Geeze IMSA. you haven't got this done yet !!!? I haven't checked in here for a few months and figured you'd be done, be bored with it, and have it for sale by now . No... actually I'm VERY impressed with what you've done with the car. almost makes me want to dig my own IMSA out again and paint something on that white canvas. yours really looks great.
I know Russ.....this is turning out to be one slow build
I am going to shift gears here for a while and post about the interior color changes that I am making. I am going to try to match the outside color scheme of the car to the inside. I am going to go with a black and white scheme with red accents. My shift boot is suede leather with a red stiching so I figured I would accent the interior with red. I also am going to be making fiberglass...possibly carbon fiber speaker pods for the doors as well as making all new gauge/center console/aux gauge/radio plates out of carbon fiber. I am also installing the Speedhut gauge faces so they will look very nice in white with the carbon fiber gauge plates. I am expecting my roll of carbon fiber cloth to show up in the next week. I ordered a 15 foot by 5 foot roll so I should have enough for the speaker pods. Here are a couple of quick pics of the finished quarter window with fastener installed:
And one side of the IMSA taillight....damned lint shows up like crap but trust me, they are smooth as glass
Here are some pics of the interior that I just got done painting. The interior was gray and now it is black.
Here is the finished plastic pieces, no need to show all of them
Here are the door panels before painting
And after
Here is the panel after the white accent with the now-white armrest
And with the red accent photoshopped in. The red will be a deeper color on the actual product
After this, the lower portion will be black carpet and also the speaker pod that I will be making will run the length of the lower portion of the door. It will be fiberglass or carbon fiber ( depending on how I feel on that day ) and will be airtight to form a nice speaker box.
Those door panels will look very sharp when you're done. I like the black/white/red combination. The carbon fiber will look great too, keep up the good work!
Tonight, it was time to finish the red pinstripe and carpet the lower portion of the door. The first thing was to mark the cut with a chalk pencil and them cut the material.
Next was to glue the carpet to the door and make sure everything looked OK.
The final thing on the agenda for tonight was the carbon fiber that I ordered for the speaker pods and the gauge faces. I will be making the new gauge/center console faces as well as a speaker pod for the component speakers that I ordered. Tonight, I started laying down 7 layers for the gauges ( not pictured ).
So tonight I spent quite a while building the form for my speaker pods for the doors. I created the frame using MDF and coated the entire unit with mylar to make sure that the fiberglass would release. I then need to flip the form over and make one for the passenger side door. Here is a pic of the form with 2 layers of material layered on top.
The material is just to get a general shape so the carbon fiber has something solid to stick on. The design includes a map pocket, since I am losing the factory one and the speakers are angled upwards, although you can't tell from the photo.
Here is the pod with the carbon fiber on top. I still have to sand it when it dries and apply several coats of resin to smooth it out and give it that glass-like appearance. It takes about a day in between coats of resin so this will take a while. I love the appearance of carbon fiber even when it is not finished, it has that strange color/depth look as well as really being able to tell the curved part for the flat part. By the time I am done, the tight angles should be smoothed over and more rounded.
2nd coat of resin. After this, more sanding and 2 more coats should make it like glass
If that's epoxy or polyester laminating resin you may want to still clear coat it. Epoxy is not uv stable & poly is air inhibited & will stink for a while unless topcoated.
[This message has been edited by Amida (edited 09-08-2009).]
If that's epoxy or polyester laminating resin you may want to still clear coat it. Epoxy is not uv stable & poly is air inhibited & will stink for a while unless topcoated.
It is epoxy based so once I wetsand the final coat, I will definately have to clear it.
Actually, I just wetsanded the entire car down after the first clearcoat to make sure everything was level. I am in the process of putting on a few more final coats to make it look like glass. I also had to order another gallon of clear that should be showing up next week just to be safe since I also have to spray the vents and the quarter window surrounds. I will be honest about 1 major screw up.....I built the speaker pods based on another set of speakers BEFORE I actually received the proper set and I was about 1/4" too small on the speaker cutouts so the speaker grilles overlapped the outside and are useless. I have to redo them and I am going to change up the design based on the looks of the Blaupunkt speakers that I am using. The GOOD news is that after I released the carbon fiber pieces from the molds and knowing that they were basically garbage, I decided to truly test the strength of the fiber by having my 2 1/2 year old stand on them and try to crack them. It didn't work....so I decided to try. At 6' 1" and 255lbs, I just was able to make them flex a little. Now I truly know the strength of carbon fiber. I have been off for the last 5 days so I have really been working on the car.
It's too bad, if I was more interested in stereo set ups, I would buy those nice pieces off you that won't be using. Maybe somebody else on the forum can put them to good use? Try and sell them! btw, pm replied to.
Ok, it's been several months since your last update on this great project.'
Where are you on your progress in completing this? Did you resolve the speaker pod issue? How did all the coats of clear coat work out? Did you get your wheels in yet?
We need some updates and progress pics!!!! Please!!!!
Currently, I am trying to get the car completed for the Tyler gathering in July. Since my wife now works different hours, I can slowly start to focus more on this build. In a nutshell for you new guys, I started this build and kicked ass for the first few months, had 2 kids and the build froze. Now I am slowly getting back into the swing of things.
Right now, this is what I am working on...pics to follow:
Interior is out and new black carpet installed Door panels are installed and new dew wipes installed Dash is partially painted to match the door panels and will be completed soon I made all new carbon fiber gauge surrounds in red/black carbon fiber pattern Center console and main gauge pod needs to be painted black this weekend Mr. Mikes black seat covers have to be ordered Wheels will be ordered soon I am in the process of making a carbon fiber door for the map pocket in the dash to replace the current cloth pocket Still have to skin the mirrors in carbon fiber Need to airbrush the "earth" on the Discovery Channel logos....a few hours per side to do that since there are so many layers that have to dry
The interior will be a red/black theme and by red and black, I mean black with subtle red accents here and there...like red welts on the black seats. Nothing will be obnoxious red.
Most of this is clean up work and the details ( like the screw covers for the door I painted in the above photo ). I will post more pics as soon as I have the chance.
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 03-02-2010).]
A few more pics from today. Installed the dash and gauges. Installed the old white gauge surrounds while I make the carbon fiber style, installed the dyed map pocket while I make the new glove box door.
I also removed the old speaker fabric, sanded and painted the grilles to match:
Thanks for the compliments guys. I really need to get the carbon fiber done. The gauge surrounds are just a little too obnoxious for me being in all white. I just put them on for photos. This is the color of the carbon fiber that I am using:
And this is the basic flat plate that I made for the surrounds. It is 6 layers of black carbon fiber as a base and the final layer is the red. Now I just need to cut the openings. You can see with the final resin how the red darkened up as opposed to the raw material on the roll.
I haven't checked in here for a few months and figured you'd be done, be bored with it, and have it for sale by now 
Those will look great!
