After looking around at the availability of trying to get a solid
sportcamper or adventurewagon top,  I am very seriously looking at modifying
an existing top.  Note the top itself not molds for a top.  The problems is
at that scale I need to know what the integrity would be.
For example if I was to take a fiberglass canoe and decide to shorten it by
1 foot and make it a foot narrower, would I be able to refasten the parts
together and have a good canoe?
jimt

On 2/7/05 8:55 AM, "Max Wellhouse" <maxjoyce@ipa.net> wrote:

> I'm not an expert, but have dealt in Kayak molds and plugs, and you might
> be better off  making a heavy part(chopper gun or lots of matt, as you are
> effectively making a plug here to modify later) from the existing mold, PVA
> the hell out of the mold surface after waxing til your arms fall off(to
> prevent the new plug from sticking to the old mold), then go through the
> gelcoat and laminating process.  It would be helpful to find out what the
> layup was for the original parts and then multiply that several times so
> you have a very stiff plug to keep it's original integrity.  Since you're
> going to be doing many changes to it, I wouldn't worry about having a
> pretty surface as it's much more important to have the new plug release
> from the old mold.  I'd also be careful when laminating a thick plug as
> that much thickness with normal catalyst concentrations could make a VERY
> warm environment(exothermic heat buildup, I think).  I have a friend in
> Pittsburg Kansas that is an expert in the field, having laminated a
> mahogany wood plug for a commercial 48" city water valve mold that needed
> to spec out within .06"   I could get you in touch with him if you were
> really serious about the project.At 03:15 PM 2/6/2005, jimt wrote:
>> On 2/6/05 8:00 AM, "Joe Federici" <joefederici@EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
>> 
>> On a hightop for my van I have been looking at some of the ones in the
>> salvage yards that are on chevy and dodge etc.
>> 
>> For those that work in the fiberglassing,  how hard would it be to maybe
>> modify one of those tops.  One I was looking at I figure I could do the base
>> trimming with very little difficulty.  The hard part would be a split down
>> the center to remove about 1 inch and then somewhere across from one side to
>> the other to remove about 6 or 7 inches.
>> 
>> I was thinking 20 gauge aluminum plate (or similar) along the seams from the
>> inside with rivets through to plate on the outside at points and then reseal
>> everything with fiberglassing kit.  I have done similar on smaller projects
>> but never on anything of that size.  Is this doable on that scale?
>> 

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jimt
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