Substitute panel for center rear reflector

[OffCamber00]

Thom, I'm interested too.

[david.avery]

Thom, 2 questions:

1) is the part flat in the back, and just varying thickness to get the slight curve?
2) Are you going to make a plug from this, or will you pull copies from the reflector each time? The reason I ask is that you left the reflectors in; is it going to be smooth or have raised areas where the two reflectors were?

Thanks!

[sand_man]

Originally posted by widebody911
I'm going to go ahead and make the mold, since I've already prepped everything. Who knows, maybe mine will be better

Absolutely! I haven't seen a finished product on the Rennlist version.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by david.avery
Thom, 2 questions:

This is just one of the first steps in making the mold. First I clean up the part as best as I can and wax it (just like waxing a car). Then I build a set of flanges around it with foamcore board, then wax it again, along with the flange, then I shoot a special mold release agent - the green stuff, (aka PVA). When that's dry, I shoot a heavy layer of gelcoat - the orange stuff is a special tooling gelcoat (looks like it was too heavy in this case). Then the chopper gun guy shoots the whole mess with a mix of fiberglass resin and fiberglass chop (or for small stuff I'll do it by hand, but it's tedious!). When that whole mess is cured, I (hopefully) pry the original part back out, and now I have one half of my mold! It will have the exact curve and profile (did you know the top and bottom edges are different? I didn't!) as the original. I then dress out any 'issues' - for instance, I will be sanding out the little end squares and a couple of little cracks. Then, I do a couple of good coats of wax on the mold, and then lay in some special .065" sheet wax, add some side flanges, then shoot more PVA and gelcoat on top of that, and then back to the chopper guy. This becomes the second half of the mold. The sheet wax creates the space for the layup material. When I do the second half of the mold, I will also have to make provisions for fasteners. I think I will do little 'islands' for the fasteners like the original.

To make a part, I wax and PVA both halves of the mold, shoot gelcoat on the 'face' side, then layup the resin and fiberglass into the 'face' half of the mold, then clamp the back half on top of it. This is called a compression mold, and I use this technique because you can control the thickness of the part, you don't get any voids, and I think a raw fiberglass back side looks like ass. Oh, and I don't have a vaccum bag setup.

When the part has cured, I pop it out of the mold, trim it on a belt sander, and it's ready to ship, if there are no surface imperfections that need to be fixed.

[david.avery]

Thanks Thom!

All work I've ever done was hand-one-off layup (sub enclosures and a big firewall bubble on my spyder). I was unaware of the complex curves of the stock panel, that would mean that a flat piece of lexan would probably look off. Thanks for doing this, you should videotape it

[cashflyer]

Thom..
I'm waiting to see the end product!

We do some composite repairs at my shop (aviation stuff) and I also do some one-off hand layups for specialty car items. Fiat only so far, but was thinking about some P-car stuff.

Thankfully you beat me to this project. Now I can get back to the workload of my real job. I'm sure my customers would appreciate it.

Although I do not mind a raw fiberglass texture on the back of a part (since nobody will ever see it) I agree that voids are a real PITA. I use a bagger, but I may give your compression technique a try.

What type resin are you using?

[Vin-barrett]

-subscribed to thread-

I want one of these when they're ready

[bigchillcar]

sounds awesome. home depot also has lexan and other various thicknesses of plastic sheets that could also work for you diy guys who want to make your own. i bought a sheet of lexan for $50 that was 48x36 inches as i recall to replace a broken window when i was burglarized this past december. seems like it could work, too. still, this fg piece looks like the creme de la creme.
ryan

[don911]

I'm anxious to see the results as well. I'll be wanting one to go with my future BW ruf bumpers.

[J Smith]

I had mine painted. I know.......the sacrilege.

[NoLift911]

Very nice - looks very similiar to mine except I have the red squares still showing. I also have the same bumper mods as you and thinking about the R lights - they look really nice. I think most of the cars I have seen them on they look all cobbled together with poor fit/finish due to fiberglass bumpers. Yours came out very nice.

You just need to let go of those mirrors...

-Jeff

[david.avery]

Smithers, that came out very nice! It looks very subtle.... did they have to do anything special to it to make the primer stick?

[J Smith]

I also have the same bumper mods as you and thinking about the R lights - they look really nice. I think most of the cars I have seen them on they look all cobbled together with poor fit/finish due to fiberglass bumpers. Yours came out very nice.

Thanks Jeff. I spent some time getting those R lights to fit. The actual piece fit perfectly in the tail light spot, but trying to get it to line up with the body and be straight takes some creative tinkering. I agree, most I see are crooked and don't seem to fit right.
That's actually a new fiberglass bumper. I ditched the stock one that I smoothed out. I just hated the look of the bellows on the side.

Smithers, that came out very nice! It looks very subtle.... did they have to do anything special to it to make the primer stick?

Thanks Dave. I have no idea what was involved. I told him what I wanted done and he said "no problem". So I assume it's not too big of a deal. The PORSCHE script is actually a flat black finish, so it is subtle, the camera makes it look silver.

[bigchillcar]

am i the only one who thinks the mod looks best when paired with r lights? i agree..smithers' subtle look is sweet. not that there aren't some good examples with standard lights..they just look better to me with the r style..
ryan

[david.avery]

I think the R lights and the panel evokes longhood feelings

[Porsche Doc]

Originally posted by Jim Garfield
Don, would you mind explaining in detail how you did that?

Hey Man!
Sorry so late!
It's just a piece of white vinyl over the stock reflector and then we added the PORSCHE in black vinyl.
The guy that I use for graphics did it.
Its easy!

[widebody911]

Originally posted by bigchillcar
am i the only one who thinks the mod looks best when paired with r lights? i agree..smithers' subtle look is sweet. not that there aren't some good examples with standard lights..they just look better to me with the r style..
ryan

I plan to make one for my own car in carbon, to match the carbon hardtop my car will soon have. I wonder if I could get the 911R tailight guy to make me a set of those in carbon...

[bigchillcar]

I plan to make one for my own car in carbon, to make the carbon hardtop my car will soon have. I wonder if I could get the 911R tailight guy to make me a set of those in carbon...

definitely..that would be a slick way to go.
ryan

[widebody911]

Just a quick update. The "front" half of the mold is done, the other half is at the chopper gun shop and hopefully will be done this weekend.

The first picture shows the facing surface, the 2nd is the setup for the back side mold. I've incorporated little 'standoff's' for mounting, and I'm experimenting with a couple ribs to make the part stiffer.

More pix @ http://rennlight.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?string=911+rear+reflector

[dweymer]

Nice work Thom, and good beer choice too!