imadigitalgod

Hey guys im posting pics on how I am making a door panel piece for my 1999 Honda Civic EX 4-dr.

To make this, I am going to be taking off the factory panel piece on the door panel. It's the piece that holds the factory speaker and creates the "pocket" on the door to put junk in.

These are the steps I am going to take but its very brief:

1.) Coat the part of the door panel with mold release wax(many coats)
2.) around the part that I am going to fiberglass, line it with tin foil and tape to hold it on so resin wont get on the other parts of the door
3.) Fiberglass the part that has mold release wax on it, this will create half of the base for the project that rests against the door
4.) make a fiberglass copy of the outside of the door piece that was taken off so you will have the factory and clean look for the outer part of the fiberglass project
5.) join the base part on the door and the fiberglass copy of the outside edge of the factory piece
6.) start adding your speaker rings for woofer cone, tweeter and crossover display
7.) stretch cloth over the piece and resin it and reinforce it with fiberglass mat on the back side
8.) prep the surface for painting or vinyl(most likely paint in this case)
9.) paint or vilyl the piece
Now, thats a very vague list of what i am going to have to do but, ull see throughout the process(pictures will be posted) of what I am going to do. The goal is to make a copy of the factory panel piece(parts of it) and customize it.

This part highlighted in red is what I am taking off and copying/replacing. I actually may use the factory part so i wont have to re-create a lot of it(will save money with materials id have to use to make it) but I will have to bond the fiberglass and plastic with epoxy or other high strength bonding material



This is the piece with mold release wax and foil. When this is fiberglassed it will be attached to the door. If it is fiberglassed off of the car door and there are any bends in it that wouldnt be there while its mounted, the piece wont be the right shape. Also, i am going to trim this piece to the right size, i just have the extra space around the actual shape of the piece to allow for shaping. Better to have extra on the edges to trim than to have to little on the edges so you will have to add more later.




Well the door panel base piece came out well, the mold release wax made the piece come off sooo easily. i just barely pulled with one finger and it basically fell off(after it was 100% hard). now im making the mold for the bottom side of the original speaker piece so it will have the factory look around the edge. I am using RTV rubber, Poly 40 I think. This looks terrible but, it will look better soon after its all cured. I am going to make a fiberglass backing for support. after that, i will peal it off of the panel, lay it in the fiberglass backing, wax the inner part of the rubber and glass that so ill get a perfect copy of the outer edge of the factory panel. I am making this more expensive mold because i know a few people that want to do this so i can make more than one copy with this mold. After its cured ill trim everything.




Modified by imadigitalgod at 10:09 PM 9/1/2008


Modified by imadigitalgod at 10:10 PM 9/1/2008