Making molds of a part or 2

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Now that I have finished the molds up for the speaker kick panels for the early darts, I have worked on a new part. here it is and NO it's not done yte I forgot to adjust for the styrene shrinkage. I have to wait for my sprayable polyester resin to come in.

here is what they look like as of now. dang the cell phone sure was dirty.. I'll have to clean the lens on that thing.

got it popped off the mold.. it was TIGHT!
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didn't fit too bad up here on this end and was even better on the door panel side than the originals were.
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here's where it shrank the most. I'm going to add another 1/4 -1/2 to this edge and let it be long so I can trim to fit.
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top side fit pretty good, but I need to make a female plug for the door side to make the lines Crisper in the undercut.

View attachment WP_20140306_004.jpg


I just checked the originals and even they were short. hmmmm gotta be a reason for that.

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I'll still add on that length to make sure it's covered.
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I'll still add on a little on this side too so I get an even better fit.
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I'm getting close to having good parts for my cars :cheers:
all in all I'm pleased that these parts are coming out so darn nice, especially after all the work involved. WHEW.. thank goodness!
Hey Waggin I told ya I was getting close to pumping these baby's out...:director:
 
yep I was impatient and wanted to see what they would look like after I finished resizing them to fit even better. I have a few thisg I need to do but overall it's just finish work to get the lines where I want them and they look good.
here' a sample of the first piece. before any fixes are done.


I'll have to adjust the lower body lines next to the trim so that it fit's better I don't like the Gap that it shows.
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this is the problem area for fit since it's undercut BAD! I'll make a female plug that fits into the recess and it'll snug it right up.
View attachment DSCF4516.JPG


top fit pretty good but I'd like to lower the cut line to hide some more of the fiberglass.
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I remember manually heating and bending some of these in the body shop at Chryslers ,... dang looks like I'll be doing the same here! (darn back at work again)
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yep trims got to go up a bit to fit right. I really forgot that I was using a different type of plastic than ABS. :banghead: this stuff shrinks .018-.025 and INCH!!!!
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got one fix in the works right now!
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I'll bandsaw the piece in the middle and open it up the difference. to get the trim back into alignment. I should have a good drivers side by monday!:coffee2: lotsa work!
 
since I received some feedback on my kick panels and questions about the size. I went with some suggestions from the people who tested them out for me. I changed the depth of the slimline speaker setup to(2.35 total ) 2.125 depth to accommodate a more diverse set of speakers since some testers couldn't find the 1.9" speakers. these sets are ready now. whew! I also did the 2 component speaker test piece. it is a total of 3" tall and can be with and without the bulge for the little 2" (1.5 inch hole) component speaker (or at least the driver side is almost ready to test. passengers side will take a bit more work) I'm still waiting on my .090 styrene to arrive so I can test some of the side panels for the rear convertible top trim piece. so far so good!

the glovebox mold is killing me on setup, it's a female mold and is just a b#%tch to get setup correctly to pull a 3/16 thick piece of ABS. I'm sure I'll get it but it's a learning curve just figuring out what I can and can't do. BUT it's FUN!
these are the test drivers side of the 3" tall massive speaker kickouts.
there will be a pod that mounts to the door side of the kick panel the component style kickpanels will have these are without the pod.
these will work with the Deep Alpine sc50 series speakers.
View attachment DSCF4538.jpg

this is the normal kickout size that works well with slimline speakers under 2" in depth.
View attachment DSCF4392.JPG

3.0 plus before molding and almost 3.130 after adding the ABS. should hold a LOUD high amp/watt speaker in there.
View attachment DSCF4542.jpg
 
Labor of love! Great thread,admire the dedication. Nice work.
 
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