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creating a mirror image for symmetry

C

cdrd03

New member
I am in total awe of the amazing fiberglass work that I have seen from Brett, Nic and others on this site. They make it look so easy.

I want to share a video that I have watch on youtube. This fella is highly customizing his car. He goes though his process in which he uses modeling clay to make his design. At about 2 minutes into the video he shows how he creates the mirroring side to match what he has created.

I would like to know what you fiberglass gurus think.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1-e4sY_n5g"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1-e4sY_n5g[/ame]
Chuck
 
Peter

Peter

Active member
That was a hell of a lot of clay, But a great finish, if you like big arsed cars, I would have made thin plywood or cardboard 'fillers' first to fill the voids then foam as Brett does and then used cardboard templates.

When prototyping car bodies they use a wooden buck and just a couple of inches of clay.

Making the part directly on the buck rather than making a mould of the finished rear does have the downside whilst using a lot less GRP, it is a 'one off'.

Steve McHugh used that method to make parts for his 'baja' Nova that bobbybrown now has but used cardboard and packing tape panels as a base before covering with GRP cloth and filler in much the same way.

When casting a mould from the finished buck as Brett does, it does have the advantage of being able to pull a replacement or a resell from it but uses a lot more GRP.
 
letterman7

letterman7

Honorary Admin
Very clever way of doing that. As Peter said, he essentially made a station buck by taking the shape from the one side and transferring it to the other. You can do that in 3D modeling - create your shape, then slice it into manageable sections.
 
C

cdrd03

New member
Yeah Peter that is a ton of clay and I agree with your comment about filling the void first. Though I thought that the way he transfered one side to the next to get his mirror image was very thoughtful.


I just wish I was better at 3d modeling and do as Rick suggests. I am getting better, I just don't spend enough time to get really good. Fortunately for me I am still quite aways away from this part of the build.

I do have a little experience with slicing models. My daughter is a band director in a small school here in Indiana and last year she ask me to make her an 8 foot space shuttle. I found a 3d model on line and with the program hexigon I broke it into smaller pieces that would fit my 2'x4' machine. I also had my first experience with fiberglassing. Made many mistakes but overall it turned out nice and I learned a lot.

Chuck
 
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