As I am (finally) nearing completion of my kickpanel enclosures I had finally reached the point where the basic structure was pretty much finished and I just needed to correct minor surface imperfections. That said, I decided to try making what's known as a milkshake. You make a milkshake by mixing body filler and fiberglass resin. I made a batch yesterday and I as amazed at how smooth it went on due to it's self-leveling characteristics but I made it with too little hardener so this morning it was still not dry. I decided a second coat with more hardener (almost too much) would do the trick. The second coat is nearly dry and it's looking great. I figure I should be able to sand off any drips (it was a thin milkshake and I hung them to dry) this weekend. Now all I need to do is to find vinyl that matches. If anyone knows a match let me know. A local bodyshop says they can custom mix some vinyl dye for me but I bet that's pricey. Here's some pics:




Mark

 

i wish i knew more about fabbing those sorts of things, but looks like it's gonna be a biscuit to sand.

 

It's acutally not all that hard. Sanding shouldn't be too hard since I am using the Evercoat Liteweight body filler. Bondo, that stuff sucks. Mark

 

Ah, yes. Evercoat is MUCH easier to work with than most any other body filler. It also doesn't leave anywhere near the dusty mess that the other stuff will, dare I even say it's name... you know... the "B" word.
Doh! You said the "B" word! I hate that $#!t!! Listen up everyone who even thinks of doing any glassing and custom panels. DO NOT USE BONDO!!!! It's nothing but a waste of time and will probably frustrate you to the point of breaking your creation! Don't use it.
Nice work, mfenske!

 

i have to interject in this bondo discussion. if you know how to use bondo, for example me who works with it every day at my job, then it is an amazing thing. but if you dont knwo how to use it...run....run far far away.

 

The point of making a milkshake is so you can sand it in the "green stage" meaning when the milkshake is close to being cured you start sanding it and it should sand off like parmisian cheese taking off all of the high spots on your kicks. If you let that thing fully cure then you will have a much harder time sanding it down than if you used just body filler. I'm not an expert but I think thats how it's supposed to be done.

 

Having let it fully cure I'm thinking you're right about sanding quickly. I mainly used it because it filled the surface imperfections better. Guess I learned something. I still need to vinyl it so if anyone has a good match for factory vinyl lemme know. Mark