fiberglass box

[smokeyxrt]

im thinking of making a diff. kind of box, and thought of making a fiberglass enclosure.. anyone have any tips, and is it a vary hard project??

[Notladstyle]

im thinking of making a diff. kind of box, and thought of making a fiberglass enclosure.. anyone have any tips, and is it a vary hard project??

Sticky, Painful if you get it on you with a hot mix, messy, can destroy carpets, and cancer causing.

But also Fun, Creative, Unique, extremely impressive when finished, and much more entertaining than wood.


Some basic tips...

Pull out all the stock carpets - you can always sand resin off the sheet metal or just cover it up!

Fiberglass mat can be very sharp when it dries and is very brittle. If you get poked and break a piece off in your skin you will have pain for several weeks unless you dig it out.

Dont work on an uncovered driveway. Resin loves cement and wont come off without chipping the cement.

Do not use heatlamps unless you have to. New layers wont stick as well if you heat lamp the layer below it.

Laying resin is the fun part! sanding and finishing it is the sucky part. I usually just go carpet because its so much easier and more forgiving of imperfections.

[smokeyxrt]

alright.. well thanks.. i was thinking of painting it when i get my car re-painted? so it wont be as hard as some people make it out to be? because ive made boxes before, but as you said wood just gets old, so i wanted to think outside the box.lol

[Notladstyle]

alright.. well thanks.. i was thinking of painting it when i get my car re-painted? so it wont be as hard as some people make it out to be? because ive made boxes before, but as you said wood just gets old, so i wanted to think outside the box.lol


making the box is not hard - getting the surface to a paintable status is the hard part... you will not get it right the first time for sure.

[TBSpyder]

It's alot like body work, which is how I originally learned to do fiberglass work...after doing a couple body kits. Basically, to do a fiberglass box or speaker pod, you need to make a frame out of something sturdy, stretch an absorbent material tightly over it, resin it, and than begin applying layers of fiberglass matting/resin. Like Dalton said, the finishing stage is the most time consuming and messy. This is when you begin applying layers of bondo or another filler type material and sanding it down until you have the desired smooth surface. I wouldn't expect to get the hang of it until you've attempted it several times, there's a reason people charge so much for it.