Fiberglass(resin) A-Pillar gauge pods

[1979C20]

Im in the process of making A-pillar gauge pods for my suburban for when I get the turbo build going. I figured I would throw out some pictures of what I have so far and post more along the way.


Wrapped the pillar in tin foil to protect the original, and as a "mold"


3 decent thickness coats of resin on the foil.


I then stretched cloth I cut from an old t-shirt over the mold and secured the back side with binder clips. Then, one coat of resin in the middle section.


Stretched the end sections and secured with binder clips.


One coat of resin on the end sections, and a second coat in the middle. I went a little more heavy in the middle because thats where the gauges will be.


Removed all clips and trimmed excess cloth off back side.


The original popped out of the mold pretty easily. Heres a comparison. Ive got a lot more work ahead of me. Lot of sanding, and still need to build wood rings for the gauges and the tweeter. I also need to decide if I am making a full length mold for the passenger side tweeter, or just the top section. This is two days of work, hopefully I can keep up the pace and have this piece good to go in a few days.

[HAULIN IT]

Sure can't fault you for your efforts, however there are products that could be used to glue/mold rings, tubes, brackets, ect. to the original plastic trim which would be much easier to do since you would be starting with a part that already fits, has the correct spacing & so forth.

One problem that I see with how you made your new part is that it is now larger in every way compared to the original. When a "mold" is being made similar to do what your wanting...the part you just made is really "the mold". If you think about it, the inside of your new part is identical to the outside of the existing part. Now if you start laying 'glass inside your new "mold", you will end up with the correct size/shaped part, Understand? Done properly can be very rewarding..but it's a bunch of work smoothing the inside of the mold, ect. first to produce just one part. You also may want to 'glass in some wood on the outside of your "mold" to give it strength. Hope this helps, Lorne

[Mtrhd329]

I made a triple gauge pod out of my pillar.  The third gauge was a 5" tach.  I used a different method that i call plastic welding.  I made cups for the gauges out of abs pipe and took some abs plactic and melted it with a soldering iron like welding.  Came out pretty good ill find some pix hold on

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[Mtrhd329]

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[Captkaos]

I will add to what Lorne said and state that you need to start off with the smoothest surface you can get.  Ideally you want to make the part first and then mold off of it.  And to do so you would need to build a structure off of the part and it would need to be in enough pieces to be able to remove itself from the undercut pieces.

[1979C20]

Well, this new piece I made is actually going to be on the outside of the original in the vehicle.

[blazing816]

two coats of resin is not going to be very strong in my opinion. I usually like 4-5 coats for strength, so I would be careful moving this around and what not.