fleece, i bought like 10sqft for a few bucks at hobby lobby that was cut and then unpurchased.

Depends on what shape youre trying to make and cover. For my shifter console bezel, i just duct taped the fleece to the console deck over the hole i had cut out, and let it pick up the natural curves it wanted to. Go back and check out my thread to see what im talking about

 

Yeah, I've got yours and Jake's builds bookmarked, read through them both but not really gotten in depth at the pictures.

 

What are you molding?

 

I have to cover the area in the side of the shell where the speaker box sticks out and close off the area in the back.

I did the sides but it doesn't look like I did it right. Will the fleece stick to the plastic after it sits for a while?

After looking at Pat's pictures again I think I did do it wrong. damn.

 

Flush! Back to the drawring board. Chalk today up to learning how to work with fiberglass. After today I think I have a better idea of how to do this. Funny thing about it, the wife isn't upsetat least not acting upset.

Ok rethinking it, I think I figured out where I went wrong. My first attempt I put the fleece over the whole area I'm trying to fiber glass, on top of that I used large pieces instead of overlapping smaller pieces.

When I peeled the tape off the fleece pulled the glass off with it. This gave me a good size chunk of glass with fleece on the back of it, I tried to trim it down and attach it to the to the console with more glass fabric and resin.

This didn't work out to well either, there was a large lip and a large air pocket. At that point I just decided it'd be easier to rip it off and start over. So I cut the fleece again, a little larger than the hole and loosely taped it to the inside of the shell, did this for both sides. With a plastic bag over the area of the speaker box I put the console back together around it making it tight around the box. Using the speaker box to give the fleece its shape I taped everything in place.


Once the wife gets back from the store in the morning, grocery day is like black Friday for her when she goes to the commissary, I'll head back to Lowes and get more materials.

 

At closing time today I think I got it. Went to Lowes, got some pasta sauce from the Walmart, cashed a check and came home and got to work.

I covered the fleece in resin and let it sit for a couple hours as suggested on this page, thanks Jake. Once it hardened up I started layering glass on to the console.
Here's one layer of glass on each side:


Here's 3 layers of glass on each side:


Tomorrow I'll take the console apart and put a layer or two of glass on the inside of the shell, then sand sand sand. Yes, my tailgate is my work bench.

Before I started this job I thought "once I do this I'm going to fiber glass everything!" now I don't know if that's the case. Couple of pointers; Say no to foam brushes they started disintegrating in the resin, I used red "kegger" cups the resin started melting these too, found a puddle of resin laying there.

 

for resin mixing i always use the bottom 3rd of a gatorade bottle, then use a plastic wedge for smoothing. I think I got a 3 pack of yellow wedges at AZone for 2 bucks, near the bondo stuff

 

I'll keep that in mind for when I do the back portion thanks.