Liam in Montreal

I'd like to take it up as a new hobby, now that I have a garage and all....

First on my list is a simple hood pod for 4 rally lights....

What do you think? doable project? what tools/equipement do I need?

thanks
Liam

Mike O.

...there are several in Barnes & Noble that will out line the basics and some with advanced techniques like making hard molds and working with other resin based systems like CF.

Mike O.

cuatrokoop

Speaking of "Got heat?", don't forget oven space to "bake" any parts that need so. Kinda limits the piece size. Thank god for walk-in Autoclaves

Lightweight-USPowah

Do a search for lighttweightt or lightweight and fiberglass, im sure a lot will come up.. The book I got was great... I highly suggest you work with epoxy resins simply because they are non-toxic and easy to use.. I tried the polyester based stuff but that **** is cancer causing (don't need any of that) so once I found out about West System I dropped the polyester ****.. I started out making some flat panels, then once I felt comfortable I went onto bigger things (my system).. Unfortunetly, once I started working/school Ive got lazy and stopped working on my system which is why it is not done.. But as you can see the inside of my box is done, its the storage bins that are the problem.. A few people on here have seen the box and they liked it.. I love the smoothness of the inside, in person it looks like it all flows.. Oh, this.. WAS A PAIN IN THE ***! I could never imagine paying for this to be done.. Took so long, oh momma.. I could only imagine the price.. Its definitely fun, once I get this done I wanna move onto carbon fiber.. If you have any questions just drop me an email, Id be more then happy to give you tips or whatever..

and yes.. DOABLE... Just be prepared to spend long hours sanding, molding, etc.. oh, I hope you like bondo, and forget that red bondo ****, you gotta go with the green bondo...

John

<img src="http://images.fotki.com/v9/photos/3/30429/101745/BlingBling007-vi.jpg">

<img src="http://images.fotki.com/v9/photos/3/30429/101745/August30020-vi.jpg?1031474744">

JoeyM

you don't need a book. the materials are so cheap from anywhere like boater's world, west marine or whatever. just follow the instructions on the can and use some common sense and experiment. if it comes out crappy make another.

Liam in Montreal

Cool. Thanks guys, I guess I found my winter indoor activity

PWR

The West system is one of the easiest products to use. As Mike O said by a book. For the light pods you may want build the molds first however, you also have to know the brand/size of pod lamp that you're going to use. I would not assume that they're all the same size.<ul><li><a href="http://catalog.com/susq/hella/pod.htm">Hella Pod Lamp</a></li></ul>

Lightweight-USPowah

By reading a book you can learn about the materials you will be working about and you will learn about the process.. You don't have to read the chapters on tensile and compressive stresses but you should at least read the chapers on the actual laying process, and learn about the chemical reactions that go on.. I read a couple of books before hand and from those books I learned about various techniques which will help save you time.. I don't know about you but I don't like the trial and error method doesn't even compare to what you can learn by reading a book.... As for materials being cheap.. Thats not entirely correct, if you go with a polyester based resin then yeah, that stuff is cheap but you are also exposing yourself to dangerous chemicals that are known to cause cancer(not exactly something I wanted to do).. After doing some investigating on the internet I learned about West Systems which is a company that produces epoxy based resins which are non-cancer causing.. The downside is that their epoxy resins are expensive, but Im not a big fan of cancer so Im cool with paying more for a safer product....

fusilier

Check and see if one of these UrQuattro light pods won't fit on an A4 hood.<ul><li><a href="http://www.eurosportrally.com">http://www.eurosportrally.com</a</li></ul>

JoeyM

in all practicality you are right, but i guess i don't really think about things like safety too much. and i have to read way too much for work to read much outside of it.

i guess that's why i ride a motorcycle to work in newark.