GT Flare Molds

eric_ciampa · 02-19-2003, 07:55 PM

I own the fiberglass GT flare molds for the 914, front and rear. I have no experence with fiberglass at all. Is it pretty straight forward. what i mean is can i go down to my local borders book store and pick up a how to book and with a little help from yuo guys make my self 4 good quality fiberglass flares? If not can i give these flares to a local body shop and have them make them for me? what do ya think...

dc914guy · dc914guy's Garage

Eric~
I am pretty new to this whole 914 thing, but from what I have seen (looking around the internet, thinking about putting flares on my 2.0), some of the cars with fiberglass flares look great, and others look really bad. I would say call around and find a shop that has worked on 914's before and go talk to them

~Eric

jurhip · 02-19-2003, 10:05 PM

I am from Carnegie Mellon University and we do a thing her called buggy. Basically a one-man prone gravity fed missle racer. Ours is completely out of carbon fiber. I learned how to do this to make these and playin gwith composites is not hard. I am also making a carbon fiber intake for Formula SAE. If you really want to learn, join your local kit plane club and they will show you every thing you need to know. They even hold seminars on composites.

There are some things that you will need to learn to make the flares strong enough (such as vacuum bagging and curing) but overall it is relatively easy. Just practice. Also, if you have the forms, make it out of carbon fiber. Same basic method as glass laying. Ask me any questions if you need to. I can email you about any thing you need to know.

Justin

74 914 1.8

Eduardo Castrejón Elbjorn · 02-19-2003, 10:16 PM

I have 2 914´s and both are flare converted.
I bought 1 kit to pelican and with this kit I made the molds then I made my other car flares.
This is not difficult but is time consuming.
And your garage will be a mess !!!!!, full of fiber dust.
If you will do it, will be very inportant that you use black fiber colorant.

If another guy can make the flares for you at affordable price, send it.
I hate this fiber dust.

Good luck !

eric_ciampa · 02-19-2003, 10:29 PM

can i take these anywhere? i would think that alot of shops would not want to do this... but hey i am a self proclaimed idiot

Zeke · 07:52 AM

I was in the fiberglass business early in my career. I can tell you that the process is easy once you learn it and have the eqipment. The 1st step after preparing the molds for a sucessful part release, is to spray 10-12 mils of gel coat of your favorite color into the molds. Don't worry too much about vacuum bags or carbon fiber unless you are making airplane or race car parts. After gel coat comes a couple of layers of fiberglass mat and a final layer of fiberglass cloth for appearance and the ability to squegee excess resin out over the side of the mold.

I agree with the suggestion to take your molds to a FG shop and commission them to make you some parts. You would have a better part if you asked for a hand laid part and not a chopper gun part (lighter). I might be interested in your molds in trade for some parts made up for you.

maf 914 · 02-20-2003, 08:26 AM

For fun you might want to check out http://www.gunnarracing.com/

They show race car restoration including fiberglass work. Check the G-99, 906-151, and the UFC Engineering Motorsports projects. I really like following these projects.

Mike

Oh, check out the 914 projects also!

eric_ciampa · 02-20-2003, 12:57 PM

Thanks guys... I will just have to get some prices from some shops and read some books. Milt... I am only really interested in the molds to make my flares and hold no special sentimental value... that translates to if you want them i can live with that. go ahead and e-mail me if you would like. I am not serriously thinking about doing the instalation anytime soon becausei will want to pain it at the same time. but if the flares keep well then i might go for that.