This is a repost from my old fibreglassing blog :)
The s13.5 conversion gaurd moulds – my babies <3
Every time i go outside the moulds just stare at me and taunt me.. i wanted to make a set of gaurds, mainly to get the old gelocat out so i can clean them up.
They have sat dormant for some time so it’s not like you can just wax em up and start banging out parts.. plus i wanted to resurface them anyways, nothing hotter than a glossy shiny as mould that you KNOW will produce perfect pulls everytime. I decided on the conversion gaurds as these moulds are kinda important to me for a few different reasons..
We had put a layer of gelcoat down in the moulds to protect the face of them when we were overseas. Which im glad we did coz its been such a long time and the moulds have been left in the elements so the surface would have just gotten worse over time with aging and become quite porus..
Did a clean up of the garage which took almost a night in itself but once id decided i was glassing, i was on a rampage and nothing was going to stop me. Lol. The next morning i called up my fibreglass materials place and good ol’ Mick picked my voice, which made me pleased =] told me to come down so a mate drove me down... i budgeted $300 and it came to $296 – how awesome is that?!
Had a discussion about the best method to go about this mould resurfacing or getting the gel out.. usually with the fresh wax/release agent and fresh gel you can just use high pressure air and it will just flake/blow out leaving you with a nice clean mould... i took pics to help explain why i didnt think it possible this time just to do that –
• The release agent that was put down before the gelcoat if there still was some on the mould would now have been acting as a bonding agent after suffering heat them cold then rain then etc
• The gelcoat that was layed down was not a very thick coat and with the mould being bashed around, some of the gelcoat was scratched off in places which means the exposed part would be rough and possibly damaged/scratched. And in a few sections it almost looked 'baked on'.. see pic.
the moulds under the old gel, the red parts are where it has chipped away to expose the red tooling gelcoat.
Close up of the gel in one of the worse sections
The decision i came to was to lay down an extra layer – thick – of fresh gelocat, and then glass up a part on top of that, and when i did the pull, hopefully it would pull majority of the old gelcoat with it so i can start to assess mould damage. Was so stoked to glass.
So i laid down my gelcoat at about 4pm, mixed up a litre to cover both gaurds and mixed it at a ratio of 2.5% because i wanted a bit of a hotter mix. I was rather impatient, at about 35 minutes after brushing it on it was prettymuch touch dry but still tacky, although then i had to make up the fibre bog and cut my fibres roughly to shape so that ended up taking me about an hour and a half.. and then the gelcoat was definetly ready! =]
Catalysed and laid the fibrebog on the corners and places that were prone for bubbles but still didn’t use too much – even tho i was making the gaurds i wasn’t expecting a fantastic first pull so i wasn’t too fussed.. brushed it out and started glassing straight away.. laid down my 2 layers 450 CSM, got through the first gaurd and about ¾ of the way through the second, the mix was starting to gel and go off and i was running out.. [2 litres (poly resin) catalysed at about 2% (Methyl Ethyl Ketone Peroxide)] so i just made up a half litre to finish the part off with upped MEKP so it would all go off at the same time.. after id completed the faces [these were being glassed in 3 parts] i had a cigarette and then stuff was ready to green trim – woo! I also tried to cut back the mould edges [covered w old gelcoat/resin etc] with the knife while i was trimming to save me a bit of trouble later on in the mould repair stage.
Flipped the moulds up against the garage wall so i could do the returns that goes under the bonnet to bolt up, and then when that was green trimmed, flipped the moulds round again to do the final returns [the line that runs down the door where all the bolt points are]
Gaurds can be glassed all one piece but i prefer doing the returns separately, why fight gravity and try glass something upside down?
After green trimming the last return, it was probably about 11pm ish and i was PUMPED to crack them out!
I pretty much finished up and went to bed so it would be the next morning already !! the hours in the garage had totally flown by and i didn’t even realise i think bar a few smoke breaks i didn’t even stop, and tidying up after myself was good as well, absoloute minimal mess in the bin straight away, which a. Bought me time while stuff was curing and b. Saved my work area getting messy and me having to clean later.. after id finished the gaurds and trimmed them, i put the cardboard away and you couldn’t even have told that i had spent the past few hours in the garage at all, the only thing different was the gaurds moulds were now full lol.
fully laiiid
So i went straight to bed that night because i wanted it to be the next morn, like xmas, and like xmas i ran downstairs to unwrap my presents WAY early, like 7am, in my pjs. Well, at least i have pyjamas i can now glass in. Lol.
Took me about half an hour to undo all the bolts, they hadn’t been touched in ages, even to the point of some of them being rather rusty =/ started smacking the moulds with the rubber mallet, popped off the second part of the mould [the returns] and started trying to pull.. used some flat tips to get under a couple of edges but basically grabbed onto the returns and braced the mould w my foot and just had a few ‘sharp’ pulls and out they came!!!
Nice solid set of guards, feeling quite smug about the glassing considering its been a while, but its like driving a manual when u havent in ages right? You haven’t in a long time, you think you are gunna be shit, but then when you actually do it, its not so bad and all comes flooding back =]
the face came out as i thought it would, it pulled majority of the gelcoat out of the mould but there was still some left, although it was not the ‘chip away’ kind, it was the ‘soak in styrene monomer, strip back’ kind.. so now waiting on styrene.
passenger side - the one that will need moar work
drivers side
When i pulled the guards, the gelcoat, there was almost like a tacky layer on it, so i put in the sun to see if it would dry out, which it did, im wondering if that would have been if the original gel was not totally bonded to the mould or something, so there may have been styrene trapped in there? Once it was aired out it was okay. And actually much better than i thought they’d turn out, nothing someone with a bitta sandpaper and nickey couldn’t fix quite easily.
mild tripe/gatoring across the faces
And now.. onto the resurfacing =DD
Kenj xx
[ ...i still have these moulds :D]