[Vettezuki]

As some of you know, we're building a project car. Here's some time lapse of building up the mold for the front bumper.

You can find more about it here.



Much more to come in the coming months.

[BADDASSC6]

Awesome!

[BRUTAL64]

Yep, pretty cool.

[blackax]

How long did it take in real time

[Vettezuki]

Originally Posted by blackax

How long did it take in real time

What you see here? Good question. There's lots of drying time of course, but dozens of hours I'd say. There's a lot more that came after this that I didn't get. By the time it's done to a single finished part, probably something like 100 hours. Not the kind of thing you want to count too carefully.

Keep in mind this is still just the buck for the mold. However, our process is to spend a lot of time up front so the mold is clean and therefore the part is clean, rather than fixing everything on the molded part. Theoretically, you would be able to use this buck to make several molds and many copies from each mold. The primary purpose was to get some experience doing this (new to us) for future projects, where we will be able to work much faster but at a high finish level. Well, that's the idea anyway.

[Ultraperio]

From the time lapse it looks like you covered the bumper and laid down some glass over it. That would make the glass (when removed from the bumper) your mold. But the last part of the time lapse shows you filling and smoothing the outside of the glass, which you would do if you were using it as a plug. If the intent is to produce a bumper replacement roughly the size of the original wouldn't you want to inside of your glass to be smooth because that is where you'll be laying down the actual bumper?

My point is, it doesn't matter how smooth/pretty the outside of the mold is because thats not what is going to be seeing the glass. The work would be on the inside after your remove the original bumper.

That is unless i've missed something entirely.

[Vettezuki]

Originally Posted by Ultraperio

From the time lapse it looks like you covered the bumper and laid down some glass over it. That would make the glass (when removed from the bumper) your mold. But the last part of the time lapse shows you filling and smoothing the outside of the glass, which you would do if you were using it as a plug. If the intent is to produce a bumper replacement roughly the size of the original wouldn't you want to inside of your glass to be smooth because that is where you'll be laying down the actual bumper?

My point is, it doesn't matter how smooth/pretty the outside of the mold is because thats not what is going to be seeing the glass. The work would be on the inside after your remove the original bumper.

That is unless i've missed something entirely.

It's a buck/plug (not butt plug Adam). You're looking at exactly what (will be) the final part including size. It's a positive image from which the negative image mold is cast (laying glass on the outside of the buck) from which the positive image part (laying glass on the inside of the mold) is made. By making the buck as "finished" as possible, you help make the mold as smooth as possible and finally the part that comes out of the mold as smooth as possible. The way we're doing it actually makes it a fairly reproducible part with minimized final finishing requirements, though that wasn't specifically the intention.

[Ultraperio]

Originally Posted by Vettezuki

It's a buck/plug (not butt plug Adam). You're looking at exactly what (will be) the final part including size. It's a positive image from which the negative image mold is cast (laying glass on the outside of the buck) from which the positive image part (laying glass on the inside of the mold) is made. By making the buck as "finished" as possible, you help make the mold as smooth as possible and finally the part that comes out of the mold as smooth as possible. The way we're doing it actually makes it a fairly reproducible part with minimized final finishing requirements, though that wasn't specifically the intention.

Ah, I see now. Your using the bumper itself as the plug and just filled/modified with a thin layer of glass which will result in the final product being slightly larger than the original but not noticeably so.

I was under the impression that the plug was actually a mold, and you would be removing the bumper and laying the glass inside of the mold to replicate the bumper.

[Vettezuki]

Originally Posted by Ultraperio

Ah, I see now. Your using the bumper itself as the plug and just filled/modified with a thin layer of glass which will result in the final product being slightly larger than the original but not noticeably so.

I was under the impression that the plug was actually a mold, and you would be removing the bumper and laying the glass inside of the mold to replicate the bumper.

You gots'd it.

[enkeivette]

I didn't spend too much time getting the buck of the ass end perfect. Because fiberglass warps a bit anyways when it dries. I figured might as well just spend the time filling and sanding the final product.