Thursday, June 16, 2011

The fiberglass hood will be my first real try at making a plastic part. The first thing to do is draw out a sketch of the area to be covered on a solid surface.
Next you will need to cut templates out of chipboard or similar material for the model frame.






Next I prefer to start at one end and start building up the model using the foam insulation I described in an earlier post. The nose of the template seems to be a logical place to begin and work backwards. The foam needs to be glued up a little thicker than the overall dimensions so that it can be trimmed to the finish dimensions.



There are probably better ways to do this but I prefer to cut the sections and layer them up to the needed thickness.






You can make the model completely out of foam if you like and it would work just fine. But I prefer to use chipboard templates to help shape the model because I am not that artistic. ( I just remembered that I dreamed about making this model last night.)




I am going to try to use a solid piece of foam for the top contour so I am cutting 5/8" off of the inner templates to accommodate the thickness of the foam.


In order to keep the contour constant you will need to cut off the inner ribs at the same length as the outer framing.













Now that you have the outer dimensions defined it is just a matter of reinforcing the model so that it can be covered with fiberglass and resin without distortion. ( I now recall the dream I had last night about the model. I dreamed the model was complete and the first layer of fiberglass had been set smoothly in place but I had not put on the epoxy resin. Someone had come along and put a bunch of junk on top of the model and messed up the fiberglass. )










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