Date:         Sat, 27 Jul 2002 13:29:39 -0700
Reply-To:     Mark Thoma <thoma@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mark Thoma <thoma@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject:      Custom scoop update
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

For those who care . . .

My first attempt at making a custom scoop from the passenger side female mold ended in abject failure.  I waxed the mold (which had been gelcoated) heavily, mixed up some resin/hardener, poured it into the mold, spread it around with a paintbrush, then laid down the first layer of fiberglass cloth.  Something went way wrong.  I used too much hardener with the resin and it set up much too quickly.  But that wouldn't have been such a disaster but apparently pushing the resin around the mold with a paintbrush was a big mistake.  The brush removed the wax from parts of the mold and when I went to lift the scoop out of the mold it wouldn't come.  Bummer!  After much tugging and swearing I got pieces of the scoop out of the mold but unfortunately a few remnants remain.  So now I need to get those out and repair the mold (which should be pretty easy.)  Then I'm going to take both molds to a fiberglass shop and see what they'd charge me to use a "chopper gun" to blow fiberglass into the molds. All they have to do is one layer, then I'll go back and use regular fiberglass cloth and add several more layers.  Should take a couple of weeks.
   
Mark Thoma