H1, Chapter 3

I spent my weeknights trying to get that one stuck cylinder off. I got it up about an inch and now it's really stuck. More on that later.  This weeks progress, I'm still sanding foam. Good thing I live by myself, I'm making a huge mess of my basement.  I screwed up when I did my mockup. I forgot to take into account the width of the seat hinges and latch in the fender templates. Since I want to be able to use the stock hinges and latch, the fender/seat frame needs to be wider than i originally planned. I used 1" blue foam for all this stuff.

One of my other hobbies is RC airplanes so I know my way around blocks of foam and a hot glue gun.  I started by shaping the side skirts, notching around the shocks and seat hardware. Then I glued foam to the fender hump to reshape the curve. I think I'm done with the foaming. My shape is close enough, now I've got to get a gallon of bondo to get my final shape down.

Yay for Bondo!  Actually, Bondo brand bondo is one of the worst fillers on the market. It cracks to easily, it sands like concrete, and it sucks up moisture like a sponge. But, it's all I had available. I'll use a higher quality filler for the final bodywork. Little known fact: bondo eats styrofoam, but very slowly. As a result, if you bondo over styrofoam, it will eat it's way in and once it's set it grips the foam fantastically and makes a good base for further bodywork.

That's where I am. I'm basically spackling the foam with the bondo. Then I'll sand it to where I want it to use as the buck for mold #1. I hope to have the mold layed up by the end of the day tomorrow. Real actual spackle would work just as well and sand easier, but the bondo sets faster and grips the foam better. Closer and closer..

On the H1, I got my buck final sanded. For future reference: hand sanding that much Bondo with arms so sore they barely move from working out is...uh...fun...yeah, that's what it is...fun... I did learn that if I keep the shop vac near by and suck up the dust instead of blow it off, the basement stays remarkably clean. I would have had it 'glassed too, but my SuperSecret™ mold release didn't dry fast enough, it's rather cold in the basement these days...  I should have the buck glassed for mold #1 in a few days.

Since I used to work with street rods and kit cars for a living, I know my way around fiberglass. I got the buck glassed for my first mold. It's almost as simple as putting the glass on the foam/bondo, but not quite. The problem is that polyester fiberglass resin will rapidly attack foam dissolving it to nothing.

I have a SuperSecret™ and very low cost solution to that. Elmers Glue. Yup, plain old regular Elmers glue. It provides a barrier that the resin's solvents will not penetrate. I brushed 2 heavy coats onto my buck and let it dry a few days.

I used 2 full bags of the Bondo fiberglass packets they sell everywhere(24 sq/ft total), and just under 2 quarts of resin. Unlike the Bondo brand body filler, the Bondo resin is perfectly fine. For the most part, polyester resin is polyester resin. The Bondo stuff is also really just repackaged 3M resin. MAKE SURE YOU USE FRESH HARDENER. I made the mistake of not using fresh stuff once. No Bueno, it never fully set and I had to start over again. When ever you do 'glass work, it's always best to plan where you're going to put the cloth and in what order. Things get sticky quick, and trying to cut cloth at that point sucks. Here you can see all the different pieces that went into my mold. I used 12 sq/ft of woven cloth for the first layer, then 12 sq/ft of the mat for the second layer. The cloth goes around corners better, and the mat offers more build thickness.

Here's what I ended up with. You'll note the excessive use of garbage bags over the bike, and plywood to keep the floor clean. Fiberglass work of any kind tends to make a sticky mess.  I mixed the resin a little cold(slightly under catalyzed), and it's fairly cool in my basement. I wanted to make sure I'd have enough time to play with the glass to get it layed how I wanted, and to work the bubbles out. Too much catalyst will generate too much heat as it cures and melt the foam too. 

I let it sit like this for about 5 days. I want to make sure it's good and cured before I de-mold it. You don't generally think of fiberglass as something that will sag and flex, but it can, and does(especually when it gets hot). If it's demolded to quickly, it could twist or warp(that's why you NEVER buy a cheap kit car).

After all that, I seem to have miscalculated... On ALL my tests, Elmers glue made a great mold release/solvent barrier and the glass peeled right off the foam. Doesn't seem to be the case now.  My guess is that the extra long cure time is at fault, all my tests were mixed considerably hotter. So now I'm scraping foam, and I'll soon be sanding Bondo. Good thing this is only a temporary mold to make the part to make the mold...

I had to scrape the bondo out of my mold with a putty knife and a heat gun, then sand it smooth. Then I put another coat of straight resin on it. Once it set, I buffed the heck out of it with my buffer and some rubbing compound so the surface was nice and shiny. Followed that with 3 coats of wax, then 2 coats of Elmers Glue, then another thick coat of wax that I did NOT buff off.

With the mold prepped, I layed in about the same amount of glass I used for the mold, and another quart or so of resin. Let it set up for a few hours. On the advise of a coworker, the "body" guy at work, I pulled the part while it was still green(only a few hours in the mold).

Once it was set, with minimal effort the thing came right out. I think it was the wax that did it(forgot that the first time). The Elmers Glue layer peeled right off like it was supposed to. I made a part! I'm super excited 'cause I actually did something, and it worked 100% like I planned.  You know why?  Cause I'm awesome.  But seriously, when you've forgotten to eat, and are...um...uh...er...less than 100% coherent...because you've been working around styrene fumes all afternoon in a basement with inadequate ventilation, you probably shouldn't post on the internet...haha... And I forgot my camera at work, so no pics of this step.