How hard is it to create something with fiberglass? I was watching monster garage the other day, and they were doing a boat car or something, anyway the wheels came through the shell of the boat so one of them carved a hump out of foam and covered it with fiberglass then carved out the foam.I was wondering how hard it would be to create a custom aircleaner cover using this method. Im an artist so carving the foam would be no big deal but ive never messed with fiberglass before. I would like to have some thing like the one for project copperhead on truckstv but it cost like 250 without the filter and still needs to be finished.Johnsons hod rod shop has it but there site is down right now or something. any thoughts or comments are appreciated

I think this would fit better in bodyshop. I'll move it over there for you.

nt4sell,

I'm assuming you are talking about doing a wet layup with fiberglass. The process of fiberglassing itself is not that difficult. However, depending on the shape it may require some investment on your part.

You would first need to make a tool to lay the fiberglass into. You could make a tool by casting what you carve or doing a tool gel/fiberglass layup on what you carve.

Once you pull the model out of the tool I recommend surfacing the tool to remove any imperfections that you don't want to show up in the part.

Once the tool is done you can perform your fiberglass wet layup. You would need a resin, MEK (this is the catalyst), the fiberglass (either chopped mat or sheet) and a way to bag and vacuum the part.

Mix the resin with the MEK according to your catalyst chart.

Lay the fiberglass into the tool and brush/dab on your resin/MEK mixture.

Place the layup and tool into the vacuum bag setup and remove the air. This compresses the layup to drain off excess resin and provides a uniform thickness of part. It also insures that the resin get into all parts of the tool for surface contour detail.

Good luck,

Bill

That sounds a bit more complicated than what i seen. They cut the hole where the wheel would come through. They carved their teardrop shape out of very dense foam then glued it over the hole.They never made any hard mold of the peace they carved. Next they covered the foam with the resin and sheets of fiberglass. When it dried they carved out the foam from below, skim coated it with something like bondo and sanded it smooth and painted it. since it was already attached to the boat/car thing they couldnt bag it and suck out the air. Could a air cleaner be made without making a mold or vacuuming it?

I think you could do it.

Experience has shown, before you can do anything, you need to try it.

Your first attempt might yeld a reject, but your second try will be better, and the third try will be just what you wanted.

If you are going to make a one-off piece and are not concerned with getting out all of the air bubbles and packing the matting tight against each other then here's what I would do.
Carve your design into your foam block and then cover it with aluminum foil. Don't worry aboutoverlaps and stuff but just get it to where it now looks like a big aluminum foil covered whatever.
Cut some fiberlglass cloth to wrap around most of one side of it and if you have to cut some relief slits in it and allow it to overlap, that's OK.
Now mix up some resin and hardener and brush a coat on the aluminum foil. Now lay the cloth on top of it and then add some more resin using a cheap 79 cent paint brush (oh yeah wear some cheap rubber gloves).
Now the first layer should be on your mold. Let that dry and then continue on doing other sides of the mold. Once it is all done it will be flimsy so now you need to switch to matting to build up the thickness.
Once you get it thick enough you should be able to chip out the foam and then peel off the aluminum foil. Some spots may stick as the resin may sneak behind some overlap of the foil but if you get it right you can come back and use a small angle sander with like a 3" disc so sand it down and remove the residue.
If you are wanting more structural strength then you have to do the procedure with vacuum bagging it but for small decorative items hand laying it should be fine.
If you do see little air bubbles when you are laying it up take a small needle and poke the bubble and then work out the air with the resin soaked paint brush.
Jim

good info