Make Your Own Fiberglass Pod How to

[alienturtle]

I decided i would make my first how to. My name is Allan and i am 20 years old. I am really creative when it comes to this sort of stuff so i hope i can share with you. This is how i make my pods for my 89 f250. You can apply this to just about anything that deals with fiberglass. Here is the right side pod i made a few month back and this how to is based on me making the left side pod. Enjoy. any feedback would be great as this is my first how to.

Some of these pics in the how to are from the production of the right side pod because i actually haven't finished the left side pod yet.

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STEP 1 - Lay tape down where you want to pod to be and mark with marker what shape you want the pod

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STEP 2 - mix some fiberglass resin and tear some fiberglass mat into decent pieces. place on tape and soak with resin. Make sure you go outside your base marks you made in step 1

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STEP 3 - wait until the next morning for the glass to harden and pull up really ******* the fiberglass until the tape gives out. cut your lines out until you have the desired shape. This is your base to the pod

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STEP 4 - Take some 2" ID pvc pipe and cut them into about 2 1/2 inch lengths. The 2 1/16 gauges fit nice and snug in the pipe.

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STEP 5 - you are then going to set you "base" back into the truck and warm up the hot glue gun. Place the 2 (in my case) pvc pipes in what ever position you need and hot glue them there. Remember this will be what the actual gauges sit in.

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STEP 6 - Take some sort of cloth. I used an old white t shirt. Iv also used pillow cases. I found the shirt worked a little better as you can stretch it easier. Take some hot glue and you just stretch the sheet over the base and pvc pipes. Then hot glue it on the bottom. This will give you the mold of the entire pod so stretch as you please. It does not really matter if you have a few creases here and there as i will explain later.

pic of the bottom

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STEP 7 - Mix yourself some fiberglass resin up and apply to the cloth. DO NOT ADD FIBERGLASS YET. Just soak the entire cloth in resin. Let this sit until super hard. Now you have both base and top of the pod.

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STEP 8 - This is where are are satisfied with the basic shape of the pod and will begin to add about 2 layers of actual fiberglass cloth and resin. over the top of the hard cloth. again dont worry so much about any creases as you will sand these out and apply bondo later to smooth.

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STEP 9 - The long sanding process begins. i First sand the fiberglass smooth and also take any cloth or fiberglass even off the bottom of the pod so it will sit flat again. you can actually sand out the creases that were made by stretching the cloth over. it may make a hole in the pod but that is ok because you will just mix some more fiberglass and resin and do some patch work to get it smooth. You can also cut the holes out for the gauges. I used a dremal.

 

[alienturtle]

STEP 10 - add bondo or some sort of filler to the pod and let harden.

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STEP 11 - Sand again and again and again and add filler as needed to build up areas. you can actually feel with your fingertips more than you can see with your eyes so use that to your advantage.

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STEP 12 - Once you are happy with it just clean and paint..I used regular spray paint to paint mine. Then mount.

Hope this will help some people make some pods for there trucks.. THANKS

 

[flareside_thun]

Very nice write-up......I'm assuming you just pop some holes in the bottom to run the associated wires/lines to the gauges....how do you mount the pod to the dash though? Is that a KTM fender?

 

[trapper]

Excellent Wright up man, looks like a new project is ahead for me

 

[86F2506.9]

hay man thanks for showing how to make the pod now the rest is to the imagination now to make me some gauge pods

 

[Worstenemy453]

Very nice write-up......I'm assuming you just pop some holes in the bottom to run the associated wires/lines to the gauges....how do you mount the pod to the dash though? Is that a KTM fender?

You can see a Kawasaki i believe in the first picture posted.

 

[flareside_thun]

Ahhh didn't even notice the Kawi...

 

[Worstenemy453]

Ahhh didn't even notice the Kawi...

Not to say the orange isnt a KTM but you had to notice the possibly easier one.

 

[flareside_thun]

Blue and white would be a difficult one...

 

[Worstenemy453]

Blue and white would be a difficult one...

Blue and white should be Suzuki, Red and white should be Honda, and Yamaha is straight blue or blue and white too isnt it ? KTM is Orange and Black. Green is Kawasaki. I think i got all those right.


Anyways, away from the sidetrack, nice pods. If i had the time i would be doing something like that.

 

[flareside_thun]

If I had the initiative I'd be doing it as well, but me and fiberglass just do not get along.

 

[Knuckledragger]

The PO of my 4x4 has the gauges glued to the windshield. Now that someone broke the windshield, I have a reason to make something special. Thanks for the writeup and photos!

 

[88beast]

i like the pvc trick

 

[oldmisterbill]

Lets see A 10 on creativeness. A 10 on the write up. Nice job -idea & work.

 

[w4dsb]

Very Nice!