EDIT: I posted the finished picture at the bottom of this post

Warning: many people will frown upon what i am putting in the dash kit that I made but, its the idea of fiberglassing that I am posting.


I am almost done with my small fiberglass project so while the vinyl adhesive cures, ill post some pictures.

I am putting a small Uniden 520XL CB Radio in this dash kit. I am replacing my cup holders with this mount.

The first thing that I did was make the opening for the CB radio. The way I did this was cut out strips of wood and build a box around the front of the radio. For a weak but quick bond while doing this part, i just used regular super glue to hold the 'box' together as i pieced it together. One thing I did do was wrap the CB in masking tape so 1.) no glue would get on the radio and 2.) I knew i was going to wrap it in vinyl so I wanted to leave a space for the vinyl around the radio so it wouldn't be too tight of a fit.


Next I dont have any pictures of this step but I basically took the dash piece that goes around the cup holders and the shifter, wraped it in masking tape and fiberglassed the inside "box" so i could get a mold of it. After I trimmed it, i placed the CB radio opening where I wanted it to be, securing it with wooden dowels. More supports were holding it than are shown in the picture. I also put a little square mount at the bottom where i can mount my CB radio microphone.



Next I went to walmart and got some stretchy cloth off the $1/yard rack. I used a type of synthetic/cotton blend(it seems like its that type of blend). I stretched it over the whole fiberglass piece, held the cloth down to the sides with hot glue and then I put fiberglass resin over the cloth.

After this step i reinforced the whole piece by fiberglassing fiberglass mat on the back side. just the cloth alone is too weak.


Next, sanding!! I didn't have to sand too much at all, the cloth i got hardened pretty smoothly. There were a few slightly low spots on the piece but that was fixed using body filler. I just used a small amount of bondo, spread it over the piece then sanded it down. 100% smooth now.

(picture shown isnt of the piece smoothed out with bondo)


After you make sure everything is smooth, you are going to want to either paint it or put vinyl; my choice was black vinyl that I got from a local auto trim shop.

Choosing an adhesive is important too. You will want one that will be easy to apply but also will stand the 120+ heat in the summer. Through all my time searching for the best, you will want to stay away from anything that sprays out of a can. Also I have found a lot of people use the Weldwood Contact Cement that u can get at Home Depot. I will recommend staying away from that also. Weldwood DOES make the type of adhesive that I used tho; its called "DAP Weldwood Landau Top & Trim Cement". These only come in 5gal pails or more, its pretty expensive. What I did was go to the local trim shop that had that stuff, bring a Red Stripe beer bottle(fully cleaned out) and had them fill it up. They only charged me a few bucks. I also had a bottle caper so I just caped it after they filled it.

If you are doing a project piece that has sharp curves/corners, the following might help. The vinyl I got (which was the factory color/texture) has a backing on it. This wouldnt work well for what I wanted to use it for. I went out and bought MEK (methel ethyl keytone) at Lowes. If you spread this on the back of the vinyl(remember NOT to get it on the face of the vinyl) and let it sit for about 15 seconds, you can start pealing the backing off. You might want to make some test strips to see how long it takes with your particular vinyl. I have gray vinyl that took a minute for it to be able to peal off, but this black vinyl took about 10 seconds t be able to pull it off the back. I immediately run water over the back of the vinyl to get the MEK off.

After i put the adhesive on the back of the vinyl AND the fiberglass piece itself, i let it sit for about 10 minutes. You will want to have 2 people to stretch the vinyl over your piece. one to hold the piece so it wont fall and touch the fiberglass piece and one to press it down onto the fiberglass piece. A heat gun(i used my hair dryer) will want to be used for best results. It allows for the vinyl to stretch easier and seems to make the adhesive stick better.


Here is the final product:



I am letting the adhesive cure for a few days then I will mount it in my car. In the meantime I am going to the hardware store to figure out how to mount the CB to the fiberglass piece on the back as well as figure out how to securely attach the piece to the factory dash piece.

Heres the finished product:




Modified by imadigitalgod at 8:09 AM 12/26/2007

 

It looks clean.

 

thanks

 

Looks good. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

 

I should have it installed by tomorrow. I have it in my dash piece right now, i just cant find my camera to take a picture of it. To me, it looks very nice....and for me to say that about my own work probably means it looks very professional(im my own worst critic). I will post the pics when its done

 

Who isn't their own worst critic? I get picky about **** I've installed for customers even when they are thrilled with my work.

It bugs me that my 1/8th bit doesn't cut perfectly without creating a lip for alarm led's, no matter how slow I go. Would anyone else notice? No. But it bugs me

 

Wow, that looks like it was store bought. Nice job. Now I want a CB.

 

all that work for a lil bitty uniden? I'd have put a galaxy in there or at the least a good cobra, anyways , work does look clean!

 

Thats the size that will fit in there. I wanted to put a Cobra 148-GTL(actually had one) but the dashboard metal supports are in the way, it wouldnt fit. Even the radios that are smaller than the full size wouldnt fit because of the depth.

After I found out that the Cobra 148-GTL wouldnt fit, i wanted to get the Uniden PC68 Elite(shown below) but even that radios depth was too large.




Modified by imadigitalgod at 8:08 AM 12/25/2007

 

that sucks , oh well at least you got one in there, I used to run a old Galaxy 99 in mine but I live in germany now so it's kinda pointless to even have one here. I don't speak much german...lol. I just bought my civic last week, got a lot of stuff already done too it , and a lot more I want to do . trying to keep it from looking TOO rice... know what I mean

 

Just posted the installed picture. It looks better in person but you can see the general idea.

 

looks good. nice job