How hard is it to make your own fiberglass box? Like if I wanted to fiberglass over a wooden box... Is it hard to get it smooth? Just sand it? Anyone with any experience making custom fiberglass boxes?

 

Just mix up some of the resin w/o the "glass" and put it on with a cheap paintbrush that you plan on throwing away. Sanding isn't too bad. I use a belt sander to knock down the big stuff and a D/A sander to finish it up. It seems to soak into MDF pretty good. I let it soak into the seams too (doesn't like silicone too well so don't use it). This is just for looks. I don't know if you are trying to reinfoce your box but this won't do that......purely cosmetic!

 

I gotcha... what if Im using cardboard to make a weird shape? I am only using fiberglass for looks. Can you paint the dried resin? How does that work?

 

No problem on the cardboard. I have done that myself but you will want to go ahead and use the fiberglass material for strength. Cardboard kinda sucks tho. I use bendable wire mesh to create my shape then I cover the front and back both with a couple layers of "glass". It is rock solid after that!

If you do that and make wierd shapes obviously the power sanders don't fly too well. Time to get out the elbow grease. Just get a couple grades of sandpaper. One really coarse to knock out the rough stuff and a fine paper for finishing. Also for crevices or for smoothing, use Bondo as it is easier than fiberglass.

The finished product is very paintable. My roommate is a painter at a body shop so I have him paint the stuff for me. Gives it a good look with a base coat/clear coat.

I have been looking into doing a gel coat on my pods because I am always scuffing the paint with my shoes. Should be a nice touch!!

Good luck!!

p.s. fiberglass is messy and doesn't clean up well. Invest in some latex gloves (disposable)

 

Whoops, you went and messed up... explain the gel coat.

I am actually going to build home speakers... decided I wanted to experiment and ordered some loose drivers and want to build a custom enclosure for them... It will be a standard 3 way design, but with an odd shape

 

Gel coat is the rock solid finish they put on boats. Intead of paining, the pigment is mixed in with the gel. So even if it is scratched, there is still color beneath it.

 

Can you do it yourself or do you have to get it done? Is it expensive to do? What all is involved?

 

They talk about having a special gun to shoot it....Don't know how much that baby will cost. I'm goint to start calling around the boat shops to see if they can do it for me.