Teaching Fiberglass (part one and two)

Screen Install into Dash (Fiberglassing) (Part 2)

Step 12: Using a stretchy fabric slightly thicker than t-shirt material but not as thick as fleece, epoxy just the edge of the material along the curve of the piece of bezel enclosing the gauges. Epoxy along that edge all the way down to the part of the bezel just below the lower left hand side of the new cd player position.



Step 13: Raise and support the bezel off your workbench


Step 14: Now use the Resin. Mix up a decent batch of resin. Remember, 14 drops per every 1 oz of resin. If two ounces made, 28 drop and so on. Tip, keep good track of the number of drops used. Best bet, reduce by several drops. I.e. 3 oz resin should equal 42 drops. But, only put in like 37. Also, do not do this step on a super hot day or humid day. These precautions will spare you from wasting resin and not having what is called ‘cook-off’ which is when the resin hardens really fast from a large batch made. Cook-off also gets extremely, extremely, extremely, hot and can be considered an ignition source. So if it happens, stand back away from it, do not touch it and give it like 30 minutes to cool. It will burn you. If you are uncomfortable with this part, make several small batches in quick succession to lather up the stretchy fabric.

Fold back the material and apply resin to the part. Fold the material over this newly resin’ed area and pull it very tight using thumbtacks to secures it to the bench. Do this quickly while ensuring there are no folds or creases in the fabric. Then resin away on the top of this fabric and really saturate the material.

Then follow this up with three layers of 2 oz fiberglass. You will not need the thumbtacks for this part as the fiberglass doesn’t stretch. Use stabbing motions to ensure penetration and adhesion to the previous layers. If you see that the fiberglass is frosty looking or still white, this means there is not enough resin applied to those areas and keep working them.

Walk away and allow several hours to cure. Do not get antsy and start pulling thumbtacks out.

The following picture shows the stretch fabric and first layer of fiberglass applied. If you haven’t figured it out by now, everything done is similar to that of making a custom fiberglass woofer enclosure with the wood skeleton giving shape to the fabric and providing smooth flowing lines.

Step 15: Using a dremel tool with cut-off wheel, cut the excess fabric away. Do not cut directly along the edge of the plastic. Here, all you are doing are releasing the part from the bench because its tacked down. After cutting excess material off, use the dremel tool drum sander to start shaving the rest of the excess off and get everything smooth along the edge of the original plastic.

Step 16: Using the dremel tool with cut-off wheel, cut the excess material from the cd opening and along the ridge of the screen’s ½ round stock frame. Use the drum sander again to clean up the holes and make them in proportion to the way they need to be.

Step 17: Scuff sand with 80 grit the surfaces of the newly fiber glassed portion of the dash bezel. Do not scuff the side of the bezel that wasn’t fiber glassed. Now test fit your dash bezel in the truck to ensure everything is good to go. Remember, there will not be enough room inside the dash for the cd player at this position. You will need to cut out portions of the dash’s guts to make it fit. Remember, there is a huge bundle of wires behind the silver metal bracket in the dash. Move these out of the way and adopt a surgeon’s mindset when cutting inside the dash. Take your time and do not rush to avoid hacking the crap out of wires. Now the part is ready for Bondo and final shaping, priming and molding the video unit..

Step 18: What to do with the Center AC Ducting? I used a scrap piece of 1/8” plywood and cut it to the size required to block off the duct’s opening. I also slotted this piece to allow a minimal amount of airflow. This will reduce the airflow pressure flowing through the ac vents on the ends of the dash but also allows for some cooling of the electronic components in this area. Electronic hate heat.

Step 19: What about the dash’s guts that need to be removed to fit the cd player? What about the large bundle of wires warned about earlier? Well the next couple of photos will hopefully give you an idea of what parts can be cut out. Reference these pictures to your own ride to see what exactly has been cut out. Notice that the large silver brace inside the dash is still there. That’s right, its been notched. Cut along this piece horizontally but do not cut all of out it out. If you do, you might ruin the structural integrity of the dash itself. There are also a couple of pictures of my hand pointing to the large bundle of wires. You won’t see the wires but you’ll see a black shroud that is just in front of this bundle. Be careful of this shroud, its only there to minimally insulate the bundle and not protect it against power tools, cut off wheels or anything air or electric powered. I used a combination of dremel tool cut off wheel for the curves on the ends and a air powered cut off wheel for the long horizontal cut. Be warned, you WILL need plenty of reinforced cut off wheels for the dremel due to the thick nature of the brace. It eats the shit out of dremel wheels.

Step 20: Make mounting tabs for the monitor by using 3/16” x ½” x 1 to 1.5” and glue four of them around the perimeter of the monitor. There will be two on top and two on bottom. Epoxy them in and then lay ½ oz. Fiberglass over it to secure them. We will come back to these later.

Step 21: Before making a mold of the monitor you’ll want to protect it very well. I wrapped in with several layers of syran wrap and then packing tape. Then get a piece of foam half the thickness of the electronic wrapping foam bought at the hobby shop and wrap the back side only with this. Then tape it all off really well. Using this half thickness foam will provide space for the monitor and the packing foam inside of the mold after its complete. Because its half thickness, the electronics wrapping foam will compress and provide a snug fit inside of the molded piece. Tip: Mark the front and back side of the wrapped monitor to not get the molded side mixed up and mark the position of the screen which can be done by depressing the packing over the monitor to feel the screen’s edges. Also, the half thickness foam I used came from the packing of my air ride which is about 1/8” thick as compared to the ¼” thick electronics wrapping foam.

Step 22: Invert the dash bezel upside down and lay monitor in its position. Use the markings of the screen’s position to help position it in its proper spot. Then tape it to the bezel. After that is complete lay aluminum foil over this entire area of the bezel. Lay several layers down and ensure it is conformed to the bezel well. Then cut 4 pieces of 2 oz. Fiberglass in the same fashion as seen in the pictures. Notch these fiberglass pieces in the corner to create side flaps to conform to the screen. Save these cut out corners. You will re-apply them after to beef up the corners of the mold.

Step 24: Pop the mold out. It should release with ease because of the foil. Then trim any access off. Trim a paremeter around the mold and lay it flat on the table. Then lay several layers of 5oz fiberglass using epoxy to make the mounting tabs.

Step 25: Epoxy a thin strip of wrapping foam around the edge of the screen’s frame as well as lining the inside aspect of the mold created. Place the monitor inside of the mold and lay it down on the dash bezel. Align the screen’s face with the frame in the bezel exactly and tape it all down so it won’t move AT ALL. Using a drill find a bit close to the size of the metric screws used to mount it and drill through the mold into the mounting tab applied in Step 20. Do not be careless. ONLY go roughly ¼” into the mounting tab. Tip: measure a ¼” length of the drill bit and use tape and wrap the bit at the length as a depth guide. Slowly thread the metric screw into the tab and then take it back out. Release the screen from the bezel and mix a small batch of epoxy and put a small dab into the hole. And then quickly thread the screw back in it. DO NOT get any epoxy on the threads or you’re done. Allow it to cure and then using a dremel tool with cut-off wheel, cut the head of the screw off about ½” above the mounting tab. This will effectively leave a threaded mounting stud. Also epoxy in the foam inside of the mold.


Step 26: Test fit your mold and secure it using the appropriate sized nut for the studs. Flip the bezel over and check fitment and placement of the screen. If it not in its desirable location, use a dremel tool router bit to route slots in the holes of the mold to allow adjustment in placement. Once satisfied with the mounting technique, spray paint everything on the back side black if you want to give a slightly more finished look even to the back side. Notice the threaded studs for mounting the screen. These are the screws that were screwed in and epoxied then had the screw's head cut off, effectively making a stud.

Step 27: Remove the screen and lay a thin layer of bondo to the fiberglassed section of the bezel to blend and even the surfaces up anf the transition from fiberglassed bezel to plastic bezel. Sand with 80 – 120 – 220 grit paper and finish it off with 400 grit paper. Use a magnified glass to spot imperfections and use glazing putty and 400 grit paper to correct them. Then prime and ready the surface for paint.

From here you are done besides the paint. I will not explain the painting as everyone seems to have his or her own preferred technique. Below is a picture of mine complete and painted.

Note: if the headunit will not go in deep enough into your mount because of the build up of fiberglass around the mount’s surface, do not fret. Mount the player in a deep as possible and use hot glue and glue a small rivet strip joint from the mount to the player. Don not go crazy with the glue, just make a small tab. This will allow you to cut the tab and release the player easily from the mount.

Again, if you find this to be too difficult and above your technical means but you still want something like this done, PM me and I will do it for you for a small fee or parts trade to cover materials and some of the labor as it is a time consuming event.

Re: Screen Install into Dash (Fiberglassing)

ThorRacing01 said:

this is awsome makes me want to bust out the glass and get back to work. I really like the 2part epoxy idea. I was wondering how i would fix the fabric to the material with out staples or hot glue(heats up, breaks back down and comes a part). Now do you have any advice to make the screen more flush mount.

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Thanks, man. The two part epoxy is crazy strong in comparison to resin fiberglassing. To answer your question about flush mounting it. I asume you still want most of the unit behind the dash and you want to screen to appear more flush mounted. in that case, eliminate steps 10 and 11 and don't make the wood frame surrounding the screen. then, do all other steps necessary to complete the project. This will give a flush appearance to the screen. The reason I made the frame is not only for a 3-D appearance but to help promote nice flowing curves which I like and see very often with people making the fiberglass sub enclosures. Also, it creates shade and blocks indirect sunlight from above and the sides that can at times make the screen not as visible or bright as I like. So there is function also involved. This is my air ride controller. Its a touch screen unit so I won't nothing impeding my ability to see the status of the suspension.

Thanks for looking at it and asking questions. If you need more detail or photos e-mailed, let me know what you're looking for and I'll kip them off to you, no problem.

Re: Screen Install into Dash (Fiberglassing)

Sorry for the delay. Here are some more pics of the final piece as well as the bezel mounted in the dash for more of idea of how it looks. Hope these help you all see what the final product can look like.

Re: Screen Install into Dash (Fiberglassing)

Grinch78 said:

Awesome how to, I glassed the airbag switch and the piece that pops out to the left of the vents and I get quite a few questions whenever I post the pic for somebody. I used the same technique you did with the plywood but I used cardboard since I was just looking for a way to create a smoother foundation to keep the glass from sagging when I soaked it. Again nice how to it helps a lot when it comes to glassing to see pics I know all the how tos I read before I made my fiberglass enclosure helped me a lot. It's not as complicated as people think, it just requires time and the strive for perfection to get it looking good.

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"Strive for perfection", you couldn't have said it better. To be honest, with all the sanding involved and shaping I was tired and happy as hell to be done withit. Then I noticed that there were a few spots that I missed during the surface prep. I know how anal I am but I was tired and was going to see if it could get by without notice. If you look hard in the pics you might see these imperfections. But, anal that I am, I got my wife on it and had her look at it. i thought to myself, if she notices it, then I'm doing it over. Well, she did, so I had her take a marker and mark all the spot she saw, then so did I. After that I went back in there and sanded the paint down, re-glazed the bad spots and fixed them all. Then repainted and clear coated it. basically, my anal-ness and strive for perfection quite literally added an entire day to the process.

But, its completely finished and spotless of errors, only after a total of 63 hours spent making the part from start to finish (I actually kept track of how much time was expended making the dash).

Thanks for the comments, I greatly appreciate them.

Teaching Fiberglass (Part 2)

I get lots of questions so hopefully the pics will give the answers. Like I said, I'll lend my career to any of you guys.

The pics are of a sub-enclosure and while the thread probably belongs mostly in the audio forum, there are a lot of you doing fiberglass fabrication in the interior section and a sub enclosure is an interior item. If you have questions, feel free to PM.

Pic 1: Basic skeleton. The concept of the skeleton is primary for fiberglass sub enclosures. Its also a technique that can be used for interior items like the screen install I showed you all or doing other odds and ends like center consoles. This can also be accomplished by using high density foam and carving it to the desired shape and then glassing over it.



Pic 2 & 3: Using a strechy material pulled extremely tight (I emphasize tight) over the skeleton and staple gun it to the work bench and not to the item. You'll cut the access off latter only after all layers of fiberglass are laid. Strechy material is only for form and shoulf not be relied on for ANY structural intergrity to any fiberglassing project. And, should always be followed up with several layers of glass.





Pic 4: Lather the resin onto the strechy material. you may have to work in sections by making several batches of resin. Work in sections to avoid making one large resin batch. Making a large resin batch will likely result in Cook-Off or spontaneous curing of the resin and greatly reduce your work time and ruin good resin. If you know that an area will be removed later and never make contact with a surface below it like in the case of the center woofer rings, don't waste your resin covering those areas.



Pic 5 & 6: Size your sheet of fiberglass to allow over hang. The over hung area will be trimmed off. In this pic you'll see the fiberglass used IS WEAVE OR CLOTH.
Don't get this mistaken. Cloth looks like tweed and matte looks like spagetti mashed together. The knit of the cloth fiberglass is excellent for curves as the threading knit will expand or contract to a degree around curves much better than matte. The lighter the fiberglass, the better the conformity but the more layers required. The fiberglass you see here is from Wicks (See thread labeled: Fiberglass Supply Resource). This glass is a heavy 12 oz glass but its aircraft grade (Yes there is a difference) which makes it really soft and extremely forgiving on curves (Remember, you don't see many square airplanes). The heavy weight glas chosen allows for less layers needed to achieve structural integrity.





Pic 7: Trim access off using a cut off wheel or razor. When using a cut off wheel, be careful of glass or material not hard from resin. It could get spun up in the wheel. Then use a drum sander for a die grinder or dremel and sand up to the edge of the skeleton to give nice crisp lines.



Pic 8: Bondo time. Work the area in bondo in sections. this allows for better handling of the bondo and quick sanding during its cure to eliminate hours of sanding. The purpose here is to fill the valleys and create a smooth and uniform surface.



Pic 9: DONT be afraid to write on your part. Look yopur part over very carefully and circle areas needing attention. Use terms like "Fill" or "Build-Up", or "Sand" if you need it in the area noted. A trick: turn the light off in your work area but leave a source of ambient light to one end of your part. Then look over the part at a shallow angle in the direction of the light source. The ambient light source will quickly reveal shadows which are your areas of "Valley". Then use a marker and mark the appriopriate term for correcting the area by either sanding or building up the area with more bondo.



Pic 10: Using a GREY filler primer (not black), spray your item. this may take several times but, after each coat, notice the pin hole that is characteristic with bondo and fill them with glaze putty. Be sure to sand the primer with 400 grit of better between coats.



Pic 11: Partcle board, fiberglass, bondo, all add weight to the item. Depending on the size of the item the weight and bulkiness of the item maybe unmanageable. Get help to install your item if needed. This pic shows the sub enclosure installed (not permanently). It still needs to be painted and cleared.




These pics should give you a general understanding of the processes involved with fiberglassing. Be mindful of the fact that fiberglassing will require excessive amounts of sanding. For example, this enclosure too both saturday and sunday, 8 hours each day to sand and get level. Surface prep is everything when painting a part. Take your time with the surface prep and get it right so you don't ruin a good paint job.

PM me if you guys have any further questions. I should have it painted next weekend with the gunmetal color like in the screen install and the amp area on top will be lined with grphite formica and a framed cover will be installed over the amps like your home speakers and their fabric covered frame over them.

thanks