First Project, Sunfire Door Panels
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Fiberglass, Fabrication, and Interiors
Forum Discription: Fiberglass Kick Panels, Subwoofer Enclosures, Plexiglas, Fabrics, Materials, Finishes, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=76310
Printed Date: April 19, 2024 at 7:21 PM
Topic: First Project, Sunfire Door Panels
Posted By: slimmatic
Subject: First Project, Sunfire Door Panels
Date Posted: April 16, 2006 at 11:03 AM
Well, this is my first attempt at fiberglassing. I am fiberglassing my door panels. Smoothing out the seams, filling in the lower pocket and mounting speaker/tweeter pods. Let me know what you think.
The speaker & tweeter pod.
Wrapped in cloth.
First layer of resin.
First layer of resin.
First layer of resin.
Pic in car.
Another pic in car.
Laying down some mat.
After a few layers of mat.
Let me know what you think. Any comments/criticims/tips are appreciated.
Replies:
Posted By: xTimx
Date Posted: April 16, 2006 at 12:21 PM
i have actually one Q about this setup and a bunch of doorpanel fiberglassing as well. how do you attach the panel back onto the door? :S
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xTimx
Posted By: slimmatic
Date Posted: April 16, 2006 at 12:29 PM
I use the original screw holes that attached the door panel to the door. I also added 3 brackets on the right side of the last pic (they will be painted black so they won't really be seen.
Posted By: firelizard
Date Posted: April 17, 2006 at 4:44 PM
Looks good so far! Will you be painting it, or wrapping it?
Posted By: slimmatic
Date Posted: April 17, 2006 at 5:56 PM
The panel as you see it there will be painted glossy black to match the rest of the interior. There is an insert that goes on the upper part of the door panel which will be wraped in black mole skin, as well as the door handle.
Posted By: phatx96xaccord
Date Posted: April 19, 2006 at 11:08 PM
looks good so far. very similiar to the project i will be doing with my accord. what brand speakers u using? Is there a cross over, if so, where u mounting it? ------------- would u like your chicken original or extra crispy?
Posted By: slimmatic
Date Posted: April 20, 2006 at 6:48 AM
I have Ininifty Kappas 60.5cs (6.5") speakers w/ tweeters. There is a crossover that I currently have under my seat, and it will most likely stay there. I've seen sopme people put them in the doors, but I don't really like that. I'd rather hide them.
Posted By: One_Dieu
Date Posted: April 25, 2006 at 9:24 PM
You pimp keep up the work and post losts of pic's.
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Respect the Blood Line
Posted By: mustangfoo
Date Posted: April 26, 2006 at 1:14 PM
looks good man, I want to do the same thing to my car, I have 4 door panels though and they r plane so Imma redesign em with 2 6.5's up front and a tweeter and 1 6.5 in bak with a tweeter(each door). Its looking real nice, but I had a question, prolly a stupid question but w/e Imma ask anyway. After you finish glassing and cut out the hole for your speaker do you remove the wooden dowels or just leave them in place??? Well keep up the good work and keep us posted with the progress!!!!
Posted By: slimmatic
Date Posted: April 26, 2006 at 1:35 PM
One_Dieu: Thanks. I'll have more pics up after this weekend.
mustangfoo: Most people remove them. Since I used plastic rings instead of wooden ones, I might keep them there for extra support(since unlike wood the resin won't soak into the plastic).
Posted By: mustangfoo
Date Posted: April 26, 2006 at 1:48 PM
ahhh sounds good thx, and yea I will be waiting for those pics too! lol
Posted By: slimmatic
Date Posted: May 14, 2006 at 8:35 PM
Well, been very busy, but here are some updates.
Panel with a few layers of glass
Door panel sanded after being glassed
Speaker & tweeter hole cutout
Testfit
Body filler applied
Some sanding of the filler
Half of the other panel after filler and sanding
Just finished with classes friday and am moving to my new apartment Thursday, so hopefully I can get a lot more done on these this week before I move. Thanks for checking out my progress. Hopefully have some finished or near-finished pics soon.
Posted By: mustangfoo
Date Posted: May 16, 2006 at 3:05 AM
Its looking good, keep up the work and get them finished before moving otherwise you are gonna forget about them caught up in the move! lol
Posted By: slimmatic
Date Posted: May 16, 2006 at 5:52 AM
Posted By: primal impulse
Date Posted: May 17, 2006 at 4:37 PM
total props man...good work...i am currently in the process of making panels for my Eclipse...although i am to cheap to buy a camera (lol), i dont have pics to post...but I will post when the product is finished. I havent got a whole lot of ambition after working 7-3 during the week, so i dont get much done. Plus my girlfriend wanting to hang out doenst help the project's progress either :)-
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Hustle, Loyalty, Respect
Posted By: killer sonata
Date Posted: May 18, 2006 at 7:17 AM
7-3? I'll gladly tradt you hours. Im tired of working 7-7. I guess I got lucky with my GF though. She enjoys helping me and learning what im doing. Shes almost as good at fiberglassing as me. Now back to the original topic...those door panels look pretty sweet! how re you going to finish them? Paint? If you are looking for a suede finish, I use this stuff called suede flocker. If you are interested make sure you buy the stuff made with nylon fibers. Its more durable than the regular stuff.
Posted By: primal impulse
Date Posted: May 18, 2006 at 5:57 PM
7-7 is crazy....i work that when overtime kicks in and it kills you! You got real lucky w/ the GF...if my girl knew how to fiberglass i could just kick back and say "good job honey" and watch my own project come together lol. She wants me to teach her, and Im sure I will get around to it sooner or later...but on the flip side I dont want her ending up to be better at it than me and THRASH my ego lol...so Im at a crossroads with that. Back to business.... I am still workin on the eclipse panels...layed down some resin over the fleece today..damn fleece soaks up resin like crazy. Hopefully add some matting tonite, and ready for filler sometime this weekend...i'll keep you posted...in the mean time, feel free to tell your girlfriend to come teach my girlfriend how to fiberglass....she can start w/ my panels :) ------------- Hustle, Loyalty, Respect
Posted By: the rah
Date Posted: May 20, 2006 at 8:57 PM
dude! looks good but it also looked liked a lot of work. tru,tru ------------- rah2son
Posted By: br4dy
Date Posted: June 19, 2006 at 3:19 AM
any news... whats happened with the rest? Cant wait to see the rest of the pics?
Posted By: Teamrf
Date Posted: June 19, 2006 at 11:50 PM
Nice job
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~The Rookie~
Rookie of the year that is...
Don't let the smoke out of your equiptment..it doesn't go back in.
Posted By: Melted Fabric
Date Posted: June 20, 2006 at 5:35 PM
Wow, I actually like the idea of my girl or a cool chick being better than me at my own craft. If Jessica Alba was a fiberglass guru, I don't think you would be too mad about it, especially if you had something going on with her. hehehe ------------- I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
When you do not know what you are doing and what you are doing is the best -- that is inspiration.
Posted By: sawhit4
Date Posted: June 22, 2006 at 10:50 PM
i wish my girlfriend would have half the patience of yours. Anytime she hears the words: i'm, working, and car, in the same sentence, she's got something else she needs to be doing. She hates riding in my car, much less sitting in my gerage watching me working on it. Project looks good, i plan on tackeling my own door panels pretty soon, so this has been a big help for me. its always nice to see someone else try it before you do, especially when the door panels in your car are irreplacable.
Posted By: slimmatic
Date Posted: June 24, 2006 at 11:03 PM
Well, In just graduated from college a few weeks ago and moved into a new place. Unfortunatly, there is no place for me to work on my door panels here. I will have to take a few weekend trips out to my dad's house to finish them up. I will post pics when I have some updates. Thanks for all the comments. And I agree, I would love it if my girl would help me.
Posted By: slimmatic
Date Posted: July 24, 2006 at 2:59 PM
Well... after what seemed like forever I finally had time to drive out to my dad's house today and work on these again. The filling/glazing took me a lot longer than I anticipated, but I have one panel almost ready for paint. Hopefully i'll have more time to work on these soon.
Filling/Glazing/Sanding Progress
While I waited to filler to dry I finished painting a few more of my interior pieces
Primed... almost ready for paint
Posted By: kmapro
Date Posted: July 24, 2006 at 3:58 PM
Aboslutely awesome....but I do have a question. By glassing the whole door, you added a lot of weight that could eventually wreak havoc on the hinges and cause improper alignment - thus resulting in unwanted resonance and rattle in the car. Seeing as how you "body fillered" the entire panel, whi didn't you just build a small fiberglass pod for the lower portion of the door (where you have the speakers located now). Then rough sand the factory door panel to help with adhesion, attach the pod with resin and then body filler the entire door panel - sand - and paint. That seems as if it would have cut down on alot of unnecessary sanding (IMHO) By no means am i knocking on your work - I think it is awesome. i am just making an observation from the outside looking in....
Posted By: Melted Fabric
Date Posted: July 24, 2006 at 4:28 PM
Good to see you back working on it again Slimm, your recent post in exactly one month later, coincedence? heh
Looking good, I have a 93' CrySlurr Concorde coming up in the next couple of weeks whose door panels I will have to fiberglass and "pretty-fy."
Keep us posted, and you better not respond on "Aug 24th", lol.
-------------
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
When you do not know what you are doing and what you are doing is the best -- that is inspiration.
Posted By: slimmatic
Date Posted: July 24, 2006 at 5:03 PM
kmapro wrote:
Aboslutely awesome....but I do have a question.
By glassing the whole door, you added a lot of weight that could eventually wreak havoc on the hinges and cause improper alignment - thus resulting in unwanted resonance and rattle in the car.
Seeing as how you "body fillered" the entire panel, whi didn't you just build a small fiberglass pod for the lower portion of the door (where you have the speakers located now). Then rough sand the factory door panel to help with adhesion, attach the pod with resin and then body filler the entire door panel - sand - and paint.
That seems as if it would have cut down on alot of unnecessary sanding (IMHO)
By no means am i knocking on your work - I think it is awesome. i am just making an observation from the outside looking in....
Yes, the panel is definitely much heavy now than before... but a lot of the material(mat, resin, filler) was danded off. I do not know if it will cause problems in the future. I hope not, nut i'll see.
Also, like i said before, much of the filler was sanded off the panel. I applied filler to the whole panel to help shape it. The reason I fiberglassed the entire door was that I wanted to... 1. add the pod for the speaker/tweeter, 2. fill in all the lines to create a smooth, curvy door, 3. cover the "map pocket" hole and make it smooth. This required fiberglass, as just filling it would most likely crack. The idea of just glassing the pod occured to me at the begining, but with my other goals I took this root.
Posted By: Flakman
Date Posted: July 24, 2006 at 5:15 PM
Melted Fabric wrote:
Wow, I actually like the idea of my girl or a cool chick being better than me at my own craft. If Jessica Alba was a fiberglass guru, I don't think you would be too mad about it, especially if you had something going on with her. hehehe
Jessica Alba (or any of many, many others) could be FG gurus or not...they can sit there and just BE and I'd have no problem with that whatsoever...except I would have to wake up at some point LOL. Slim, looks good. How are you planning on finishing the door? Cloth, vinyl, paint? ------------- The Flakman
I feel strange. I have deja vu and amnesia at the same time.
John | Manteca, CA
Posted By: slimmatic
Date Posted: July 24, 2006 at 7:32 PM
Painting the door panels gloss black. Which sucked, because it reuired much more sanding and prefecting that if I would've covered them. Same with the rest of the interior. There is a cloth inserts that goes along the top part where the holes are. It will be recovered in black mole skin (kinda like suede).
Posted By: kmapro
Date Posted: July 24, 2006 at 9:36 PM
Makes sense Slimm...as I said, great job and please keep us posted with the final pics....
Posted By: sawhit4
Date Posted: July 25, 2006 at 12:09 AM
kmapro wrote:
Aboslutely awesome....but I do have a question. By glassing the whole door, you added a lot of weight that could eventually wreak havoc on the hinges and cause improper alignment - thus resulting in unwanted resonance and rattle in the car. Seeing as how you "body fillered" the entire panel, whi didn't you just build a small fiberglass pod for the lower portion of the door (where you have the speakers located now). Then rough sand the factory door panel to help with adhesion, attach the pod with resin and then body filler the entire door panel - sand - and paint. That seems as if it would have cut down on alot of unnecessary sanding (IMHO) By no means am i knocking on your work - I think it is awesome. i am just making an observation from the outside looking in....
I seriously doubt his panel weighs enough to throw his doors out of alignment. If the weight of that panel was enough to make the hindges slip out of alignment, then the door would misalign with a hard slam.
Posted By: kmapro
Date Posted: July 25, 2006 at 7:30 AM
OK, so I exagerated the possible outcome a bit. I was only using that as en excuse to post the question
Posted By: brandon00733
Date Posted: July 25, 2006 at 10:15 AM
is fiberglass easy and is it expensive i am looking at building a speaker box for a JL 10 thanks
Posted By: sawhit4
Date Posted: July 25, 2006 at 12:43 PM
brandon00733 wrote:
is fiberglass easy and is it expensive i am looking at building a speaker box for a JL 10 thanks
Define easy. If you're familier with how to use hand tools and a few small power tools and you have a certain ammount of common sense then you should have no problem with it. It wont be easy like making a sandwich easy, but you wont be building a thousand piece puzzle blindfolded either. It can get pretty expensive, but if you buy in bulk and get the right stuff, you will save money in the long run. It also depends on what you are trying to make. A smaller less complicated project obviously will cost less that fiberglassing a dash or an entire trunk.
Posted By: Melted Fabric
Date Posted: July 25, 2006 at 4:58 PM
I like to define easy as "something you can do."
Fiberglassing is something you can do, even toddlers could fiberglass if they would not think the resin is candy or syrup. 
Like the goodfella sawhit said, the more complex the more time it will take but by no means is anything impossible, except maybe an entire planet constructed from fiberglass.
What is difficult takes time, what is impossible takes a little longer.------------- I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
When you do not know what you are doing and what you are doing is the best -- that is inspiration.
Posted By: slimmatic
Date Posted: July 26, 2006 at 7:00 AM
As long as you know the basic steps, anyone can fiberglass. The hard part is having the time/pateince to do it right It takes lots of time to plan out a porject, apply the correct number of layers of fiberglass, sand, use body filler/sand, and glaze the project so as to remove all defect/waves/pinholes/scratches. Most people start projects, get halfway through and never finish them. I have written up a complete tutorial on my all the steps I took to do these door panels. It can be found here - HOW TO - Fiberglass Your Door Panels
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