# bondo-fiberglass-searched-nada



## xt_out (Jun 23, 2003)

hmmm, i can't seem to find the thread where someone talked about doing a thick layer of bondo on their doors, sanding down, painting to look like fiberglass. well what i want to do is take some trim pieces like the power window, door lock piece, door handle trim, etc. and make it look like fiberglass. i've never worked with it though. i guy at work suggested this bondo stuff called "kitty hair" i also want to do something with my guage cluster. fill in everything between the guages and the plastic window except the circles where the guages are so they sit back.
i want the fiberglass look so if you guys don't think bondo will look the same then....any products that are a putty like consistency(sp?) easy to work with would be appreciated.
or maybe i'll learn fiberglass. my dad says i would have to make molds though. i just want to cover them up.
HELP???!!!!???!!!!


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## XBwick (Jul 8, 2003)

IMO, which a lot of people here probably won't agree with, is to get into fiberglassing. The possibilities are endless. Check this out: http://www.rqriley.com/frp-foam.html It has nothing to do with what you're talking about but something like this probably wouldn't be TOO difficult to work with for whatever you wanted. I don't think using lots of Bondo would be the best idea. In fact, it's probably a bad idea but I don't have any experience so what do I know.


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## go4broke44 (Jan 14, 2003)

bondo isnt going to be good for what your talking about doing. it expands and contracts with moisture and temperature, and if it is too thick, which it would be, if you were going to do your gauge cluster like you say, it will crack and fall apart. i painted all my car pieces that your talking about painting, and to get the fiberglass look, all you need to do is sand them down, so that the leather print on there doesnt exist anymore. either that, or do what seth did, and use a filler primer, you have to sand - prime - sand - prime etc etc, until all the leatherprint cracks are filled in, and you have a smooth surface. as for the gauge cluster idea, it would be cool to see, but using bondo or fiberglass is going to be nearly impossible to work into the shapes that you want. your best bet is to just paint the bezel, i did this, and it looks really nice, i painted mine silver, and it sets off the black gauge faces nicely.


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## xt_out (Jun 23, 2003)

that really sucks. you see all these civic show cars with fiberglass trim and shit. i talked to a guy at schucks and he said they made that kind of stuff for common rice cars like that. i still think someone did it themselves and i want to know!!!! i don't want to do a fiberglass mold, just cover the sucker up! aghhhh, that guage cluster thing would be ill!!! i just need to find a way to do it. im not into just painting the trim unless i can be SURE the paints not gonna chip and stuff, or i could just get the dash sticker kit things, but im really trying for that f/g look. hmmmm


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## samo (Apr 30, 2002)

Alrighty. Is this the look you're going for, where it's all smooth?


















That was done with buildable primer and PPG paint with flex. Looks fantastic, ultra-smooth, and is pretty damn strong. It also have massive amounts of clear coat to help protect the paint.


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## XBwick (Jul 8, 2003)

I say... If you're serious about making a cosmetically beautiful car and if you really want to go all out and create something that will be original, in the sense that you designed it, then learn fiber glassing. It helps to have a bit of money too I guess. Heh. But I don't think it gets much better than that. 
Or... If it's not really that big of a deal just do what they did in the picture above. Don't forget, you can use fiberglass for more than just your car. It would become a lifelong skill to do many other projects as well. That's how I look at it.


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## go4broke44 (Jan 14, 2003)

fiberglassing is rather inexpensive if you do it yourself. for like 10-15 bucks you can buy a pretty good amount of supplies that will last a while. of course, there is massive amounts of sanding required to get a smooth, quality finish


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## se_nismo (Sep 17, 2002)

yeah you can do anything you want trust me iv'e done some crazy things..what i recomend using is short hair fiberglass its alot easier to work with dont hesitate!!! go for it!!!

as long as you have good sandscratches in the surface so the fiberglass can bite into then it will hold very strongly use 36 grit on the surface


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## samo (Apr 30, 2002)

XBwick said:


> *Or... If it's not really that big of a deal just do what they did in the picture above.*


It _was_ a big deal, which is why it was done professionally and the _correct_ way instead of half-assing it like half the people I see do. Fiberglassing those pieces would have been rather pointless, seeing how they look identical to fiberglass right now, and making them out of fiberglass would have taken untold hours and tons of money to produce the same results in this case.

However, that's not to say fiberglass is a useless skill. Keep in mind you're talking to the only person to _ever_ make fiberglass kickpanels for a B13  .


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## xt_out (Jun 23, 2003)

yeah, seans looks better than painted. hes gonna kill one of us for stealing his bandwidth though. samo, wasn't it you that got on my case for using one of seans pics? 
i'll have to try that, you say he had someone else do it?


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## samo (Apr 30, 2002)

Ahem.

Maybe this isn't common knowledge, but I build and maintain nwnismo.com . I also am Sean's photographer, so the usage rights to those images belong as much to me as to him. You'll also notice that the images are kindly rehosted on my personal Cardomain site to eliminate the bandwidth load on the NW Nismo server.

Thanks, have a nice day.

The pieces were painted by his bodyshop, who used a special buildable primer to fill in the texture of the plastic. This was sanded to a glossy surface and painted with PPG Cloud white with diamond white, purple, and red pearl to match the exterior of the car. This was then sprayed with multiple layers of PPG clearcoat to protect the finish from any scratches or dings. The end result looks excellent - worlds better than a simple Krylon job.


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## go4broke44 (Jan 14, 2003)

samo, some dude made kickpanels for the B14, his car is on car domain, and didnt adam, or one of the other mods make kickpanels as well, with the whole "how to" write up on them, or was that you? either way, they came out really nice, and sean's car is hooked up, his interior pieces came out nice, i guess thats the results when your shooting from a gun, vs shooting from a can

edit: i just noticed sean has what looks to be custom tweeters molded into the "sail panel" on the interior side of the mirrors, did you make them, or is that a scorchin innovation?


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## samo (Apr 30, 2002)

Notice I said B13. Wes was the original kickpanel guy - he did a HUGE writeup on his personal site, which I gleaned knowledge from and improvised upon to make mine. As far as I know, I had the only B13 to have real fiberglass kickpanels, although I'm willing to bet there's one or two others out there  .


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## XBwick (Jul 8, 2003)

samo said:


> *It was a big deal, which is why it was done professionally and the correct way instead of half-assing it like half the people I see do. Fiberglassing those pieces would have been rather pointless, seeing how they look identical to fiberglass right now, and making them out of fiberglass would have taken untold hours and tons of money to produce the same results in this case.
> *


I just worded what I meant wrong I guess... I didn't think that it sucked by any means. It looks awesome. Just wanted to clear that up. 

Anyway, whether it is half assed or not, you see painted plastic all the time(not a bad thing) but it seemed to me that xt_out wanted something a little more _special_ than that. So, I tried to help the best I could because I'm interested in learning fiberglassing and he seemed like he might be as well. 

I probably worded something in here wrong too.. Oh well.


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## xt_out (Jun 23, 2003)

samo said:


> *Ahem.
> 
> Maybe this isn't common knowledge, but I build and maintain nwnismo.com . I also am Sean's photographer, so the usage rights to those images belong as much to me as to him. You'll also notice that the images are kindly rehosted on my personal Cardomain site to eliminate the bandwidth load on the NW Nismo server.
> *


*smooch* kisses samo's ass. my bad, mighty powerful one.
thanks for the info. do you know how much it cost sean to have the bodyshop do his trim pieces. AND do you reccomend me trying that process. me not skilled very at all


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## samo (Apr 30, 2002)

The paintwork on Sean's interior was done at the same time as the rest of the body work, which was all part of a sponsorship deal, so getting an accurate price is impossible. You could do it yourself, if you like, but I wouldn't try it, personally. You'll get much much better results by having it done professionally.


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