V2Rocket

Just curious, I think I might want to have new doorcards made or make them myself out of plastic rather than cardboard lol. Shouldn't be too hard to actually do as the shape is pretty simple.

Anyone do this for a living? Or know where it can be done in SoCal?

Dash01

You/Tube for "vacuum forming" or "thermoforming" and get a load on how to make stuff in your oven (with help from a shop vac and pegboard), or make your own oven with nichrome wire and drywall + firring strips.

Using the old door card as a template, to mold the thermoplastic to. This oughta be a piece of cake. Get materials from a sign making company, or ask their advice.

OTOH, if you already have that cardboard door card, and don't think it strong enough, you could just coat it with expoxy and one ply of fiberglass, to stiffen.

Cardboard is actually very strong stuff. Molt Taylor made an experimental airplane out of 90# craft paper, coated with epoxy. Google for "TPG Taylor paper-glass" for particulars

V2Rocket

hadnt thought of that

Dash01

Piece of cake, and cheap, too. Use polyester resin, cheaper than epoxy and perfectly good for this application: A gagillion ski boats sitting in the weather over the past 50 years cannot be wrong. This is, after all, a non-loadbearing part.

If you need one area stiffened, make it a sandwich structure by adding a strip of foam or cardboard there, with fiberglass/resin on top. (when you double the thickness of a sandwich structure, you get 8X the stiffness, an exponential increase. Nice, huh?)

And, while I'm thinking about it, go on Google and look up Devil Dog Fabrics, and see their excellent prices on marine-grade vinyl fabric. This stuff is durable, sunproof, weatherproof, and stretchy in several directions, so would make excellent cover for seats, dashboard, door panels, headliner, etc.. Surely, such marine grade vinyl has potential as a cheap and effective cure for the ever-threatening dash cracks, etc. and for those gawdawful maroon interiors.

V2Rocket

Yea I've got some marine vinyl to redo my dash and upper doors with and will find some for the lower door cards as well. I would like to just have stiffer more durable door cards because mine are warped a little bit and water damaged etc. I figured plastic would do better in this application but I may as well just reuse the existing card because the holes are there etc

Dash01

Might could fix that warping with a steam iron. After all, they steam wood to bend it, and the card is just made of wood fibers.

m73m95

Do it "Unique Whips" style.

Make a mold out of that builders foam in a spray can, then fiberglass over the mold to get a nice glass door panel.

There's a few more steps than that, but thats the jist.

V2Rocket

ohmygosh i know exactly what youre talking about i used that stuff to repair a dash lol

good idea

Dash01

Can you pls. give us a more specific cite or episode where they used the canned builder's foam ("Great Stuff"?) for molding purposes? That foam is polyurethane, and per the can instructions can be sanded and painted, so may have similar workability as the sculpting foam used in boat & airplane mold making. It's also impervious to epoxy, whereas polystyrene ("Styrofoam" is not.

So, any more particulars as to which Unique Whips show or car, would be appreciated.

m73m95

The modelers foam is probably better. Its more dense and easier to shape/sand, and as you said, the other stuff in the can isn't epoxy proof... but hella cheap, and you don't need to mix it. Just shoot it on. The modelers foam is a 2 part epoxy you mix, and it foams up real slow over the piece.

OK, I don't know the specific episode, I just watch it now and then.... anyway, heres the plan (can also be googled... lots of "how to fiberglass" on google).

Cover the door panel with clear packing tape, making sure to overlap the edges. You don't want any builders foam to touch the acutal panel or it will stick and ruin it.

Then spray the panel with a light coat of cooking spray (Flavor of your choice. I like the garlic herb) (Any light spray oil will work...cooking spray was just suggested) Also, you can buy actual fiberglass non stick spray, but its more expensive.

Spray the builders foam on and watch the magic.

After it dries, pull the door panel out CAREFULLY. The builders foam is brittle. The only part that I can think of that would suck is the pull handle. The foam will incase it, so I'm not sure how you would get it out. Cut it out of the foam, then glue the foam back I guess.

Then sand and shape the foam as you like (Now would be the time to lay out for some nice speakers)

Then again, cover as nicely and smoothly as possible with packing tape.

spray with cooking oil again

Then brush out a good layer of the fiber glass epoxy first, then lightly press in your cloth. Make sure you have no bubbles or wrinkles. Repeat with epoxy, then cloth until you get the Desired thickness.

Let it sit until completely dry.

Pull the new panel out of the builders foam, sand until smooth, and paint.

These are just the steps I have seen on the internet. I am planning on making some new panels for my car using this method. YMMV.

Fiberglass is cheap to buy, so I don't think its heartbreaking if it doesn't turn out right the 1st time. A new carbon fiber bumper would make you cry if you F'ed it up lol.

Some places I have found to buy cloth, and resin.

http://www.tapplastics.com/index.php?
http://www.shopmaninc.com/index.html
http://www.fibreglast.com/

m73m95

I will also add....

I think using the packing tape on the foam mold is kind of dumb. It seems like it would make grooves in the final product, and be almost impossible to lay around curves and such.

I would just cover the mold with fiberglass, then after that dries, spray on your oil, and build the panel from there.

That way it would be smooth and sanded right from the start. Seems like it would make for a lot less work in the end.

V2Rocket

good thing about the door panel is that there are no curves lol

i might have to try this, even just for fun.

and fiberglass sticks well to that foam, i used great stuff to fill cracks in a dash i stripped down and then i layed a layer of glass over the whole dash to stiffen it up (it becomes very pliable without the vinyl on)