I am currently working on patching my front fenders but was thinking of the idea of making fiberglass fenders. They'd be lighter and itd be a fun? project. Anyone ever do this or have any write ups on doing it? Figured Id wrap the fender in suran? wrap and lay the fiberglass over.
After you lay the fiberglass the back side will be smooth but not the top side. Which is the side that you actually see. It will require lots of body work to make it smooth. Or you could make a reverse mold to have the top side smooth but the price of just the supplies will probably cost than buying a good set of fenders from somebody.
If you're a great body man and have patience to sand, some of us aren't and don't More the power to you though, be sure to take a lot of pictures. Maybe do a write up since we don't have one on here.
Why ya gotta ruin my fun? haha. Just thought itd be a cool project. Suppose Ill start with making a fiberglass hood.
There was just a recent discussion about that very subject. Somebody had posted a You Tube video about it. Still.....very hard and time consuming project. Lots and lots and lots of sanding.
Yes lots of work.. I was the one who found and posted the vids but in all reality I thought about it, what they did was make a mould.. If they added supports on it and a couple more layers. To get the perfect fit / look it would need to be the mold and then after you got that use the seperation wax followed by gel coat (smooth nice Finnish) and then your layers of cloth and matting which ends up with 1 hood made about 500 bucks, and like they told me it's not worth it unless you plan on making and selling more to recover your money from the mold but if you do decide to do it, sell 3 hoods and your in the clear if they come out with a decent Finnish.
I am one that always encourages someone to chase their dream but I must say if you have not worked with resins before.......STOP!! If you want to try it out, get a job working in a boat repair shop, patch a few holes first just to see how resins and fibers or cloth works. How hard could it be?? Believe me when I say it is not possible to make fenders the way you are thinking of. 1st has already been addressed, months of sanding and filling. 2nd the stock fender is the right size so by the time you lay up enough layers of glass it will be to big to align. 3rd The cost factor will out weigh the value of the car if you do it properly. Your idea to make fenders the way you have mentioned is the right direction to go to make molds to make fenders from, minus the saran wrap but there is a lot of work in making a mold so that you can pull "GOOD" parts from them. You will end up with....oh say....approximately $2,500 to $3,000 in a pair of fenders if done right and you do everything yourself. The molds would have to be 3 piece molds. An example, I have a mold for a 32 Austin Bantam altered body and it was $3,400 to make and it is a 1 piece self supported mold.
hmm well I suppose ill start with a hood and if it turns out good ill make a few more and sell em on here or ebay. Im sure some of you guys would like a fg hood. maybe a custom hood scoop or the like.
If you have never worked with fiberglass before you may want to read a lot about it and start with something small. Perhaps a hood scoop.
i made a mold for a front fender with poly-urea{truck bed liner}.it came out pretty good.im still working on how to make the supports work.for the mold all i had to do is wipe the fender with oil.spray 2 coats then i cut some corrigated plastic strips and sprayed them to attach them to the mold.poly is easy to use because it dryes in 10 seconds.i was thinking about useing it as the {gel-coat}then lay some fiberglass,then spray again.im not sure if i have any pics.but when i go to the shop ill post some.
ive done fg once back in HS. Made a custom center console. Used foam and shaped it. Lots of sanding I know but it came out pretty great.
