hey shawn, this is a great post, you should do many more like this for I am sure it will inspire others as it has me... I just started making an instrument cluster to sit on the dash of an 88 chevy pickup after I read your fiberglass tutorial post. it was a little hard for me to get all the shapes I was going for but that is the great thing I have found about fiberglass, you are only limited to your imagination...and TIME! I would love to post a couple pics of it but cannot figure out how

Good point regarding "stress" as well as "strength". The rat will serve as a good "testing ground" for this little experiment. With not that much money involved, we'll see once it gets on the road how well the cloth alternative holds up. If it starts showing hairline cracks...just get out the grinder and have at it.

Dewey

Little known, less cared about fact; Was watching Penn & Teller's new ShowTime show about PC lies and they did an expose' on the rip-off bottled water industry last night. They really showed the stupidity of buying designer water. For example, it says right on the bottle of 'Alaskan Glacier" water that the bottles are filled from the Corpus Christie Texas municipal water system. They mentioned that fleece blanket material is made 100% from recycled polyethylene bottles!

This is your response: DO MORE PLEASE !

Great article on the dash pod - a friend is building a '32 Coupe with A/C and I'll pass this on to him because he'll probably need it. I know it's a lot of trouble to do these "lessons" and I for one appreciate your efforts.
Charlie Smith

For those who haven't seen it yet --- there's a great article featuring Krist Kustoms in this month's (May '05) Street Scene magazine (NSRA publication). I know I took away a couple of ideas for the console and headliner on my rod. Great work, Shawn, and thanks.

I think Shawn is too good for us now. Hasn't posted since early March.

Guess thats what happens when you hit the big time.


Brad

If I may, I'd like to add that 1/8th inch thick Lauan plywood is not only cheap, it's easy to find. Most home centers sell 8' X 4' sheets of the stuff, but if you can't find them, ask for an interior hollow-core door skin. They're 7' X 3' and run about $10. Interior hollow-core doors have been faced with Lauan since the '50s, so the skins to repair them are pretty easy to find.

This stuff also works great for making paterns & templates. At the cabinet shop, if we needed to make several complex pieces exactly the same, we made a template out of 1/8th inch Lauan, then used double sided tape to attach it to the wood we wanted to cut out. A quick trip through the router table with a straight bit fitted with a guide bearing, to ride against the template, and we had as many pieces cut as we needed - all consistently the exact same shape.

excellent article. I used the information to make a buck for forming a patch panel. Smoother then glass mat or cloth. Thanks for your time
Jan

Hey man, ive been busy! Ive been puttin in some work today on here though, trying to answer some questions.

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Hey good to be here

I cant believe how much info ive learned from just reading for about 10 minutes! thanks. Also I think KK was saying that you should buy heavy fleece and once soaked it'll be about 3/16 not when you buy it. I had a question that may sound dumb but w/e, im new to this forum and just had to register. Im a skilled woodworker and spend M-F building custom cabinets. I just bought a little 90' vw corrado and really want to turn it into a project car but i dont know the first thing about the first thing. So basically im here to learn. I saw the finsh picture of KK's pods and they look great but when you say upholstry what exactly do you mean? (Cloth?) because the white doesnt look like cloth. What my real question should be is how would i make anything that I make such as gauge pods look like a shiney piece of fiberglass? Like what would you finish it with? I see cool stuff in mags like fully fiberglass interiors color corrdinated or 2-toned, is this most likely airbrushed?.........sorry alot of questions, im a newbie!

Great stuff! Please do more tutorials like that one. I have a 51 chevy 2 door sport coupe that I am building. I haven't gotten to the interior work yet but I know that your posts will help a lot! Pics of a door panel build would be great. Thanks for the knowledge!