Now that you have the first section of the mold done and some wood backing to help keep the mold rigid you can move on to the “Lock Up” areas as explained in step 2. So now you can flip the plug and mold over to get to the lock up areas.
The process is the same. More wax; build out the flanges, and glass over with 4 layers.
Once the glass has dried you can trim off the fringe with a cut off wheel or air hacksaw, and remove the paper flanges you made earlier.
The next step is to make the return flanges.
This will give you an area to place the glass for the part. The return flange is one key part of the mold. It will give the final part the strength to keep flexing down to an acceptable level. With out a return flange the part will flap in the wind or sag. One misconception is a thick part is a strong part. Not so. But I’ll get into that later. Right now lets go forward on the mold flanges. Where you placed the flanges on the out side of the mold you need to carry that over to the return flange as well. Just keep thinking lock up. When the mold for the hood is done it will consist of 17 separate parts that will bolt together.
Once you have the return flange separation points you can gel coat the plug, and mold flanges. Then glass on the 2-inch return flanges. One problem that people encounter is the mold sticking to the plug. You can reduce this by using the right amount of hardener. Not enough and the resin gets more time to work it’s way through the glass, gel coat and wax. Then the resin works it’s way into the plug or your flanges.
Once you have all the flanges done you can get out the drill and ¼ inch bolts. You are going to need a bunch of them.
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