Can anyone help me with this project

[alienturtle]

I moved my radio to the top position. Because its a flip out screen it must be pulled out of the dash a little bit. As you can see in the first pic i made a metal plate to push the deck out. It works great but it didnt look appealing enough to me. So i took it apart and started my fiberglassing to make everything "flow" better. My ? is what would you guys use or have any tricks to fill in the "weave" of the fiberglass to make it all smooth. I used body filler in the past on my custom pods but for some reason its just not sanding smooth on here. Am i just stuck with body filler and a million hours to get it smooth? Thanks guys.

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[lindstromjd]

In my experience, the pink stuff always sands out a lot smoother than the fiberglass strand stuff ever does. My $.02

 

[riotwarrior]

Are you looking to replicate the factory texture or are you wanting to just fill/sand and paint?

All I did with my custom stuff was use the long strand fiberglass filler to make the actual part and then use the more forgiving regular bondo to final fill and smooth out the product prior to paint.

On another note...this is what I need to do for my setup too....but I want to replicate the texture of stock, thus I'll find some grained naugahyde....AKA vinyl and wax the ***** out of it so when the bondo is just starting to set press it on and peal it off.

I like what your doing, how are you going about relocating the HVAC controls? I was going to stick some OBS controls in mine instead of sliders...

 

[alienturtle]

I used a normal fiberglass matt weave and not a cloth. That is what i did with the pods i made as well. Im using regular bondo body filler and sanding. Bt it just seams its not going on or sanding smooth. I have not tried the fiberglass filler but i feel that will be even harder to work with. I would love to keep the factory texture but no idea how i would do that. Im going to install the crown vic digital havc controls.

 

[riotwarrior]

I would love to keep the factory texture but no idea how i would do that.

Do this on a test piece....

Thin some bondo with lil fiberglass resin ...then let it start to set....timing is critical...place some textured vinyl on it face down and press then carefully peel it up....make sure you use a good parting wax on the vinyl. Or smoosh some plastic shopping bags up and press them into the bondo careflly and pull off...again testing on non critical spot or test piece for this purpose, keep playing with stuff till your timing is right sometimes you have to press it on, let it harden and then carefully peel it off....mould release is yer friend!

 

[alienturtle]

i will give that a shot! thanks!. I read somewhere that i could just mix up some resin and just brush it on to fill in the holes ect. When i mix the resin with the bondo what hardener do i use? the putty from the bondo or the liquid from the resin?

 

[riotwarrior]

i will give that a shot! thanks!. I read somewhere that i could just mix up some resin and just brush it on to fill in the holes ect. When i mix the resin with the bondo what hardener do i use? the putty from the bondo or the liquid from the resin?

I always used putty hardener myself...it slows the cure down...oh ya...it does make the bondo harder too.

Just play with varying mixtures and techniques...there is no set in stone way just play and see what you like...heck even sponging can work...and then just sand very lightly and knock the high points down....play play play is all I can say till you get the desired effect...