So, I should point out that even though I just purchased a new Pioneer 500, I am a cheap bastard. This thing costs more than the truck I drive everyday, it's almost the most expensive thing I own.
That being said I needed a place to keep a serious tool roll, yank strap and maybe an air compressor and a first aid kit. That's a lot to shove in the trashcan that is wedged under the driver's seat and I am not paying Honda for a plastic ABS bin..cant do it.
So, what are my options? I have seen that cool metal tray that mounts under the hood, and to be honest I could have made one a those but I figured I could squeak out a bit more storage if I tried my hand at building one from scratch with fiberglass, while I have never built anything with fiberglass from scratch I see people custom building speaker forms all the time...how hard could it be right?
So here is what I did.
Step one.
Cut cardboard to fit the bottom and the back, use all the room you can because this will be the outside dimension minus the thickness of the cardboard that you are using.
Use some strong tape and start laying out and connecting panels together. It's really not critical that it's perfect.
Try to get it as close of a fit to the sides as you can, feel free to use tape to fill any voids.
Now, before we cover our pretty Honda with gooey resin and glass hairs we need to think about how we can protect it and have a release material at the same time.
Trim a trash bag to fit inside the opening leaving enough material so it can fit all of the nooks and cranny's. Only use a SINGLE LAYER OF THE TRASH BAG.
Now, we need some sort of temporary adhesive to glue that trash bag down to the form we have made, I found various things on the web but the stores near me did not have much so I needed to fine something that would work and not be expensive. Then it hit me. A cheap and perfect solution, even if I get over spray it will not matter.
Now, spray liberally and give it a bit to get tacky and try to get the plastic stuck to all of the details.
Then I went to the local auto parts store and purchased two fiberglass mats this size and two cans of the resin mix (bondo brand, but whatever is on sale)
Now, put on some GOOD rubber gloves, I like the black Nitrile gloves from harbor freight, this is a must. Resin is tough to get off and the fiberglass needs to be cut into smaller manageable strips so that means handling it at length.
Now, lightly put some resin on the plastic so it holds your strips in place long enough to bury it in resin. DAB DON'T BRUSH! Have a helper and some paint sticks to help you poke it into the cranny's, if you brush too much you will pull the matting apart. Make sure that your corners are using the center of a matting strip and not the edge, the strength comes from the matting and you do not want a mat edge at a corner.
It does not need to be purty! Do a few layers and let it sit overnight.
The next day push from the bottom and pop it out and get it on a bench or work area.
Test fit and start marking the top with a marker so it will get close to the hood but not impact it. Then I used a cut off wheel to trip off any frayed edges and layered some more matting and resin on the inside to fill any voids and I also folded some over the top to stiffen the edges some. I used some paint sticks and spring clamps to help hold the folded edges down while they dried. I don't have a pic of the trimmed piece, sorry.
Now, I wanted to line it with something because raw fiberglass hurts to touch and it needed a little help looking good.
So, I went to Walmart and got some spray adhesive and some heavy felt.
And here it is, not bad for a first effort in fiberglass work.
Total cost was about $50.
Stay safe!
Alex
That being said I needed a place to keep a serious tool roll, yank strap and maybe an air compressor and a first aid kit. That's a lot to shove in the trashcan that is wedged under the driver's seat and I am not paying Honda for a plastic ABS bin..cant do it.
So, what are my options? I have seen that cool metal tray that mounts under the hood, and to be honest I could have made one a those but I figured I could squeak out a bit more storage if I tried my hand at building one from scratch with fiberglass, while I have never built anything with fiberglass from scratch I see people custom building speaker forms all the time...how hard could it be right?
So here is what I did.
Step one.
Cut cardboard to fit the bottom and the back, use all the room you can because this will be the outside dimension minus the thickness of the cardboard that you are using.
Use some strong tape and start laying out and connecting panels together. It's really not critical that it's perfect.
Try to get it as close of a fit to the sides as you can, feel free to use tape to fill any voids.
Now, before we cover our pretty Honda with gooey resin and glass hairs we need to think about how we can protect it and have a release material at the same time.
Trim a trash bag to fit inside the opening leaving enough material so it can fit all of the nooks and cranny's. Only use a SINGLE LAYER OF THE TRASH BAG.
Now, we need some sort of temporary adhesive to glue that trash bag down to the form we have made, I found various things on the web but the stores near me did not have much so I needed to fine something that would work and not be expensive. Then it hit me. A cheap and perfect solution, even if I get over spray it will not matter.
Now, spray liberally and give it a bit to get tacky and try to get the plastic stuck to all of the details.
Then I went to the local auto parts store and purchased two fiberglass mats this size and two cans of the resin mix (bondo brand, but whatever is on sale)
Now, put on some GOOD rubber gloves, I like the black Nitrile gloves from harbor freight, this is a must. Resin is tough to get off and the fiberglass needs to be cut into smaller manageable strips so that means handling it at length.
Now, lightly put some resin on the plastic so it holds your strips in place long enough to bury it in resin. DAB DON'T BRUSH! Have a helper and some paint sticks to help you poke it into the cranny's, if you brush too much you will pull the matting apart. Make sure that your corners are using the center of a matting strip and not the edge, the strength comes from the matting and you do not want a mat edge at a corner.
It does not need to be purty! Do a few layers and let it sit overnight.
The next day push from the bottom and pop it out and get it on a bench or work area.
Test fit and start marking the top with a marker so it will get close to the hood but not impact it. Then I used a cut off wheel to trip off any frayed edges and layered some more matting and resin on the inside to fill any voids and I also folded some over the top to stiffen the edges some. I used some paint sticks and spring clamps to help hold the folded edges down while they dried. I don't have a pic of the trimmed piece, sorry.
Now, I wanted to line it with something because raw fiberglass hurts to touch and it needed a little help looking good.
So, I went to Walmart and got some spray adhesive and some heavy felt.
And here it is, not bad for a first effort in fiberglass work.
Total cost was about $50.
Stay safe!
Alex
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