Fiberglassing TV Sunvisors

[DOZIER]

Well, the other day I recieved my sunvisors from my house in Birmingham, Al. I am in Okinawa, Japan currently. I went out and bought some fiberglassing materials and resin and all the accesories to do it. I had installed my 6.5 inch tv's, previously into my sunvisors and now they are removed. I would like to take the sunvisors and fiberglass them. I would like to make the bracket or frame of the tv be flushed into the fiberglass. I am wondering, can I just soak the visor material in resin first then reinforce it with some 1 1/2 oz. fiberglass mat? I know fiberglass does not stick to plastic. I read up on an article which said to drill holes in the frame sides and fiberglass the underside of the frame and the top of the frame, making sure to let resin seep through the holes to adhere to the plastic. Is this correct? I need answers fast. The weather has been really crappy here for the past two weeks. This is the first day that it is looking nice and sunny outside. I would like to get started immediately. Also, the seam of the visor where the corners and the bottom where it is sewn together leaves a deep crease. Can I just fill that crease in with body filler and sand it smooth after I fiberglass it?

 

[justin146]

Polyester resin wont stick to plastic, buy epoxy resin will. I'd still drill the holes though. You can probably do like you are talking about- soaking the cloth then put a layer of cloth over it. After you get your cloth on and set/smoothed, hit it with some bondo. I always use Bondo Ultimate because it is really lightweight.

 

[DOZIER]

Can I order the bodo ultimate online? I bought some bondo over here in Japan already. Should I take it back?

 

[justin146]

Can I order the bodo ultimate online? I bought some bondo over here in Japan already. Should I take it back?

Regular Bondo will be fine, Ultimate is just easier to sand and lighter weight. It has a whipped consistency. The regular stuff will smooth out better, since it doesn't harden as pourous.

 

[DOZIER]

Cool. I will try to get some pictures as I do it. I think I will start today or tomorrow.

 

[Rick]

Have you met any of the guys from the Japanese Explorer club?? http://www.int21.ne.jp/explorer/

 

[DOZIER]

Nope. I have only seen about two over here in Okinawa. They were 5.0's about late 90's models. This is the island. Mainland has a bunch of them I am sure. Mainland has less restrictions and stuff. This island has really small roads. If you have an Ex over here, good luck getting around these small roads.

 

[justin146]

have you finished the visors yet??

 

[DOZIER]

I will try to do them tomorrow. It rained after I posted yesterday. It is also raining today. I am waiting for the ole' sun to show up.

 

[DOZIER]

Still waiting on the rain to clear up.

 

[DOZIER]

Still raining

 

[FROADER]

Sweet I can get a weather report in Okinawa on the explorer board now.

That's a lot of rain. :thumbdwn:

 

[justin146]

freakin' do them inside!!

 

[DOZIER]

Ha ha....yea that time of year. It sucks. I cannot do fiberglass inside unless you want another Marine dead.

 

[DOZIER]

Finally, a sunny day. I have officially started my project. I will post pics later today or tomorrow morning. Thanks

 

[DOZIER]

Photo Update On Sunvisors

Day one with pictures first of the cut out hole of the sunvisors and with the tv frame sitting inside the hole for an idea of what it will look like. I am going for a three dimensional look. The fiberglass will move up and over the frame off of the visor itself. I stuck a piece of cord through the visor to hold the hole for the wire coming off of the tv. I did not want it to close up and have to drill it out.

These next few pictures are of the first day of fiberglassing

Here are some photos of the second day of fiberglassing

You can see that I have a slight angle on the top, coming out a little on each so it kind of tilts toward the eyes a little. I know they will be a little heavy, but I don't plan on flipping them back up. I want them to always stay down. In a few days I plan to fiberglass the back sides of them and then sand and start to bondo them smooth. This is my first fiberglassing project. Please help with any constructive criticism. Bare with me as the process may take a few more days. This thread already went three pages down the line. I have also already purchased some stock sunvisors for my truck just incase I don't like where this leads to. Something to fall back on ya know?
Here is a little pic of me after a few hours worth of fumes and sweat. With out the ipod I would have died of silence.

 

[DOZIER]

Comments?

 

[FROADER]

Looks good so far. I think people might have been waiting for them to be "done".
What are you plans for paint or whatever you're doing?

 

[DOZIER]

I am waiting for the weekend. It is Friday morning here now. I will hit up some more fiberglass on the back tonight and then in the morning and mid day tomorrow I will be starting the sanding process and adding bondo to them. The next pics you should see will be Either Saturday or Sunday, and they should be Bondo'd up. Then white paint to match my truck next week sometime.

 

[FROADER]

Cool, curious to see how they turn out.