Any serious fiberglassers here?

[Mid_Life_Crisis]

I posted this in the off topic section and nobody helped. I`m hoping somebody sees it here.
I haven`t glassed in a long time and, when I did, I always had the piece on a workbench so it could be turned, keeping the wet area essentially flat, so gravity helped.
What I want to do is make a fiberglass copy of the interior of the front door, and I have no intention of taking the door off the car (I can never get them to hang right when I put them back on).

I`m thinking thin fleece, a stiff brush and a fast setting mix. Obviously I`ll thoroughly tinfoil the door first to make sure there are no release issues and still get a close copy. I`m betting I'll need to work in small batches, forcing the material into position until it sets then moving on to another area with a fresh batch.

Any tips from those with more experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Wagonbacker9]

I'd just pull the interior panel off. idk the MS3, but it can't be that different than any other car...

whats the end goal here?

 

[Mid_Life_Crisis]

I'd just pull the interior panel off. idk the MS3, but it can't be that different than any other car...

whats the end goal here?

I`m trying to take a mold of the bottom half of the door itself, not the panel. I`m making custom speaker pods. Essentially I`m committing to a bit of insanity and cutting off the bottom half of the door panels then making new pieces to fit. They`ll hold mid bass drivers and 6.5 JL Audio subs. To max out the interior space of the fiberglass boxes, I want to match the contours of the door, which will also reduce flexing and potential rattling. I`ll wrap them in perforated faux black leather to conceal the drivers but still let the sound out nicely.
I`m not worried about being able to put it back to stock because if I ever get rid of the car, the system will go with it.

 

[Wagonbacker9]

so you're gonna mold the door steel on the interior side, and build off of that with the door panel off... somehow I got it wrong the first time around.

I'd say a quick set and lotsa batches is probably your best bet if you insist on doing it that way...
might be easier to just do careful measurement and build up a frame to hold your drivers.... then set up your enclosure volume when you've got the front half done.

 

[fishdonotbounce]

I'm no fiberglasser by any means but why not use something like rapidly expanding foam to make a mold and then fiberglass over that?

 

[Wagonbacker9]

I think he's trying to get as much depth out of it as possible, which expanding foam would chew up in a hurry.

 

[fishdonotbounce]

I meant making a mold of the inside with the expanding foam, taking it out and then using that surface to fiberglass his mold that he wanted. It would involve throwing away the expanding foam since he'd just be using it as a mold to fiberglass over.

 

[Wagonbacker9]

that'd be a great way to make a replacement door skin, but I think it would rattle a lot because the contours wouldn't match....

 

[Mid_Life_Crisis]

that'd be a great way to make a replacement door skin, but I think it would rattle a lot because the contours wouldn't match....

The foam is a mold from which you make the real mold. The piece that is created from the foam is not the final product but the mold for making the door panel. If I was going to go into production with these things, that would be a great idea. Problem is it wastes a lot of glass and resin to make a mold when it isn`t necessary. Plus, how would I do that with the door still on the car? I have visions of the stuff running off the door before it can harden.

 

[jflash]

why not cut a hole in your stock panel and add speaker rings to bring out/angle the speaker then stretch some fleece over it?

 

[Mid_Life_Crisis]

why not cut a hole in your stock panel and add speaker rings to bring out/angle the speaker then stretch some fleece over it?

I`m putting small subs in the door. They need to be in sealed boxes, but space is tight, so instead of just putting a flat panel across the back of the door panel, I want to follow the contours of the actual door. In addition, even if I went that way, the box would be too small. It has to be deeper than the original panel. There are going to be two drivers in each door. The original mid-base that came with the MBQuart separates, plus the JLAudio baby subs. I am one of those people who can localize bass, so I need the separate left and right channels to go as deep as possible. I`ve also got a couple of sweet eight inch subs that I will mount somewhere else. I might make a mold of the back seat (no one ever sits there) and build boxes into that for the eights.

 

[jflash]

i tried to squeeze some 8" kickers into my back doors. i didnt like the way they sounded. so i ended up putting 2 DD's in the back corners of the hatch. i love the way they sound and for the most part they are out of the way.

 

[Mid_Life_Crisis]

i tried to squeeze some 8" kickers into my back doors. i didnt like the way they sounded. so i ended up putting 2 DD's in the back corners of the hatch. i love the way they sound and for the most part they are out of the way.

Where did you get the enclosures, or did you make them?
The subs I am using are very musical and I want to take full advantage of that, so they are going in the passenger compartment somewhere. Problem is going to be figuring out where to put a couple of half cubic foot boxes. I`m toying with the idea of putting them under the seats, but that would seriously limit the size, and I`m not sure I want my butt getting massaged all the time. I suppose I could look into a folded horn design so the sound would come out the end, but those can get big.

 

[jflash]

i made them. here is another pic. the dd's are more of a sq sub than a spl sub.