Noob Fiberglass Dash And Center Console

We recommend that you start with a small project first to give you a good handling of how the glass will work. Something that doesn't involve use of the interior of the car. For your frame rings, give them an 1/8" rabbet cut and staple the fleece to the rabbet cut. Trim the excess fleece off with a razor blade as close to the staples as possible. then use duraglass to fill in the area.

The red is the rabbet cut (1/8" in and 1/4" deep) 

This project will get you most of the basics for making a good quality console and even speaker rings too. So now when you get to work on your dash, you'll know what to expect from your work

Good luck with your project.

brbman2002 wrote: Thanks for the post i will do that first so i see what to expect. Also Can u list all the materials to make the project and good places to find them. Thanks again!

Materials:

Wood (Wood Store, Some automotive shops, Home Depot & Lowes )

Fleece (Fabric store) 1 yard (Recommend getting light solid color fleece, doesn't matter what color)

Tools:

Take the trim ring board and put a rabbet cut that is 3/4" in and 1/4" deep into what will be the top of your trim ring.

Next, lay a THIN coat of wood glue to the back side of the ring. Apply the 1/4" backboard to it and staple with the 3/8" staples. The staples are more of a tacking. As the glue dries, it will shrink pulling the wood tighter and harden to be harder than the wood itself. Use the router with the flush trim bit in place and rout the backboard to be flush with the ring. Last is to set the router with the 1/8" rabbet cut bit and rout an 1/8" in by 1/4" deep cut into the top outside edge of the trim ring. Now the monitor mount is complete.

Next take your base board and put a 1/8" in 1/4" deep rabbet cut all around the top edge of the board.

Take your Monitor assembly and place it on the base board (no glue, no nails/staples)

Place a thin coat of glue on the bottom of the legs of your monitor assembly.

Now you are ready for the fleece. Spread the whole piece over the top of the assembly and staple the fleece to the base board only for now using the 3/16" or 1/4" staples. Staple the fleece to the 1/4" side of the rabbet cut. Keep the fabric taut but not too tight. The fiberglass resin will shrink slightly as it cures to tighten it. Then staple the fleece to the 1/8" side of the rabbet cut in the top of the ring. Make sure the staples hold on to the whole edge of the fleece. (end to end) Then trim the fleece off from the inside of the top ring and from the outside of the base. Try to trim the fleece as close as possible to the staples to save on grinding/sanding later.

For this next step, wear clothes you don't mind ruining and latex/nitrile gloves. Put a protective barrier of some sort over your work table (black garbage bags or painter's plastic)

Sand the project with the 60-80 grit to remove lumps, large spikes, blobs, and the wax that comes to the surface while curing. Blow the dust off the project. Prep a little batch of duraglass for use. (about the size of your palm and 1/2" to 3/4" thick blob) Mix with hardener according to directions. When you get it to a consistant color throughout the blob, it is ready. Use the putty card to get it on the areas where you stapled to. Don't worry about making it look nice for now. You'll only get a few minutes to be able to spread it. Once you get all of it covered (or when the glass gels) stop working it and get the card's working edge covered with what remaining duraglass you have left on your mixing board. We just jab it into the remaining blob on the mixing board. then put it aside for now. grab a SHARP razor blade (or olfa if you have it) and trim away your large chunks of  excess material that made it on. Don't worry too much about making it look clean. Just get it so you don't have to deal with a lot of sanding later. If you didn't get all of the staple areas covered at this time, sand with 80 grit along the areas where your next batch will overlap with the current duraglass. By this time you'll be able to clean off your putty card too by breaking off the chunks of duraglass that hardened over the card. Blow off the dust and repeat until it is done.

Start with 80 grit and hit all of the project as evenly as possible. Then 120 until the sanding is even all over. If you are using the 2 part primer, now is the time to do it. If your primer comes from a spray can, wait until you get to 400 grit, then spray the primer. Hit it again with 80 and 120. Then get the 220 grit and sand again. By this time, your sanding will be to sand out any of the scratches left behind by the previous sandpaper. once all of the 80 and 120 grit sanding dips and gashes are gone move to 320 and remove traces of the 220. Same with the 400 and 600. Expect to put at LEAST an hour (since it is your first time) to get this sanding job right. Any imperfections you leave in at this point will show up in the paint. After 600, you are ready to paint.

From here, the paint job will depend on your painting skills and creativity.

This project gives you most of the skills needed to produce quality projects for later on. Some of the steps can be done other ways, but this will give you many of the techniques needed to make most things in the future.

Good luck.

PS. We request that you take pictures and post them up for us.

Thanks. It's the owner's project that he gives to new people to see if they can do custom work as they say they can. They don't have to follow the instructions I gave here. We just give them the materials and ask them to make the panel that meets the dimensions. It's a good way to test the potential for someone wanting to join and claiming they can do it with the best.

Another project have is to make a wedge speaker box with rounded edges and side panel inserts. Again a project that will need most of the skills neccessary to build almost any type of box. (except Aperiodic)

We don't turn away people who can't complete the project properly or anything. We help them build up some of the skills and go from there.