Topic: Is there an easy way to make fiberglass parts?

[rhinoracer]

I'm waiting for the piston rings to arrive so I can start assembling the engine.

The frame is powdercoated black waiting to get put together. Don't have cash for polished stainless rims at the moment so there's nothing for me to do at the time...

I was thinking, can I build fiberglass parts like cowls or rear seat covers without having to make molds for them?

Does anybody know of a backyard method of building fiberglass?

[Geeto67]

Is there an easy way to make fiberglass parts?

yeah, have someone else do it.

You need a mold (male not female) because you need something to lay the fiberglass over. This is how backyard people have been doing it for decades. You can make a realy simple mold out of a hard foam like styrafoam and bondo or anything else that is handy. People like to do it out of wood because the mold will survive multiple copies and the release agents will not errode it.

Tail sections and cowls are complex shapes and will require molds to do them, however the mold can be another part that you have modified to suit your application and covered in bondo to smooth out. Also those parts tend to be double sided which may require a male and female mold (you build in the female and then press the male in while the epoxy is curing.

[MrFry]

http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=ec37a8dbc56910b58a4eae3636220dd9&threadid=145975&perpage=15&pagenumber=1
have a look through that at the process
...it's for carbon fiber in the end, but it would be about the same process for Fiberglass i imagine

[rhinoracer]

You're right, I'll let someone else do it.

[Jim F]

I used the type of foam that you use to stick plants in and then water the foam. Is dense enough to hold water but not to dense to keep from sticking a flower in it
you can shape this to what ever you want to make. I made a cafe seat and seat pan for my GS Suzuki and was able to re-locate all of my electrics plus the battery undernither the tail section

pretty easy to do, but messy

Good luck
Jim

[nickjtc]

You could use part of an old open face helmet as a bum stop for the seat....

[hymodyne]

I took a stock seatpan, sprayed the last third with "great stuff" foam in layers over about two days, a layer every 18 hours or so to keep it from being hollow and sticky inside. I took a long sharp knife with and sliced the foam hump into the shape I wanted. block sanded and then sanded with a jitterbug. I cored the tail area and inserted a short chamber made from pvc pipe to house the stem of the tail light. Get automotive aluminum tape and heavy foil, and cover the foam pod with the foil, securing it with tape. A little general purpose spray adhesive on the foam (very little, it'll soften and warp the foam) will help the foil hug the contours of your pod. I alternated two layers of fiberglass mat and resin and a thin layer of bondo to give a more precise shape. Finally, I put on a final skin of aircraft quality tight weave fiberglass cloth and resin. I wet sanded and primed, sanded again then shot with  blue metal flake acrylic enamel, along with front fender, three fairing pieces, and the tank.

Hope to put a stripe of white acrylic enamel on the seat pod, over the top of the fairing and under the belly of the bike, then clear coat and buff.

check out the galleries in here, especially carpy's. Lots of interesting variants.

hym