If you cant buy it, make it..

[FlyingW]

Those words ought to be familiar Kasey!!! Anyway, on my quest to find a seat pan for my current 70 projects I finally threw in the towel and glassed one. I need to make another for my second 70 project. I bought 2 32oz kits from Autozone with the hopes it would be enough to do 2. I was right on. 1 kit made 1 pan. Luckly for me the OEM (rusted piece o crap) pan was intact enough to cover the entire pan with aluminuim tape to hold it together. I cut the fiberglass mat in to strips and devised my plan of attack. I picked up a couple of aluminium throw away turkey pans to set the pan in to so the resin didn't go everywhere. I took a second turkey pan and used that to soak the fiberglass mat in resin. I put the old seat pan in a plastic bag and vaccuumed out all the air and tied it off. I then sprayed PAM all over the plastic to help the old pan release from the fiberglass. After the first layer went down I had some precut pieced of aluminium to fit where the mounting bolts would go. I put 2 more layers of fiberglass over the first one and worked in the remaining resin. I then took a small wallpaper seam roller and rolled the air bubbles out of the glass. I let it set for about an hour then cut around the edges and smoothed over the edges and a couple of rough spots. I placed the pan on the fender and marked the holes for the mount bolts and drilled. I secured the bolt on place with some 2 part epoxy. I'm pretty pleased with the results. It's by no means perfect but the foam and cover it anyway so who cares. I have a pretty uniform thickness of about 1/8" all the way around which should be ok for stapleing the new cover on. Total cost per pan is about 20.00. Not bad in my book. Considering I haven't done any fiberglass work since I was in the 7th grade I didn't do too bad. I'll do the other one tomorrow night.

[Millsi]

nice work!

[ADW3]

FlyingW you never cease to amaze! Take it from somebody who has been in the fiberglass/composites and plastics industries for 18 years...THAT IS IMPRESSIVE! :hail: For someone who has had no experience with these material since, what was it? ... the 7th grade??? ... well, I'm almost speechless :)

I've actually got a few customers who've been working with this stuff for years that would probably struggle trying to do something like that - at least using that level of creativity and simplicity. I know that you had expressed interest in having multiple pans manufactured - If you're still interested I believe you probably have the skills to build a f/g mold and then produce parts from that mold. If you'd like to pursue that I'll be glad to advise and even supply materials at my cost + shipping.

[Gdkarma]

Great job!:hail: :hail: :hail:

[blue27]

Very nice, sometimes you just need to do it any way that works, lol

[FlyingW]

Thanks guys. I never cease to amaze myself as well. I've always been a jack of all trades, master of none. I haven't found too many things I can't do. I'll post many more pics as "Spontanous Combustion" and his little brother evolves.

[azjay]

awesome! i've been working with 'glass for years, (it goes along with boats and baja bugs :shrug: ),and your project came out very impressive :hail: ! that is a fine job well done! :thumbsup:

[likestrikes]

Post pics of the things you "can't do" lol


came out really sweet, lets see the bottom!

[FlyingW]

Actually, I have to redo the pan. I molded it from the original pan on the outside so the new fiberglass pan is wider then stock. The aftermarket foam just doesn't fit right so this time I'm gonna glass the inside of the stock pan.

[ADW3]

remember, polyester resin shrinks. for the best fit you might should glass the inside of the pan then use some 1/16" or 1/8" sheet wax and mold another pan like you did the 1st time.

[FlyingW]

Roger that AD. The first pan was too wide so I concluded that I should have glassed the inside instead. Today I made a casting of the pan with that spray in 2 part foam used to package stuff. It looks pretty good. I may try it to see what happens. I'll let you know how it works.

[ADW3]

that's urethane and not polyester foam, right?

[FlyingW]

right, urethane foam.

[Rex Karz]

Nice work. You should become a fugitive more often.:ugh:
I'm wondering how well the staples are going to work. What held the cloth on the steel base?

[FlyingW]

Hooks punched out of the pan. I hate hooks. My seat is at the upholsters. I'll get it back on Tuesday. Metal seat pans, what the hell were they thinking??????

BTW, 3 days to go. I hope its a full pardon as opposed to parole.

[ADW3]

BTW, 3 days to go. I hope its a full pardon as opposed to parole.

???Huh??? What am I missing? http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/confused001.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)

[Rex Karz]

He has a deadbeat relative trying to sue him out of an inheritance. Just dodging a process server.
http://media.commercialappeal.com/mca/content/img/photos/2007/11/21/g23old1.jpeg

[FlyingW]

Deadbeat, that such a polite word.. I have some adjectives that would make a sailors ears bleed to describe my nephew. Sufice to say, if he dropped dead right now. I would be liquored up and partying within an hour. My nephew was responsible for getting the paperwork filed out and turned in so we could be served by march 4th. If this doesn't happen, the judge wants a very good reason why it wasn't done. Except for 1 guy that rang my doorbell a few weeks ago, I haven't seen anybody hanging out in front of my house so I have no clue what's going on. We're just playing the game.

[ADW3]

so this is over an inheritence dispute?

[FlyingW]

My sister left me and my wife her life insurance and pension because she was sick of her kids and their abuse and bad behaviour. She had no Will but life insurance and pension are not part of the Will. I was going to take an amount and divide it by 3 but one of my nephews from the very first phone call started banging me about his mom's life insurance. I told him I was obgligated to pay her immediate bills first then I would divide what's left. He didn't like that so he got his ass on. After my sister died I pulled a credit report and my nephew is using that to drag this whole thing in to Federal court. Needless to say, the more I told him to mellow out that he would get something the more he started coming unglued. He wanted me to send him all 3 shares and he would send it out. I told him no way. This is when it turned really nasty so I started to ignore him. Well, he filed a suite against me and my wife in Federal court. He doesn't have a case but he doesn't care. His whole purpose win or lose is to costr me time, money, and aggrivation which he has done. He's suing me for 50,000 claiming I caused him emotionally distress and financial loss (ya right). He's a homosexual, bipolar, gambling addicted, drug addicted, selfish, manipulating drama queen. I hope he gets hit by a bus........Shot in the head......wrapped in burlap and set on fire.....drowned in his own toilet......is that too graphic?

[ADW3]

So why don't you tell us how you really feel about him? ;)




Seriously, that's a real bummer that you've been dragged into something like that. It's certainly bad enough that you have to deal with the loss of your sister, and then this? Man, I hope things work out! My guess is that the nephew is relatively young and has probably never had to fully support himself? A major sense of entitlement, right? Well, for what it's worth, I've always believed that things like this have a way of working themselves out. You know, the old "what comes around goes around" principle. In other words, that arsehole will probably get what's coming to him. There are special places reserved for his kind. He'd better be careful when he's around his crapper, right?!

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/toilet10.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)

I'll send a shout out to the man upstairs for everything to work out for you. Again, I'm very sorry about your loss.

[FlyingW]

Thanks brother, actually, he's the same age I am. This guys a real nut job. Just gets off F@*&ing with people and i got in his sights. I never had a use for him growing up. His twin brother is totally the opposite. Twin boys, one is by all standards normal, the other, gay gay gay. We knew he was screwed up since we were very young. I hope he does get whats coming to him. I'd like to be there to watch.....

One thing I learned I learned through all of this is......have a Will. If you and your wife don't have one, get one. I wish my sister did what she said she would do and got a will. I wouldn't be going through this if she had. I wait for the day I can get this off my stress meter.

[wild200x]

your just about there now!2 days!!

[FlyingW]

Roger that wild. The closer it get to Tuesday, the more nervous I get.