Hello,
I was considering fabricating my own body parts from fiberglass as a fun summer project. Does anyone have experience with this? I was thinking about casting a mold of te front bumper with some sort of plaster or buying styrofoam blocks to carve the desired shape out then wrapping with fb glass or take off the bumper and fill with an expanding pu foam and then molding a new bumper on top of that but using the foam as a base. Will this work??
Thanks for the input!
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Being the factory bumper is made of urethane and is quite flexible, it'd be best to cast the bumper with it on the car, you would create two sided molds to cast the part you want.

So if you want to make any sort of design, the quick way is to modify the factory bumper while it's on the car, then casting a fiberglass mold off the modified bumper, then casting the part. The long way is to make a OEM mold, then cast the OEM bumper in fiberglass, then modifying that fiberglass bumper.

Either way you would need quite a bit of materials such as gel coat and fiberglass matt and resin.

 

Awesome thanks a lot. I'm mostly concerned with the tabs that protrude out and the indentation for the clear corner. I was thinking of molding the oem and redesign the oem with body filler. It's more like a design project for the summer so hopefully I'll have time to do it. Do u have an eta how long it might take? I was thinking it take 3-5 days From start to finish?

 

Also I would like to achieve almost perfect fitment. Would method of casting affect this?

 

yes, the fitment is the primary reason why I suggested molding A side with the bumper on the car, this ensures the part is at a position of full fitment, after the A side cures, you can remove the bumper with the A side still on to mold the B side.

The indent should come out easily with the right prep as well as the tabs. You can always choose to reinforce the tabs first making them beefier before you mold, this way the cast part has a bigger tab that you can then sand down later.

The prep on your OEM bumper is the most important part, if it's nice and smooth, you can simply wax it and apply mold release prior to gel coat and lay up, the final part will come out nice and smooth with minimal prep.

 

Wow awesome. In terms of cost. What do u expect me to be looking at. 2-300$? I will be doing hand laid sheets but quality is important unless I can get some cheaper supplies to do a test to see what problems arise

 

Yes, I expect your majority of the cost will be on the gel coat and resin you need. You would need about a gallon of each to do the molds and the part itself. Fiberglass itself should be relatively cheap about $8-$10 for every yard of 50" wide fiberglass mat and cloth.