Making Fiberglass bits
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi Guys,
after alittle advice, i want to make a cowl for my oil cooler which is going to be put in the wing with a cold air feed from the front. So im going to make a bit for the front out of fiberglass. thinking i would make a wooden mould just worried about the reasing bonding to the wood what would you suggest using to stop it soaking in?

Thanks
Alex

releasing agent/paint. you coat the mould in it then lay up the fiberglass.

its supposed to make it easy but i am yet to get it right! meh!!

paint it, then give it a good polish

i'd use meguiars mirror glaze as a release agent, as it works realy well

5 coats of that, each one dried and buffed up.

jobbed



i do have a mould for one though!

This is FORD country, on a quiet day you can hear Vauxhalls rusting.

there you go

This is FORD country, on a quiet day you can hear Vauxhalls rusting.

makeing a mold from wood, hurmm.

as steve has said i would spray it with paint let it cure for a good few days.

then spray about 10 coats of release agent. called pva i cant remember what it stands for but it is effectivly plastic disolved in alcohol.

you will need a gel coat of some kind here, i use tooling gel coat. spray this once quite heavy.

use a cleaning tool attached to a compressor for this.

you will need to wait, to tell if its how you want it. it should be wet enough your thumb will leave a mark but not wet enough that any will come off on your thumb.

Now slap some resin on, of course mixed up.

then one layer of fiberglass. then to this 3-10 times depending on how durable you want your mold to be.

then wait for a lifetime for the thing to dry and cure.

use wedges to pull the mold from the part.





now you have your mold. its just the same into the mold as you made the mold. but use a wax on the mold.

its like waxing a car wax on wax off. do this about 10 times.

then spray the pva lots of times then gel coat and so on.

a little tip! when makeing your molds make a edge. then when you pull from this mold you can cover these edges with masking tape.

makes it alot easier to get it apart.

Edited by Sam on 25th Sep, 2008.

you could just, eat that.

On 25th Sep, 2008 steve w said:



there you go

PVA... poly vinyl alcohol...

When I was mould making and fibreglass laying up, I always sprayed it with something called Crystal Clear - unfortunately, I only found it in the US, but it is essentially a plastic film (most likely PVA ish). I did 3 or 4 coats of this before 3 or 4 coats of mould release. As long as there are no major undercuts there should be no problems.
I am just about to do a copy of a fibreglass foglamp covers and bust out some carbon copies for a friend using a similar technique :)

http://www.jolyonway.com

any pva will do really.

obviosly better quality ones let you use less coats. but i do 15+ anyway/