how much to buy?

I want to do my first fiberglass project and was wondering how much resin and mat etc to buy. the project will be 1.5 cu ft sealed box in the corner of my trunk for 2 tens as well as small kick panel pods. Also ive been reading about this cabosil/aerosil that allows you to get rid of the matting and spread the resin on as a paste. is this a good idea or should I stick with mat

Jay stick with mat. Everything ive read about the cabosil says that its skipping corners. You dont want to skip corners. You dont want your nice new pretty painted box to explode in your trunk.

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Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!

It all depends on how much MDF you make you box out of. In other words if you make the back, top, bottom, and sides out of MDF wood then you would only need enough matting to cover 5-7 layers of fiberglass on the front.

As for the kick panels, I personally don't use glass (unless I am making a mold of the kick panel first. some people just like to build onto the original kick panel for fitting purposes) I just add the speaker rings, stretch the fleece, add resin and bondo.

And as far as glass and resin quantity...is this your first attempt at fiberglass? if so you may want to buy a little bit extra of each (say somewhere along the lines of two gallons of resin, and a few yards of matting) just because the mixing ratio takes time to get used to.

good luck and if you have any other questions be sure to ask.

No MDF, all glass for the sub box. its gonna tuck into the back corner of the trunk. as far as the kicks are you saying that soaking the fleece with resin and letting it dry will be enough?? you dont need to use mat on this? Will it stand up to getting kicked all the time?

Oh, you are going to fiberglass the whole thing huh? You aren't going to do a behind the bench install on it? As far as that goes, go to advance auto, autozone, etc. and buy one of their packs of mat ( I think it is like 5-6 bucks for about three yards of 1 ounce chop mat) or something like that...can't really remember. Using that should give you an idea of how much you will use. While you're there go ahead and buy a gallon of their resin (like 25 dollars) it comes with two tubes of hardener and mixing directions.

As for the kick panels...try not to kick them, they really are there for show and some sound really. But if your foot happens to slip occasionally I would be more worried about scuffin the paint than breaking the enclosure. The fleece should hold it's form well...but, if you feel like going though all of the extra work of laying the glass, trying to maintain the shape, and all of the sanding then it's your call as far as glassing it. IMO it would be sufficient with just the sub ring, stretched fleece, and resin.

If you use a nice thick fleece for your kick panels like the kind they sell on www.selectproducts.com it will be very strong once you soak the front and back sides with resin. After that, use some short strand duraglass, or bondo-glass to do your initial body filler. This helps strengthen it more. Sand that down to a point where it's looking pretty good with an 80 grit sandpaper, and finish it off with bondo, or a nice product called Icing. You can get this at a body shop supply store. The fleece and duraglass will give you your strength, the icing will fill in the details.

Remember not to stretch your fleece too tight, you could warp your kick panels and they won't fit right.

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A gallon of resin from Home depot and 5 yards of 1 ounce chop strand mat from USCOMPOSITES.COM.

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Why do you ask if I ate paint chips when I was younger?