new here with some ?????s

General Composites Discussions Composites Talk
#1

I am sure you guys that are good at this stuff get sick of us newbies asking the same questions over and over again, sorry. I’ve read almost every post on here and I just never seem to get ALL the info I need so I decided to log on and just ASK…

I am trying to customize my interior so I took my entire dash out, covered it with some spray on foam, like you would use at your house -foam in a can stuff( which really worked good), and then carved it into a shape I liked, one with no really small radii turns or deep indentions. I was trying to think ahead about making it easy to eventually cover…

I did all of this to make sure the original equipment ( instruments, heater vents, etc) would fit correctly and the mounting bolts would line up right. And I am not sure I could create a mold with the limited equipment that I have…as well as limited experience.

Now I want to cover that foam with a layer of fiberglass, sand it and fill it to a nice smooth surface. Then I want to cover it with Carbon fiber…

My questions are:
1: Will that work?
2. What is the best resin to use? Do I need more than one type to get the high gloss surface?
3. Will I be able to bend the material over the edges to get a nice clean look without a vacuum system?
4. Am I asking the best questions here? I am sure I missed alot of things due to my inexperience.

I look forward to trying to use the CF, my alternative is covering the dash in tweed which looks amateurish sometimes…

#2

Without any fiberglassing experience, I think this is a very difficult project to work on. IMO in order to do it correctly you will need some equipments. However, not knowing how they work and what you’re supposed to do with them is even bigger of a problem. Since you’ve gotten this far, lets just do it the right way. You’ll learn and gain experience as you go along. It’ll take longer to finish the project, but you’ll have something at the end. Trying to take shortcuts now because you don’t think you can do it correctly will only result in a bad part. Plus you don’t learn anything at the end. So go get some fiberglass mat, preferrably 2oz mat, and some polyester laminating resin. Wet out the mat and drape it over your entire dash. Just do 2 consecutive layers of 2oz matt and use your brush to get the mat to lay down evenly over the foam. Just let it cure, trim the edges and what not and start your sanding. Take some bondo and fill in the rough spots and sand some more until you have a completely smooth surface. Come back when you’re done.