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Body Panels 1

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  • Post category:Body panels
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So i'm now in the world of the unknown. I have never done mould making, or fibre glassing before so i'm learning it all from hours on the internet and going to give it a try. My theory is .... if some other human can do it then there's no reason why i can't, after all last time i checked i was also human. :)

So let's get stuck into the art of fibreglassing and make up some body panels to give it some shape and style.

The weather is getting better now so while i wait for the fork tubes to turn up i made a start on playing with some ideas for making the body panels. The concept is to end up with a fiberglass panel either side of the seat that curves up towards the top of the radiator and cuts out a large portion of the rear section of the runner boards ( hoping that a design like that will make the trike look shorter than it really is).
What i have to start with is to make what the fibreglass people call "the plug" which is the item that you make a fibreglas mold of . It can be a existing panel or item or as in this case it is a custom made part. You can make it out of what ever material you like but for me what i'm using is 2mm packing sheet which is kind of like a cardboard sheet that is used for seperating wooden sheets when being shipped around the country so that the wood doesn't get damaged.
I won't try to explain in detail the shape i'm after , i'll try and let the later pictures do that as i go along cause i'm not even certain of the final shape yet. What i've done so far is shaped some packing sheet to the shape of the frame and then added some curved ribs to the inside of it to try and give it the bulk and angles i need to get the right shaped panel. The packing sheet peices are attached to one another by threading short lengths of 1mm wire through the panels and twisting the wire till it holds the peices tightly in place ( just like i did when i built the hull of the hovercraft)
Once i've tied them all in place i then ran a bead of gorilla glue along each seam just to give it a more secure hold. Next step when i get some time is to fill up the gaps between each segment with a expandable foam then sand that foam down till i get a "general shape". After that i will glue on some proper foam sheets and then sand that down till i get the required shape that i'm after but i'll add pictures of that when i get to that stage.
Heres a front view of it, doesnt look like much at the moment but hopefully it will take shape soon.
I forgot to take photo's of it after i applied the foam but here i have the panel that has now had expandable foam added to take up a majority of the space and have started to apply body filler over the foam to give it a hard sandable surface
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