How I make fiberglass upholstery panels for strange shapes.

O.K. Guys----I have asked about this 3 or 4 times, and not received a clear answer, so now you are going to get to see how I do it. The rear inside corners of my roadster pickup are a really strange shape, as they are running from a large radius and corner down to a small radius and corner. I have thought about this for some time, and although there are many ways to do this, I am going to record how I do it, with my digital camera. First of all, I have to have something in place to form the fiberglass cloth to. It doesn't have to be strong or durable, just strong enough to rough in my initial shape and support the fiberglass cloth and resin. This first picture shows the skeleton of the final shape, roughed in with peices of 1/4" x 3/4" wooden door trim, and some peices of the 1/8" luan mahogany left over from my door panels---all stuck in place with my glue gun. ---Stay tuned---there will be more pictures and explanation as I progress.

This is phase 2 of making the panel. I have covered the wooden skeleton with aluminum tape, to bridge all the gaps and to give more detail to the shape of the panel that I want to build. I could go ahead at this stage and cover what I have done with mat and resin, but I want it to be smoother and better defined before I proceed to that stage.

This may seem very obvious, but it is a critical step in the process. Anything which may interfere with the new upholstery panel should be bolted into place and checked for interferance.---In this case, you can see that a sharp ridge in the aluminum tape profile, where it transitions down to the back of the cockpit is pressing against the back of my newly upholstered seat. In some cases, the form which was just made to hold the aluminum tape profile would be modified now to correct the problem. In my case, since that ridge is formed by one of the wooden slats that can not be easily changed, I will go ahead and form the panel in fiberglass,then modify the final fiberglass form before I upholster it.

O.K.---final picture for today.---The white stuff you see is drywall compound that is used to smooth joints in sheets of drywall (gypsum board) that is used in houses. It will dry overnite, and is extremely easy to sand and shape. I will keep posting pictures untill I have created a fiberglass panel and upholstered it, so you can all see how easy it is.

picture

Frikken Sah-weet. Keep em coming please!

Thanks for the the camera/posting effort.

Brian thanks for sharing all this with us. You do some very creative work.

Pat

Not a lot of progress to show here. The first coat of drywall mud has dried, and I have just sanded it with 120 grit paper then applied a second coat. This doesn't have to be perfect like it would for actual drywall repair, but its nice to have the profile close to where you want to end up. It is kind of a "pay me now or pay me later" type of thing. Drywall mud sands extremely easy when dried. Bodyfill, on the other hand is a real bear to sand. The surface which you see, will actually become the inside surface of the fiberglass panel.

I'm watching to see just what an "upholstery panel" is...

Brian, that is very nice work man. I've been folowing for a whlie and I'm excited to see you start to lay the glass. A very exeptional job, the glass should be a killer backing. I've been helping my father do upholstery for 20 years now and we only ever use melomine or something like that. The solid form will be killer with the shape already there.

Very nice work.

Kcress---Basically, what I want to do is upholster the inside corner of the cockpit, but not follow the contour of the body sheetmetal. I need to create a rigid panel, with the same curvature and profile as the shape I have created with the wood, tape and plaster. I will do this by first making the shape, as I have done, then cover that shape with fiberglass cloth and resin. When the cloth and resin has hardened, I will remove it from the car and have an "upholstery panel". I will then remove all the wood, plaster, and tape, and upholster the "panel" with vinyl which matches my bucket seats, then reinstall the panel into the corner of the body, and it will be an exact fit. I need to do this to create the shape to support the vinyl material. Thats about as simple as I can explain it.

That's more than enough of an explaination. Thanks brianrupnow! I'll continue the watch.

We're ready for fiberglass!!! The drywall mud has been applied and sanded twice. If we were doing a wall, we'd go for one more coat, but that isn't necessary here. As I said before, the surface that you see in this picture will become the hidden side of the fiberglass upholstery panel. Tomorrow morning I will coat the white area and the masking taped area with 3 coats of paste wax (the type used for floors), and not polish it, just leave it as applied. The fiberglass mat will be cut large enough to cover all of the white area and overlap onto the masking tape about
1 1/2" all the way around. I will wet the fiberglass mat with resin and hardner on my old workbench tabletop, using a "throw away" paintbrush, then pick up the whole gooey mess and apply it to the surface. (I wear disposable rubber gloves for this operation). I will put 2 layers on right away, then wait an hour for it to harden, then apply 2 more layers. If you try to do 4 layers at once on a vertical surface, it will "slump" into a big ugly wad at the bottom of the area that it was applied to. I will post a picture tomorrow with the glass in place.

Yeuchhhhh----what a slimy horrible mess. For saying that they build such beautifull things out of fiberglass, it is one smelly, slimy, ugly mess of snot to do business with. I gave some bad information in my last post.---Do NOT wet this stuff on a workbench and then try to carry it to the car---what was I thinking????---its like trying to carry oiled toilet paper. Proper way to do this is to cut the mat to the correct shape, mix up your resin, and apply the resin to the surface of the drywall mud with an old paintbrush, (slather it on good). Then pick up the peice of still dry mat, carry it over to the car, position it correctly, then push it against the wetted surface with the old paintbrush. Keep wetting the paintbrush in the can of mixed resin and gently press the mat into the wetted surface untill the mat has no white areas (dry areas) left on it. Then repeat. The resin was setting up fast today, so I didn't wait after the first 2 layers of glass were applied. I went right to the third (I only used 3 layers of mat). I used any remaining resin in the can to recoat both cab corners and to smooth the mat down a bit more. Now I will wait a couple of days, then pry the hardened fiberglass forms off (thats why everything was coated with paste wax, to act as a release agent.

Quote:

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I gave some bad information in my last post.---Do NOT wet this stuff on a workbench and then try to carry it to the car---what was I thinking????---

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Dang, Brian . . . I saw this too late to warn you. Good job, though. I had to do a bunch of glassing to fix the floor of my Gibbon coughcrapcough coupe. On-site with brush and gloves is the ONLY way.

You don't have to wonder how I learned that lesson, eh?

If you know the day is going to be warm then keep the (sealed) can of polyester resin in the fridge before using. Mix the resin in your favorite Folgers coffee can and set the can in a drain pan filled with ice water. You can get over an hour of working time with the resin this way.

If you have larger areas to do you might want to think about using FabMat instead of mat and cloth. FabMat is a stiched laminate of cloth and mat, comes in quite a few different weights. Cut it to shape dry, wet it out, then carry it to the work area. You can lay down an 1/8" layer in one pass. Great for large flat areas such as floor boards. With the outside layers being cloth the problem of stray strands is virtually eliminated. The stiching keeps the "squirming" of the shape (while being carried) down to a minimum.

Regards, Mark

Hey Denny---glad to have you back. I do value your input.

Brian, nice work, believe me I know how fast that stuff sets up! MAW, thanks for the tip about keeping the resin cold, I have used it outside on a hot day and it really sets up fast under those conditions!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Hi People---I haven't abandoned things, just been busy with other aspects of the build. I marked the panels with a felt tipped pen so that I would know where to trim them, then removed them from the roadster pickup. They came out very easily, and I trimmed them to "finish size" with my air driven cutting wheel. The wood, plaster, and tape all came out of the body with a bit of persuasion, and when I tried the fiberglass panels for "fit" they were perfect. I have to spend some time now sanding the panels nice and smooth on the side that will be upholstered, then will cover them with 1/8" landau top foam and the same nuagahyde that is on the bucket seats. I haven't figured out yet how I will mount them into place in the car, but I may just use waterproof panel adhesive from the home building supplier. I will post another picture after I have them upholstered.

Now that the roadster pickup is essentially finished and on the road, I have some time to revisit these panels. This morning I used some 2-part filler. and filled any low spots. then sanded everything smooth and uniform on the side which will be upholstered. (this took about 2 hours for each panel). Tomorrow I will buy some 1/4" thick closed cell upholstery foam, and will apply it and some of my left over nuagahyde material, (left over from upholstering the seats.)

brianrupnow you have to sand them *that* much even though you are going to put foam over them?

Kcress--Probably not. However once you get the foam on them, if it does show the bumps and hollows, its too late. I am going to use a very thin foam for these items, and I had time to kill on Sunday morning, so I smoothed them just to be safe.

Roger that. Thanks.

Just a thought on attaching them. Attach a piece on the top side that can be slipped under the lip of the top edge of the body, same place you had the sticks set in place, and might use one or two polished stainless screws with finish washers on the bottom.
Put em in top 1st, screw the bottom down, put in the seat, & there ya go! :)

They would be clean up top, clean under the seat, and removable if you ever need to w/o tearing them or the truck up.

VW---thats a good idea, however I think that I will use panel adhesive. If I ever have to remove the panel, that stuff will let go with a heat-lamp and putty knife.---The lip that you are suggesting I fit it under has stiffner ribs up under it, so its not so easy to do what you suggest.

This is the last post to this thread---the picture shows the end result upholstered and installed in the roadster pickup. I ended up not using any foam at all, just glued the nuagahyde directly to the fiberglass, and wrapped it around the "back" side and glued it there also. Works great, looks great---I'm happy.

Nice work I did not follow what you were doing at first, but I got ya now!,I build boats here on the east coast and am up to my eyes in fiberglass construction!, I would be willing to help with any more tech you may need, God knows I am looking for help here too, All the best Bo

outstanding, great job.