Fiberglass Grill How-To + Better Installed Pics

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Rahul Sharma

Active Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
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Location
Edmonton, AB
For those that asked below are the steps I took to build my fiberglass grill as well as some sunshine pitures - because I had to prove that we do get sun in Canada as well! Basically, it was using green floral foam to help get a shape that i was happy with, and then laying glass on that shape. As I have said in the past, it's more about patience to get to where you want as opposed to high skill level with tools etc...



I will put this in a write-up from projects but I just joined the "pink-wrench" club yesterday...(Thanks Todd and George!) so I will savour that for a few days before submitting this one. Anyways, here it is.



Step 1.

Gut everything out the front, and sand the surface you will be laying glass on to be very smooth. the glass with take shape of whatever you lay it on, so try and get it as smooth as possible....



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Step 2.

Mask off all the area surroundig the opening to make sure you get no resin on any part you don't want. On the maksed of tape area, apply 4 layers of fiberglass down. It's easiest to have a bunch of stips of the cloth cut up so you can do this all in one shot.



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Step 3.

This is where some research paid off for me...I went to the local Michael's and picked up green floral foam in little brick sizes. A pack cost about $4. You have to cut the brick into rectangular sections and hot glue them in place on the fiberglassed area like below:



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Step 4.

this stuff is great to shape into whatever you want. I got everything done with a piece of 80 grit sandpaper and a long blade knife. it goes easy so you have to be careful. Work till you get the shape you want for the lower half.



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Step 5.

Start building the top. This was tricky as there was nothing to really hold the foam in place. I did it in sections and inserted 2 nails into each end as well as hot glue to build the "bridge" across...I messed this up the first time, but then made small dowels with the foam pieces and hot-glued them from behind and this secured it better. this is a shot in progress:



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This shows the finished foam work...very important through this to make sure it looks good with the hood closed, and fits well there too.



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Step 6.

Lay 4-5 layers of fiberglass on the entire structure....again, It's easiest to have a bunch of stips of the cloth cut up so you can do this all in one shot.



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Step 7.

Once dry (overnight is best) pull the shell from the opening, and stat cleaning it up. you'll need to sand and grind away the extra fiberglass, the tape, foil, and plastc away. Once done, you can test-fit your shell:



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Step 8.

The back of this structure is uncovered and needs to be reinforced as the grill will be attached to the back. you can do this by adding a couple of layers of fiberglass to the backk all around in areas that were not reachable from the front.



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Step 9.

The fun begins here when you start adding body-filler to even out the shell. it's very important to do this in several thin layers for both strenthg of the bond as well as effort requred to sand it down between each application. This part required about 6 layers of body filler and 3 layers of "milkshake" after to get the pinholes and smooth it out. I worked starting with 80 grit, and used 150, 220, 350 and 600 grit to get it where I finally wanted it. This is a pic in the early stages:



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Step 10.

Prime - 2 coats.

Paint - 3 coats with 800grit wet sand between each coat

Clear Coat - 4 coats



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The grill material was aluminum so a good cleaning, followed by 80 grit sanding, aluminum chromate primer, black paint - 3 coats, clear coat - 4 coats. The mesh was installed with screws from behind.



The installation was done using 3M doublesided automotive-molding tape and I also have some aluminum wire tied in at either end from behin for added support...



That's it! Pretty simple huh? :banana::banana::banana:
 
Oh, and some much better pics...although the mild snow did a number on the wash.....



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Thanks guys!

Big D - that's exactly what I am planning to do...i am looking at a pair of Hella lights for behind the grill as well as the Westin Light bar in Black with a couple of lights on that...i think that would complete the look....and perhaps some bushwacker fenderflares and I'm done doing stuff on the outside!
 
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