Fabrication Help To Keep It Fitting

[DGeneral]

Alright so this is my first product I've done... ever!

I have a 2000 sunfire and the middle panel was too big to fit my stereo head unit in so I wanted to make a panel to fit inside... I have it made but I still have to put the fiberglass green stuff on (I cant think of what its called) and than sand it from there. Right now it fits perfectly and I want to keep it that way but I dont think I can apply it perfectly even. Is there some trick to it?

(ignore the mess and random fibers everywhere)

Edited June 2, 2009 by DGeneral

[Craved]

you're thinking of Primer -a spray can of primer and sand paper will be needed to make it smooth

just use many light coats to build up the thickness, then sand after drying.

[MearCat]

Try using a high build primer and spray (liberally) a few coats on, wait for it to dry and then sand.

[DGeneral]

Alright thanks a lot, I'll go drive up to the store sometime soon and get some to try it out.

[mid life crisis]

spray putty is ya friend

[Fry_33]

The green stuff you mentioned is probably Bondo (filler/ bog). I don't know where you get bondo from here as it's more of a US thing I think. You can probably use something like K&H Kahfil (http://www.khst.com.au/index_autotrade.html). I haven't really looked for any finer fillers than this. They would be better for finishing things off. I think you may need to go to a body products store rather than repco, supercheap etc for the finer stuff?

You won't need it for your project but you can also use Kahglass to fill more product and the fiber glass strands in it make it stronger.

Here are a few run throughs of what a guy in the US does. His skills are pretty good and you might see something that helps you out. There are others from him on the same forum.

http://floridastreetscene.net/showthread.php?t=25112

http://floridastreetscene.net/showthread.php?t=44870

I gave a boost gauge a go and the above info helped me out quite a bit for ideas. I just added it to the standard A-Pillar cover.

I needed to use quite a bit of Kahfil for this as I couldn't get the material stretched to exactly how it needed to be. Needless to say I had to do quite a bit of sanding. I added a few coats of fiberglass too but it's only holding a pod so probably didn't even need that.

The other thing you can use as a filler is fiberglass resin mixed with a fine dust, like MDF dust. I think I've even heard of people using talcum powder. This gives you a paste but it will no doubt be harder to sand down than the fillers/ bog.

Your panel looks good so far, good luck with the rest of it.

[DGeneral]

I just went through those 2 sites you gave me and they have helped me out huge, giving extra ideas on how to tackle this project.

thanx

[MearCat]

The other thing you can use as a filler is fiberglass resin mixed with a fine dust, like MDF dust. I think I've even heard of people using talcum powder. This gives you a paste but it will no doubt be harder to sand down than the fillers/ bog.

The fine "dust" is penolic microballoons. REEEALLY small & fine hollow glass balls that you add to the resin mixture snd makes sanding heaps easier once the resin has cured. I've never seen it in anything smaller than 1kg bags/boxes though which is quite a big bag because the stuff is very very light.