Fiberglass Mold Making and Fabrication How To – Project Blog

My most recent fiberglass project is a set of fenders for my beach cruiser. I know that there are already fenders available on the market, but I really didn’t care for them. In addition, I do enjoy building my own things when I can and it just so happened that this would be one of those projects.

To start with a project like this, I first needed to decide how I would get the shape and size of a fender that I was looking for. I want to have a fender with a round contour that would provide better coverage of the tire than what store bought fenders provide.

Initially I considered obtaining the right shape for the fenders by covering an inflated tire on the rim with foam weather stripping and then using that as the foundation on which to build a fender. The more I thought about this the more problems I was imagining.

Then one day I was walking by the 99 cent store and I saw those round foam pool toys that the kids use, I think they are called noodles. I knew right away that I was 99 cents away from the perfect base on which to build a plug for my fenders.

Once I got that foam roll home I pulled a wheel off my bike, removed the tire and proceeded to tape that foam roll to my rim. It fit the channel perfectly, and was the right height and width. I wanted my fender to cover about one half of the diameter of my tires so I used enough of the foam to accomplish this.

With the foam roll secured to the rim, I decided to cover the foam with a layer of masking tape. I did this to protect the rim and because I wasn’t entirely sure what the fiberglass resin would do to the foam, or if it would release cleanly from the foam.

At this point it is time to think about applying the fiberglass resin and mat. I began by building a simple cardboard stand to hold the rim steady while the materials are applied. Once I was happy with the stand I covered the entire rim and tape covered foam with PVA release agent.

Now I am ready to build a fender plug.

Happy Glassing

Steve

www.fiberglassmoldmanual.com

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Hello fiberglassers,

I maintain Steve Jone’s web sites and blogs.  Well, I sort of maintain them. I had to move this blog to a new server due to a couple of issues.

1. I did not stay up with WordPress Security Updates which resulted in the site getting hacked. (You would think hackers could find something constructive to do with their time.)
2. The older version was a pain for Steve to manage.

I am sincerely sorry and apologize to you for the time this blog was down.  Know that Steve will be posting his no fluff straight talk posts on Fiberglass Mold Making and Fiberglass Fabrication.

Thank you for your patience and understanding,

Mike Claggett