hi all i was just wondering if any 1 might know how hard it would be and how to make your own design Front Bumper ect i have worked with fiberglass befor and its always easy to work with.have any of you got any info on it or have maby dun this your self to make a 1 off front ???
this would be for a 94 fd-3 :Thumbsup!
I\'ve had a little experience with making fobreglass signs and I guess the principal is the same whatever your\'e making.
We made an exact original from MDF made a \'female\' mould frrom that and then used that to make what we had in MDF out of fibreglass.
I imagine something with so many compound curves as a car front would be very difficult.
John
Lots of kit desginers, when doing the first prototype, use massive blocks of stirofome (i think thats what you call it) shape the desired design, fibreglass it, sperate the stirofome from the fiberglass once dried and then you use that fibre glass model to make a mould.... or something like that
Bileave me, producing a front bumper is not going to be easy!!! My dad used to work ith GRP designing and building power boats, and every time I sujested doing car bumpers and bonnerts, he just said No chance, difficult moulding and not much market for one indevidual car!!!
But if you want to go ahead and try, then this is how you do it:
Firstly take a mould off a standard bumper: gell coat and a 3 oz layup + brace the mould with thick card tubing.
From this mould produce a standard bumper, (This should be an exact fit) put it on the car to keep the correct shape while aultering the design!!!
Mould a fairly large flat section of GRP. After this cut the standard GRP bumper and graft in the new sections (cut from the flat section) to get desired style, then using body filler ( Cheap stuff ) fill and sand to get the detaild shape of the bumper.
Once happy, spray the bumper that is on the car to get a decent finish, (if it was a total one off you could thene leave this on the car as the finished job)
or if not: wax it up and take a mould off it, but this time a 6 Oz layup with bracing ( allow the first layer to set befor you put the 2nd layer on (avoids air bubles)!!!! 3rd layer then the bracing (card tudes again) then the 4th layer.
Allow to set solid (2 days) release the mould, wax it with 8 coats of mould release wax ( wax on leave for 5 mins, wax off, leave for 20 mins. repeat for each layer of wax!!) then a thin layer of PVA mould release agent.
Once all dry, gell the mould, alow to dry for 24 Hrs, then aply a 3 Oz layup allowing the first layer to dry befor you put the second on. Allow to dry for 24 Hrs, release the moulding, trim + fit while the moulding is still "green" (not 100% cured) leave on the car 48 Hrs without driving!!! now unbolt the bumper prep + spray (because the bumper cured on the car it should be an exact fit!!!)
Bobs your uncle you have a custom bumper!!
Hope this helps
Jono
its always nice having some who knows :p
Actually designing the bumper is the hard part. the best material us use is stuff called Blue Foam. Its an insulation product and you can buy it in sheets of different sizes.
Take off your bumper and basically form a section of the blue foam into a rectangular block slightly larger than the bumper.
Next remove excess material from the rear of your block so you can offer the block up to the front of the car and make it as close a fit as possible. Make sure that you mask off all the sections of the bonnet and wings so you dont damage or scrape the paintwork when getting your block to fit.
Once its fitted to the front of the car, it should look like you\'ve just ran into a big blue cardboard box.
Now just use a wood rasp and file off the foam into the shape you want. Do one side at a time as its better to concentrate on small sections rather than the whole look. Also, its best to work from a image or a picture and transfer the outline to the foam before you cut/file.
Once you have the shape you want, this will work as a plug for your mould, and follow the instructions which Jono gave.
Very worth while when you do it, but be prepared to make an ass of it the first few times.
Hope that helps
John
thank you that does not sound to bad to do and could be fun have you any idea on price ???
Price wise, its actually not that expensive. The foam is only a few quid, I think that you can get it from builders merchants. The chopped strand fibre glass is also cheap enough. The most expensive part will be the resin. You can shop around for that. But all in I\'d say you\'ll be looking at £100 and you might get two chances out of that.
Let us know if you decide to go with it.
John
im going to design and make a simple front splitter for my FC. its going to be based on the design that the original come with you know that lower front splitter that you CANT find :) ..anyway i was thinking of using a couple of layers of upvc cladding and cutting it to shape / sanding /, fibreglassing it over and then use some filler to get a nice smooth surface. this makes the whole thing very strong which it needs to be. this wouldnt be very applicable to the front of an FD due to the more curvy bumper.
Im so bored at work i have been sat here thinking of this one. just an idea but how about if you can cut apart another (style) bumper and attach that over the standard one, securely attach and then glass/fill/sand it to perfection? if its done right it should look good? the process is a bit backyard tho....