custom forming abs plastic or fiberglass

Hey Everyone,

I've got a wild hair to experiment with making some custom lower door panels for my 76 camaro. The stock panels are made of plastic with map pockets and making some replacements with a build out for 6.5" speakers would be pretty easy.

I know I can fabricate some out of fiberglass, I've done this before and pretty good at it. But instead of building a one-off set of panels just for my car I would like to build some sort of mold and be able to duplicate them fairly easy.

I have two options: Fiberglass mold or vacuum forming abs. I like the idea of using abs plastic because it has a texture built in and basically would be ready to go pretty quick...fiberglass you would have to prep and cover with vinyl.

Has anyone done any vacuum forming with abs plastic? I've looked online and found a few good websites showing how to do this. My thing is the lower panels will be 40" long so putting the plastic in the oven to heat is a no-go. I would need to built some sort of "hot-box" with heat lamps or oven elements to be able to heat the plastic.

So in some ways fiberglass molds looks looks like a better option and would be stronger.

Suggestions? Tips?

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1976 Camaro
1982 Corvette

i haven't tried the abs. sorry. But we all would like to see some pics of your project!

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A good friend of mine owns SubZero MFG and he has recently dove into custom marine applications and is building boxes 100% out of ABS.

2 things he has encountered is that with any plastic you pay by the weight of the plastic and not the size of the sheet. i.e. a 2x2' sheet of 1/4" abs literally costs twice as much as a 2x2' 1/8" sheet. For production purposes this is always a factor to consider.

Also ABS flexes like crazy so the boxes he is building literally have a complex "rib cage" the last box he build had 37 pieces which 26 of where inside the box as bracing.

Not to say it couldn't be done, but just a few things to consider, if you did you ABS i would re-enforce the back with fiberglass.

when i work with plastic sheets i just make a wooden buck and use a heat gun, cuz is the shapes are to complex, u can plastic weld more then one piece together, if u choose to make a mold and going to be reproducing the piece over and over again, as to say sell them, u may wanna over look how cheap abs sheets can be, and go with a plastic resin system, like what Alumilite sells

How did you ever make out on this???  I'd be interested to see, I'm currently in the middle of redoing my 70 Camaro - and trying to figure out how to do the audio setup... and that will have a big impact on the rest of my interior.

Here's a link to a detailed post on my first crack at a dash:  https://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1683236#post1683236 - I never fully completed it (texture paint, etc - it's still got a coat of primer on it so the dull gray look kind of kills it.

I have a totally new direction I want to take it, but the audio part is screwing me up... whether I want to glass in a holder for an MP3 player or do a hidden carputer is going to have a huge impact on the look.  I stumbled across this https://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_5it/index.html?country=us&lang=en&p=image2 and it might very well may be the way I go... Just make a small pod on the top of the dash in the middle, with a USB connection so I can take it inside an update it, etc... but then I have no idea how to hook up amps and speakers, let alone which ones I would need. (That's why I came here, lol.)

Anyhoo... if you've got any progress pic's ... POST EM!!!!

Vacuum forming is a real option, This is how Corvette america makes their repro door panels.

I have a vacuum former and this is how I do door panels, dashes and other smaller panels, The molds can be made quickly from Medium Density particle board for a few shots or if you want to make hundreds or thousands of shots you can cast epoxy molds from the med density pattern.

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Steve