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Dolphin rear panel mold


terrieo

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Hey guys, will this work for a mold of the missing piece? If so, does it need to be laminated or covered with slick tape or something so the fiberglass stuff won't stick to it? TerrieOpost-5474-0-14373800-1337967956_thumb.jp

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It might work. What's behind the brown stuff? Is it stiff enough to lay up fiberglass over it? Are you going to lay up the fiberglass in place on the motorhome or are you going to take that mold off and lay it up somewhere else? Polyester resin will stick to whatever that surface is, I think. To stop the layup from sticking to the brown stuff, buy some mold release agent. The mold release agent should be available from the place that you buy the fiberglass from.

John

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It might work. What's behind the brown stuff? Is it stiff enough to lay up fiberglass over it? Are you going to lay up the fiberglass in place on the motorhome or are you going to take that mold off and lay it up somewhere else? Polyester resin will stick to whatever that surface is, I think. To stop the layup from sticking to the brown stuff, buy some mold release agent. The mold release agent should be available from the place that you buy the fiberglass from.

John

Hi John, Sorry was replying & got kicked out to another pg & wouldnt let me back in for awhile! I learned a few yrs ago to cover a persons upper body with garbage bag, then use that brown packing tape you have to wet to make stick likes on boxes, to make a sewing mold specific to that persons shape, so I took foil taped it to pass side panel, smoothed out into all grooves etc, then wet & glued a couple layers of that brown packing tape over the foil leaving it pliable enough to take off rv, layed out on long table & used dowel rods the correct size to invert the grooves & hold them & molded edges where would att to wheel well & bumper as should be for drivers side, let dry over night then applied several more layers of the brown tape & clear packing tape to both front & back of mold to stiffen it up more & let dry overnight again, it's still not perfectly stiff (found that out in wind when trying to attach it to rv to take the pic), thought if Maxxfab thinks he can use it for a mold I'd try stiffening it up more by coating with either varnish or decopage glue & letting it dry again. I don't know if I'm brave enough to try fiberglassing something that big, did my cracked shower pan & bathroom sink last yr, but had trouble with the goo setting up too fast & getting glompy on me, would hate to waste $ it will cost for that much stuff, was hoping Bryan (Maxxfab) could do that part, but I'm willing to give it a try if he wants me to do it. ( I know when painting it for getting the texture of the original pc that Rustoleum makes a textured spray paint as used it as under coat on showerpan last yr & it's about same texture as the panels, trouble will be trying to match that greyish blue of top coat.)

So what do ya think? TerrieO

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TerrieO,

Looks like you've got 'er pretty well planned out as far as your mold goes. Don't be afraid of doing the layup yourself. Its all in the planning.

Have all your fabric precut a little oversize, (you can trim everything to fit after the glass kicks off) brushes, bubble rollers (if you're going to use them) at least two, maybe three, pairs of disposable, latex gloves on your hands and good ventilation. The extra pairs of those thin latex gloves allow you to easily strip off a pair if you need to handle something you don't want to get resin on. If you're going with polyester resin, you can adjust the resin to kick off a little slower than normal by using a little less hardner than what the directions call for. Also, an air temperature of around 60 degrees is good to slow the hardening of the resin down some. The warmer the air temperature, the faster the mixture will set up. I've done a fair amount of fiberglass work, mostly on boats and some on my rusted-out VW bus, and doing a dry run was always a good way to see where there might be a problem when handling the fabric or leaning over the work or moving easily around to the other side.

If you use epoxy resin, (recommended) you'll have to mix the two parts together according to the directions but, epoxy is available in slow, medium and fast hardening formulas (Systems Three and West System are two good ones) so you can buy the epoxy in the speed you want. Its expensive, though, about $100 for a gallon kit, maybe a little less.

Should be fun when you pop the piece out of the mold...

John

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TerrieO,

Looks like you've got 'er pretty well planned out as far as your mold goes. Don't be afraid of doing the layup yourself. Its all in the planning.

Have all your fabric precut a little oversize, (you can trim everything to fit after the glass kicks off) brushes, bubble rollers (if you're going to use them) at least two, maybe three, pairs of disposable, latex gloves on your hands and good ventilation. The extra pairs of those thin latex gloves allow you to easily strip off a pair if you need to handle something you don't want to get resin on. If you're going with polyester resin, you can adjust the resin to kick off a little slower than normal by using a little less hardner than what the directions call for. Also, an air temperature of around 60 degrees is good to slow the hardening of the resin down some. The warmer the air temperature, the faster the mixture will set up. I've done a fair amount of fiberglass work, mostly on boats and some on my rusted-out VW bus, and doing a dry run was always a good way to see where there might be a problem when handling the fabric or leaning over the work or moving easily around to the other side.

If you use epoxy resin, (recommended) you'll have to mix the two parts together according to the directions but, epoxy is available in slow, medium and fast hardening formulas (Systems Three and West System are two good ones) so you can buy the epoxy in the speed you want. Its expensive, though, about $100 for a gallon kit, maybe a little less.

Should be fun when you pop the piece out of the mold...

John

Thx John for all the good info is much appreciated!

Terrie

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