fiberglass enclosures

[Bray D]

I'm sick of sitting so close to the wheel so i'm gonna build a 'glass box. I wanna 'glass my whole back wall (up to the sliding window) to get the most air space possible. I don't think building it will be a problem, I just can't figure out how to get a mold of the back wall. I don't wanna start with an mdf back since the whole reason of using the 'glass is to save space. so, how do I get a mold of my wall (since it's verticle)? what do I use so it'll release after it sets (wax paper, cardboard)?

 

[Bray D]

yep, I thought this place got alot of traffic lol

 

[Explorin94]

yep, I thought this place got alot of traffic lol

What's up!!!!!!!!! Have you done it yet? Do you remeber the big blue F250 of my buddies you saw? If you see him sometime soon and can get him to stop for ya ask to look behind his rear seat. I built 2 boxes each with 2 10" subs in them. No ports and both with plenty of air space. If you think about it let me see what you got to work with and I can maybe help you.

 

[Tempe]

For flat panels, especially the rear panel and the bottom panels, you could use some MDF and glass over it and into the rest of the project. Fiberglass is very strong on curves yet weak on large flat panels. If you choose to not use MDF another way to brace flat panels is to apply some resin, lay down some small rope pieces, and glass over the rope.

T

 

[Bray D]

I dunno if you guys got my question. my concern was getting the glass to 'stick' to the vertical surface. I thought about it a little and thought I could cover the wall with plastic (so the glass will release) then spread a layer of resin over it. after the resin starts to 'tack up' I could then add my layers of glass. I thought if I just applied glass at first it wouldn't stay on a verticle surface. I'm plannin on starting this weekend. just bought the matt, resin, and built the rings that my subs will sit in.

 

[Destroyer000]

what you normally do is tape off the area to be glassed.. then you lay your matt an resin on that once its harded up pull it off an your good to go.... check out fiberglassforums.com theirs a lotta info their on this topic..

 

[Bray D]

excellent, thanks for the link.

brett, thanks for the offer to help. I'm planning on this taking the majority of next week to finish as I'll be doing it around my school/work schedule. I've got to mow a cemetary too (hopefully for the last time this year). if I run into any complications I'll get ahold of ya

 

[beyonder]

Here's my 2 cents. When making a box, use a roll or 2 of tin foil and 3m masking tape. Then get some old sheets, get a roll of duct tape/foil tape,etc and tape the sheet in place. Dab the fiberglass resin into the sheet. This will give you your rear mold in 1 shot. Personally I'm cheap and usually go with 2 or 3 layers of sheets, but you can also start with the glass matting. I recomend at least 2 layers before you pull the plug out, then add 2 or 3 more layers of matting. Depending on how strong/thick you want your box. I'd then go down to the hardware store and pick up a half sheet of hardboard, shouldn't cost you more than 5 bucks. use that and glass over it for the front ( for the smooth surface ).

Another option, depending on how tall you are and the depth of your subs, you could also put spacers under the seat and build box's to fit underneath. I've never tried this in a ranger, but did it in a s10.