More boring details..... Ripped down a 1/2" piece of MDF to 1/4"wide, then hit it with a half-round router bit and then cut some kerfs in so it would bend.
Attachment 79766

Then CA glued it using a scrap piece to keep the radius accurate.
Attachment 79767

A little fiberglass repair tip someone might find useful. Had to lower the door lever so had to relocate the hole in the door panel.
Attachment 79768

Scape with masking tape and a little release wax on the masking tape. Resin doesn't stick to masking tape much but wax insures an easy release.
Attachment 79769

Hot glued the scrap to the front of the door panel.
Attachment 79770

This the back of the door panel with the glass laid down with a little vinyl ester resin.
Attachment 79772

Resin cured and backing removed. Once sanded down the patch will disappear. Boring, but it might help someone.
Attachment 79771

IT GETS WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER!! The seemingly chaotic approach here - makes me laugh too.

The foam for the speaker cover was mostly carved to shape and then covered with drywall mud in order to smooth to the final shape. This is still wet, sanding to come tomorrow, then I'll show how it gets glass'd and then how the foam and drywall mud gets removed.

The center section for the insert has the 1/2 round molding glued down and first sweep of filler laid down.

The rear foam is shaped and will be covered with glass, today. The wood was recessed a bit so the glass would have somewhere to anchor. Given the door panel is concaved front to rear and top to bottom, both this rear glass'd area and the front speaker area, actually add rigidity and keep the shape of panel once it's all cured. You can sort of see the horizontal relieve cuts in the plywood in the rear, that plywood is not only for the esthetic looks as it adds some dimension but it's epoxied to the flimsy fiberglass panel so it holds the vertical concave. If you go back a few posts, you'll see the scab'd on blocks that helped me clamp this in place tight against the door while the epoxy dried.

Lots of goal posts to kick between here (maneuvering around the roll-bar) while trying to make it flow and look right. And trying to keep it as light as possible.
Attachment 79774

This florist foam is a nice lightweight medium for giving dimension to fiberglass, it shapes incredibly easy and polyester resins won't eat it.

As I need to keep the door panel anchored to the door to keep it's shape until the glass sets up, had to laminate it on the car. While the resin will stick to the foam, because the glass will be hanging vertically, the weight of it would just peel away and fall to the ground. So a quick brush of some really hot resin, let it tack up a bit and then 2 layers of cloth were laid down.

This pic is just after that first sweep of resin.
Attachment 79775

Then with the 2 layers of cloth laid down. This will get a sweep of filler to blend it into the panel. That front edge looks rough because it's puposefully not feathered in so I don't grind it away while smoothing it into the door. This will lock in the vertical concave of the door panel.

Attachment 79776

Amazing work and I appreciate all the fiberglass tips you can give, I'm in the process of building a Factory Five '33 Hot Rod and it's all fiberglass.

Blending the passenger side of the lower dash into the center AC panel and the door panel.
Attachment 79787

Here is a bottom view of the center AC vent panel.
Attachment 79788

Here is the back view of that panel. This is the just the wooden plug for the fiberglass mold. Thought you might enjoy the behind the scenes comedy of construction here!
Attachment 79789

Using 2 sided foam tape as the .065" spacer between the interior panels to make room for the leather.
The gauges, head unit and AC switches are of course only paper copies, keeping the real parts safe in the box!
Once this is done, I can get back to the center console. Still up in the air with how it will lay out.
Attachment 79790

Where did you learn all of this fiberglassing work, John? Love seeing the boring steps. Helps me understand how it's done.

Made the plug for the last part of the dash. Right now the thinking is the final parts will get covered with leather and then the inserts will be carbon.
Attachment 79801

Lots more to come here, those holes will get filled in for the final plug, before a mold is taken...just needed access to screw it up to the dash for now. There will be an additional piece to cover some of the AC evap but that will get made after the center console is done. Next.
Attachment 79802

Here is the speaker pod done. Drywall mud.
Attachment 79803

A quick coat of primer to seal up the drywall mud.
Attachment 79804

Then 3 coats of wax....don't get wax anywhere that you want fiberglass to stick....in my case the thin areas in front and back of the pod. That is where the pod gets anchored to the door panel. The a coat of PVA mold release, that is the green tint.
Attachment 79805

Same idea here as before with the rear section, when laminating sharp angles and doing it vertically, mix up a hot batch of resin, brush it on and let it tack up a bit before laying down the fiberglass cloth. It just helps anchor the glass down while you are wetting it out with a normal mix of resin. That only works with "cloth", doesn't really work with "mat". Cloth is your friend when doing funky shapes and sharp angles, mat won't lay down right in those cases. Though you do need at least 2 layers of cloth if you want it to be rigid.
Attachment 79809

Wetted out. Good tip.... Remember this process is totally back@sswards for how you would normally do fiberglass in a mold. But if you ever do it like this, it will mean that you are going to sand/smooth the 'glass. So...get some "surfacing wax" and mix it into the resin. The wax will rise to the surface and create a layer that allows the resin to cure better/harder for sanding. I know that probably doesn't make a lot of sense but it works great. In this case, I didn't mix it in the resin for laminating but then mixed it into a final batch that I just brushed on the already laminated part, sorta heavy, you can see the runs. Doesn't matter as this will be rock hard and will get sanded off.
Attachment 79810

Another good tip....make an acetone station for Al pans for cleaning brushes and rollers. I have a dirty pan and then a final rinse pan. When done, just pour it in an old container and take the hazardous waste depo at your local landfill.
Attachment 79811

The rough-in of the 'glass done, door panel removed and the foam/mud removed.
Attachment 79815
Still have lots of clean-up to do.
Attachment 79817

Top is a piece of plastic that was cut with a CNC router, using it for 2 purposes: To provide a perfectly round reveal for the speaker grill and to provide a flat surface for the speaker grill to latch to.

Bottom is the wood platform for the arm rest. The 4/4 hardwood is used for a sturdy mounting surface for the arm rest so it stays stout if someone uses it as brace getting in and out of the car.
Attachment 79818

Plastic ring epoxied into place.
Attachment 79819

Start of the arm rest. Florist foam, rounded with a 1/2" router bit, glued down to the wood.
Attachment 79820

Front half of the arm rest.
Attachment 79821

First of 3 layers of fiberglass cloth.
Attachment 79822

Fitment mostly done.
Attachment 79823

Attachment 79824

Attachment 79825

A bit more progress on the arm rest. Beginning of closing off the end and the back with glass. Also removed the foam where the arm rest goes over the door pull. Lots more to come.

This is the end, ready to be capped with 'glass.
Attachment 79834

Just a scrap piece of wood, masked....then a wet layer of 1 1/2 oz of mat.
Attachment 79835

Flipped over and set down on the arm rest
Attachment 79836

Resin completed cured
Attachment 79837

Scrap of wood popped off.
Attachment 79838

Sanded smooth and the foam removed in the area of the door pull.
Attachment 79839

Attachment 79840

Good lord - this thing just keep getting to whole other level! And being garage built by YOU makes it that much better! Major Props!!

Prep'n to close off the back of the arm rest. Also fixing a little error, if you look in the left corner you will see the glass pulled away from the foam when I laminated it, just the spring tension in the cloth. You can see it raised up that corner and is a high spot. If I just sanded it flat, it would go through to the foam, so opened up the foam a bit...more to come, see below. That masking tape has release wax on it.
Attachment 79848
Wetted out a layer of 1 1/2oz mat and rolled the air bubbles out. Also I cut some small pieces of glass and put them into the opening in the foam, upper left. This will provide some glass to back that high area up so when I sand it flat there will be glass backing it up and no-harm/no-foul.
Attachment 79849
Set the arm rest on it and weighted it down to press it into the wet glass.
Attachment 79850
Resin cured and popped off the bench/tape.
Attachment 79851
First trim and ready for the next step.
Attachment 79852

This thread never disappoints.

:popcorn2:

Agreed :king:

A bracket with Rivnuts, welded to the door. The door panel slides over it and then when the armrest bolts on, it pulls the panel in tight so it doesn't rattle.
Attachment 79858

With the armrest installed.
Attachment 79859

Looking up from the bottom of the armrest.
Attachment 79860

Backside of armrest.
Attachment 79862

Same process of sealing up the front armrest extension.
Attachment 79861

Excellent craftsmanship!!

This things continues to be another level! Well done!

2 steps forward...1 step back. No fun if we don't share the mis-steps.....

I struggled with the look of how the arm rest cut off the speaker at the bottom but I really like the how the arm rest sits on top of the door bar when the door is closed. It really looks good when you are inside with the door closed. Probably making a big deal out of a non-issue, but thought a little return on that speaker opening might finish off the look. It didn't work, as you can see. Looks bad and while I knew I was going to have to modify the speaker grill, it just made that fit way to tight.

Cutting that lower section off today and going back to just letting the arm rest do it's thing. Once it's covered with black leather, it will mostly disappear anyway.
Attachment 79927

Attachment 79928

Here is the driver door with the arm rest done. I'll make the pass side like this today.
Attachment 79929

The door pull will get done black later but just had to ditch the blue anodizing now! Easy Off oven cleaner eats it quick. Definitely doesn't leave a pristine Al finish so I wouldn't count on it if you want useable bare Al but good enough for just removing the anodizing.

The two right most metal brackets are welded to the door so they solidly anchor the armrest and make for no flexing when the door is pulled closed.
Somehow drilling 6 holes in that metal bracket makes it lighter!!
Attachment 79926

Arm rests completed. The inside of the door pull area will get covered with leather so I smoothed it so your fingers don't bump square edges.
Attachment 79942

Made the upper section flow into the door panel. Used plastic welder (super hot soldering iron) and shaped these areas. And filled the door lock hole. All will be covered leather.
Attachment 79943

Attachment 79944

Attachment 79945

Underside.
Attachment 79946

:king:

Very nice!!!

I'm loving the door panel design.

Thank you!!!!

Finishing the center console. I wanted to use some factory parts as the basis of design here. Not sure I would do this again as blending plastic, fiberglass and MDF presents some challenges that most obviously just solve by doing this out of metal. But I'm down the path so I'm sticking with it.

All of this will get covered with leather but one of the problems I haven't been able to solve is getting any glues or filler to stick to this plastic. I've been using a plastic welder and plastic filler rod which works great for getting the general shape down but smoothing is difficult. Would be great to use body filler but it doesn't stick. I've tried every version of plastic glue I could find. Nothing sticks, might as well be putting the glue on wax cause it just peels off.

Not a real big deal as the leather will hide most of the imperfections, just would make shaping this easier.

Started a while ago with some used parts sourced from the junkyard and some new (cup holders) from eBay. Morphing it all together over the next few weeks.
Attachment 79976

I built that rear piece (gray) long ago. The EStopp is under that area.
Attachment 79977

Started a little storage area under the waterfall.
Attachment 79978

Beginning the waterfall.
Attachment 79979

Here is the start of changing the center console shape. Started with the swoop (drivers side) and modified it to go straight. This will make sense later but you can see where the plastic welder was used to reweld the section flat after I cut it and then used heat to flex it flat. The welding process works real easy but as you can imagine, the plastic doesn't sand very well so smoothing it would be awesome with some filler. Anyone have any thoughts?
Attachment 79980

Really liking how this is turning out.

Back in the day, we used to take shavings from the parent material and add them to a cup of acetone. Acetone melted the abs and made a slurry past. You then wiped that on as a filler. You need to burn a small sliver and see what type of plastic it is. There are charts online that tell you by the flame color or smoke what type of plastic it is, I can't remember off the top of my head. If it is ABS, the other option is a two part Fusor epoxy for ABS, but that gets real expensive, quick.

Thanks Craig!!! Will try.

Mold for the extension of the center console underway. Of course the PVC and the rest will get discarded after the 'glass work......next weekend.
Attachment 80096

Attachment 80097

Super nice...I can see the vision.

Just some chip board for the backing of the make-shift mold. The PVC's diameter is exactly perfect such that after the glass is laminated, the overall diameter will match the plastic center console. Once covered, this should all flow together with just a seam between them.
Attachment 80129

Hard to see because I used surfboard resin which is clear - but 2 layers of 1 1/2oz of fiberglass mat laid down. No real reason for using this resin, just have a bunch of it from some Carbon Fiber projects.
Attachment 80130

Kick panels laminated.
Attachment 80146

Attachment 80147

Very nice work John!