Building my own fiberglass body ...over my steel cab

[keepinthe805alive]

Decided to take on this project before the night race. If you have seen my truck its quite wide, I built my own kit when I was 19 and since it was my first one ever I didnt really take my new hubs, brakes, ect. into the equation and now my trackwidth sits at 88 inches. Since the only two front clips available for my tacoma(besides the link one which im not really a fan of) only cover half my tire I decided to make my own. because the clip has to be so wide I cant run a regular quarter pannel so I would have to draw it back onto the cab like the ranger clip from perrys. When I was coming up with the design in my head I thought why just end it at the door? Why not flow it all the way back into the bedsides? Ive never really done fiberglass before but I tend to learn by just diving into the deep end. After all my race truck was the first ever truck I built, and If i can build an entire race truck I can probably make something out of fiberglass right? I did skip through a book about building fiberglass hotrod bodies I got from the library, watched a couple vids on youtube, and picked my bosses brain who is a mechanical engineer and built his senior project sae formula car out of carbon fiber, he also took the composites course at ceritos college. So after a night of brainstorming I started the project.

Here we go...

I started by determining that I need the clip to be 6" wider than my perrys one, So I Used 1" thick polystyrene to hold the shape of the wheel well and also to create a box against my cab to hold the 2lb. density self expanding polyurethane foam.




the foam wont stick to foil or other slick surfaces


Here is the channel I am building into the body, mainly so I still have access to my door handle. I will also cut the front and rear open to draw in air, which I will make a duct that flows into my tranny and oil coolers.




here is the final piece of polystyrene which creates the box in which i will pour the liquid self expanding foam into


Tell me what you think so far!

[bert5]

Watching progress with interest as looking to do similar flares on my pickup. Keep the pics coming.
Cheers
Bert

[socalmoto]

Im sure youll get it done. I think i can see the design youre going for so good luck with it. It takes time to setup everything for the fiberglass, but with the work youve done to your truck you seem very patient. I remember seeing your truck at boneyard a couple years ago and couldnt believe how much tig welded you did on that floor!!

[keepinthe805alive]

Watching progress with interest as looking to do similar flares on my pickup. Keep the pics coming.
Cheers
Bert

Ill try to make it as step by step as possible for you

[keepinthe805alive]

Im sure youll get it done. I think i can see the design youre going for so good luck with it. It takes time to setup everything for the fiberglass, but with the work youve done to your truck you seem very patient. I remember seeing your truck at boneyard a couple years ago and couldnt believe how much tig welded you did on that floor!!

Thanks mang. Ill get it done like always its just alot of work!

Well since the polystyrene structure is complete its time to pour foam!

I got my foam from aeromarine products in san diego. I highly recommend going though them. I recieved it next day where other companies said 5-7 business days, plus they were really cool to talk to and were stoked on my project. Their website is: AeroMarine Products - Epoxy Resin, Urethane Foam, Silicone Mold Making Rubber

1(877)342-8860
AeroMarine Products, Inc.
4128 Napier St.
San Diego, CA 92110

I used what everyone uses for this type of project, 2lb. density polyurethane self expanding foam. It comes in two parts, just mix part A and part B in a 50-50 ratio, stir, and your ready to rock.




They werent kidding when they said it can expand up to 30 times its size!




After I removed the polystyrene and did round one of shaping, mostly just trimming off the excess

[ChaseTruck754]

Cool deal. I will be watching this. I have toyed with the idea of doing something similar myself before but chickened out and let a pro do it.

How much did that A - B foam run you?

[keepinthe805alive]

Cool deal. I will be watching this. I have toyed with the idea of doing something similar myself before but chickened out and let a pro do it.

How much did that A - B foam run you?

Here is their pricing: http://www.jgreer.com/boat-foam.htm

I used the 2#(2lb. density) the heavier the density the more intricate and detailed you can get, but its also harder and more tedious to sand and shape. For making body pannels 2lb. density is perfect.

[KC]

Very cool. I've been waiting for someone to have the huevos to do something like this. If you have any questions just ask. I layup carbon fiber all day long and, I may have some helpful tricks for you.

[keepinthe805alive]

Very cool. I've been waiting for someone to have the huevos to do something like this. If you have any questions just ask. I layup carbon fiber all day long and, I may have some helpful tricks for you.

any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated haha, like I said ive never done a project like this before...

Just off the top of my head, ill be glassing over the foam to complete the plug, but there are parts(where it flows onto my exisiting front clip and bedsides) where the foam flows into a fiberglass surface that I dont really want to mess up. What would you do in this situation? Cover the besides and clip in a mold release so it doesnt stick? Or just bit the bullet and make my besides and clip part of the plug?

[keepinthe805alive]

Round two of shaping

[keepinthe805alive]

Round three of shaping! Its now close to where i want it to be, just a little more detail work getting lines straight and the front fender shaped

[keepinthe805alive]

I also started the other side

This time i used 1" thick polystyrene instead of 3/4" and more ribs in the channel in hopes of preventing the force of the expanding foam from warping everything.




Well it was 3am when I poured the foam and about 50 degrees out, when I poured the foam the first time it was about 80 degrees, I figured it wouldnt expand as much because of the temp difference so I made a larger batch. Yep it expanded just as much, FML...

[keepinthe805alive]

Here it is after a first trim

This side is going MUCH faster since the design phase is already complete, im just taking measurements from the drivers side, transferring them over to the passenger side then cutting away

This is basically how im doing it

[socalmoto]

so are you makeing a 1 piece and 2 side pieces? Or front fenders and two side pieces?

[Ryan_P]

Way cool. Major props for taking on this project, keep us posted.