glassing foam: part 2 (w/pics)

[Insomniac119 10+ year member]

This is a followup from my question asking if goam takes well to fiberglass. If you don't know, I'm building a center concol and filled it up using expanding foam. Then I glassed over it with one layer of mat.

All filled up with foam. Looking kinda ugly right now...

Carving the foam.

Here you can get an idea of what it will look like finished in my car.

Sanded smooth and ready to glass.

And so it begins...

As you can see, it came out very lumpy, looks like I'll need to buy another galon of bondo.

The fiberglass didn't stick very well to the foam, it kept falling off. I put plenty of resin on and saturated the mat, but there was still some problems. Most of it stayed on there though, there was just alot that didn't.

I would try to avoid using anything like this in the future, espesially expanding foam. When I went out there earlier today it was acompletely different shap than when i got done carving it up last night. I guess it was still expanding //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

Click to read more...

 

[XtrmAudioCncpts 10+ year member]

awesome keep posting pics

 

[swaptrex 10+ year member]

looks sweet! keep up the good work!

 

[Magmanta 10+ year member]

either it was still expanding, or the resin was reacting with the foam and messing it up. I know that some types of foam dont do well when sprayed with spraypaint =P so the same thing might be true with the foam and resin. If the resin can melt a plastic cup, then it might be doing the same thing to the foam.

But on a better note, it looks great. Once you get it all bondo'd-up it should be a lot friendlier to look at =D

 

[Moe Lester 10+ year member]

that stuff can expand for days... if its cooler outside and you use it, it expands. then when it heats up it expands again. This has happened to me before //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[JAZN 5,000+ posts]

u lazy bum, use wood/mdf next time //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif. clever idea tho, i'll give u that. i think u shoulda just left it the way it was in ur first pic, thatd be pimp 2 tha max. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[bean 10+ year member]

u lazy bum, use wood/mdf next time //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif. clever idea tho, i'll give u that. i think u shoulda just left it the way it was in ur first pic, thatd be pimp 2 tha max. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

agreed, You could have done this quite easily with mdf and glass. Probably easier that way too. But looks like it was fun for you. good luck peelin that foam off of your fingers. That sh!t takes months to totally disappear.

 

[Big and Loud]

cool idea. would have been sweet if you had just made an entire console out of carve expandable foam too //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[datguyclark 10+ year member]

should be sweet if it works, hopefully its done expanding, cuz it would **** to start over :^(

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

next time just set the foam like you would usually with tape and crap.

or you can get that GREEN foam used for gardening. "floral foam"

or you can get surfboard foam, specially made so it does NOT absorb resin or react.

http://www.efoamstore.com/shopcart2/default.asp?id=10

 

[bean 10+ year member]

I think you probably could have just bondo'd the foam....Once it was completely dry.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

bondo is made from the same stuff fiberglass resin is, just mixed with a thickening agent. so it would have happened anyway. you need to get a foam that does not react with the fiberglass.

 

[bean 10+ year member]

yeah, you're right.... But, was it a reaction? or was it that the foam hadn't fully expanded yet?

 

[theCybe 5,000+ posts]

agreed, You could have done this quite easily with mdf and glass. Probably easier that way too. But looks like it was fun for you. good luck peelin that foam off of your fingers. That sh!t takes months to totally disappear.

x12389. Great Stuff should come with Borax.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

yeah, you're right.... But, was it a reaction? or was it that the foam hadn't fully expanded yet?

before

after

you tell me //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

im almost posative it was a reaction. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif