Odd tab and bracket making

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#1

I have some panels i want to reproduce, problem is there are some tabs and mounts on the backside of the part that cannot be formed with the lay up. What i’m looking at doing is adding/gluing these tabs and mounts on after the part is made and cured.

I was going to upload a couple photos of these complicated mounts but my camera batteries are dead.

I’m going to make a female mold of the tabs and mounts i want to reproduce. After the mold is made i’ll wax it with a q-tip and spray pva on the mold. next will come epoxy mixed with some marble dust powder and carbon fiber that has been chopped up, also some chopped glass in the mix ( why not LOL ). Then i’ll demold that mount or tab and epoxy it onto the backside of the part i made earlier. For positioning of the tab i’m looking at ways of dimpling the laminate/mold so i know exactly where to position the tab on the interior of the laminated part.

I’ll keep you posted, and if you have any good ideas …post them :slight_smile:

#2

that’s a good idea, I havesimilar issues with some body work too, those parts are such a pain if you want to make it 100% stock mounting.

I have tired to look for puchtabs at napa and other places that I could just epoxy on to the back sides but no luck yet…

#3

can you just make metal brackets instead?

#4

I always hate parts that require reverse side mounting tabs/screw points etc etc

For alignment ; the best way that I’ve been able to do this is to make a rough mockup/template mold of the back of the item and cut out the area where the attachement points go. Depending on the specific attachement method I’ll either reproduce the actual mounting or figure a new way to attach with either nuts/bolts/screws etc. Then secure them with epoxy/VER/PER

Deffinately the trickiest part IMO