OK Bob. Your door panels definitely have my interest (since I am struggling on how to do the panels for my car!!).

"Back to the regularly scheduled program"??? THIS IS A REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM - NOW!! Outstanding work!!!

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Project Fiero GT 2M8 Update thread

[This message has been edited by Haagster (edited 05-10-2006).]

any updates??? and to get this back on top...

[This message has been edited by Haagster (edited 05-14-2006).]

[This message has been edited by RCR (edited 05-15-2006).]

Ok...As I left it, I had a rough shape on my "work" table. After taking the panel on and off the car about a hundred times, I mounted it to the door with all of the fasteners. Before doing that, though, I covered the door in plastic so I wouldn't slop resin all over the place. And sometime in there, I almost burned the car to the ground, but that's in another thread. Anyway, I shaped the panel so first, I could close the door, then matched it to the trim pieces. Then I shaped the panel to flow with the dash and lastly, how I wanted it. Here are some progress pics:

This pic shows the panel mounted:


And this is with the door closed I tried to follow the flow of the dash into the panels:


Here is a closer shot of how the end is sculpted out to match the dash. The foam is soft enough that 180 grit sandpaper cuts it smoothly, but it doesn't take forever. I pretty much used a utility knife, a small Xacto saw blade, and various pieces of sandpaper to do all of the sculping.


Here is a closer shot of the detail I put dividing the rise into the dash from the top sill. It should flow pretty well into the door pull.


After getting the sculpting how I wanted it, I started laying up 1.5oz matt. I started at the top and worked my way down. To help aid the fiberglass in keeping it's shape, especially on the bottom edges, I wrapped the foam and glass with aluminum foil. I tried spraying the foil with cooking spray to help release it. The foil was still a bit@#^ to get off. I had to scrap a lot off with a knife, but it did the trick. It kept the glass from coming off the foam, so the shape was intact.


Here is a shot of the bottom half, using my "dryers". 1000 Watts of halogen power. It'd work better without the aluminum reflecting the heat back, but you do what you have to do...


Lastly, here is a shot with the door closed that shows the curve of the panel from the top.



Next step is to pull the panel off and finish the glassing and add some of the detail work.

till later...

Bob

Edit: A couple invaluable tools when working with fiberglass: a good shop vac to clean up the dust. And a respirator, to keep that crap out of the lungs.

[This message has been edited by RCR (edited 05-15-2006).]

I didn't get past this point because that was right at the point when the "fit hit the shan" at home (can you spell separation and divorce)...







I can (almost) start working on it again. Still need to get a different (better) driver's door panel and a passenger panel to work... And yes, you have at least 1 "fan" actively reading your thread!!!

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Project Fiero GT 2M8 Update thread

[This message has been edited by Haagster (edited 05-16-2006).]

Leave the pics Haagster...Just adds to the flavor of the topic....
Hope you get your "business" in order soon and get back at it. Always good to see what ideas others have and how we take different paths to execute the same thing. Looking forward to seeing you build.
- It looks like you have your door pull moved already. I haven't done that yet. I was thinking I should do it when I know how the center panel works out, but maybe I should do it first after all...

Bob

[This message has been edited by RCR (edited 05-16-2006).]