SPACELINER CONVERTIBLE (A Non-Invasive Sex Reassignment)

[The Renaissance Man]

Things are progressing nicely!
The first halves are finished and the temporary dams are removed. There is definitely no need to worry about extra bracing, you can see how thick the glass is.

After a few fresh coats of wax the gel coat is on the second half of both molds.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

All of the glass is laid for the molds!

On Monday there will be holes drilled through the 'divider' and bolts added to hold the front and rear parts together. Then after some final trimming, it will be the moment of truth to see if it all comes apart without any problems.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Looking good!

Luke.

 

[cashman]

That's neat!!!

 

[dracothered]

Ok this is a silly question, but what will the final product be made of in the mold? Maybe you said already and I missed it or forgot it. Old age all, you know

 

[kingfish254]

Fiberglass

 

[The Renaissance Man]

It's a little hard to describe in words how this will work, but I cut an aluminum plate to bolt to each mold that will give me a finished edge and a trim guide when the tanks are being made. The cut-out shape is 1/4" smaller (all of the way around) than the actual tank profile.

This will make more sense later when I get to that point.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

We have separation!!!

Everything came apart without any problems! The plug did however suffer some damage, but that's to be expected.

Here's a picture before any clean-up. The tan looking spots are where the primer stuck and was pulled off of the plug. It's not a problem and will get cleaned up and polished by tomorrow.

Here are the two halves. You can see how the Easter eggs fit together for perfect alignment when joined together.

Almost there!

 

[kingfish254]

Every day I amazed of the skills other RRBers show here. That is so cool!

 

[Rockit!]

Man, that is a seriously nice looking mold!

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Very nice work!

Luke.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Thanks guys!
I'm getting excited about finally reaching this point. Hopefully I'll have an actual tank later this week!

 

[dragnusa]

Sweet tank. If you do more of them have you thought about doing them with vacuum molding instead of fiberglass?

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I'll try anything that's available to me!

So far I haven't spent any 'out of pocket' money on tooling this mold. Any of the work that I've farmed out has been from bartering my work. Of course that is work that could have been billed, but it doesn't feel like spending money.

So, unless I can sell some of these and generate some money to put back into it, this is it. (At least for now).

 

[sean1960]

Nice work! I do have some questions but I think I will wait till you get further along. Your future progress will probably answer all my questions.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Well, I got behind again this past week, but made some progress this weekend.

The last part of the mold is the aluminum plates for the inside edge. I added 1/2" plywood on top for strength. The opening is between 1/8" and 1/4" smaller than the tank profile so that the glass will stay inside the mold. After the parts are made, the plate will unbolt and be removed. The idea is to have a finished edge where the parts come together. This is going to make laying up the glass more difficult, but if it works, it will save a lot of work later on fitting the tank halves together.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Sounds like a good plan!

Luke.

 

[twomorestrokes]

Getting anxious to see the finished product!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Getting anxious to see the finished product!

Not any more than me! I thought it would have been at this stage over a month ago.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Here we go!

My friend Terry at Unique Motorcars is laying the glass for me today! He's probably laid enough fiberglass to cover half the State of Alabama!