Why people love fiberglass installs

After visiting the SEMA show for the last few years, I’ve reached the conclusion that the most appealing way to shroud wires or mold a surface is using fiberglass. For those of you who don’t know what fiberglass is, you can find a pretty good explanation at www.bondo.com. Essentially, fiberglass is a two-part resin and hardener. You mix them together in the proper ratio and then spread the mixture on an existing surface or mold it like cookie dough. After about an hour, the stuff hardens, and can be sanded, sculpted, and painted. There are at least three different types of fiberglass; each feature different properties. The strongest and most reinforced has long strands of fiberglass in it and is called “tiger hair.” The mid-grade bondo or “mookie” is filler putty with some short strands of glass in it. The final level – finishing or smoothing mookie – is polyester-based, and until the stuff hardens, it flows like syrup into and around the nooks and crannies of your piece. This stuff isn’t very durable, which makes it easiest to sand.

Fiberglass is somewhat dangerous to work with. It’s not going to kill you, but if you sand the glass without a mask you’ll breathe fine particulates that could embed themselves in your lungs and give you lung cancer. Since I spent some 100+ hours molding fiberglass for my install, I chose to invest in an air-purifying respirator. Just strap this rubber thing to your face and you’ve got a face shield, built-in air conditioner, and Darth Vader costume all in one.

Before I learned to work with glass, I used to build my enclosures out of MDF (medium density fiberboard) or sometimes just plywood and carpet. I eventually realized that these materials look somewhat amateurish when you stack them up to the show-quality glass work at SEMA. Glass allows you to sculpt 3D curves and fillets, and plywood does not.  Once you paint the finished fiberglass piece with urethane, laquer, or enamel, your glass job looks like it truly belongs in the vehicle.

Aesthetics of an install are important, but what a pain in the ass they can be! I spent more time molding fiberglass covers to make everything look nice than I did hooking things up and making them work! Nonetheless, covers are crucial because they make the design look simpler than it actually is, and that creates a subconscious magical quality in the minds of onlookers.