How to fiberglass

[Creeper]

Ok seeing as I got my car to 7.63L/100km I've been contemplating replacing my interior with fiberglass pieces. I have the materials required and the sanding tools required. I was hoping to just do the simple pieces first ie. the pillars and kick panels to get the hang of glassing then to move on to custom doors that will not have the same material or as ornate as they are now. The center console will be a challenge but I'm hoping to reduce some weight by mid next year.

[mnmarcus]

Try this
Fiberglass Forums - Powered by vBulletin
Lots of good ideas and info.

[MetroMPG]

Have you seen examples of easily made fiberglass parts that are lighter than the OEM plastics? I'd be surprised if there would be much of a difference.

[pugnhippo]

I work in composites manufacturing and i agree with Metro. Unless you're replacing steel or interior parts with some very heavy leather i don't think you would save much weight by going to straight frp. Depending on how they fit up you might be able to make a foam part and put a light (1 layer 3/4 oz csm?) frp skin over it for hardness.

[hypermiler01]

Waste of time to replace plastic with another type of plastic. Instead, take the panels out and replace them with cloth or vinyl. You can replace the center console with air.

[tecrench]

What kind of car?

[Creeper]

The car is a 06 Chevrolet Optra (Suzuki Reno) and trust me the interior weighs a tone. I have seen one of fiberglass panneling done in the shows but the last time I tride this was on a friends build back in 2004. I have removed the interior before when I had an electricle issue and was surprised by the weight. The doors have fabrich and thick plastic on them. The dash has about .5inches of foam rubber on them its a soft dash. Even a bit of weight reduction is better than none in my mind.

[andylaurence]

Why bother replacing the parts you put in? Just rip out anything you don't need. I pulled 200kg from my old BMW M535i just by binning what I didn't need and replacing the front seats with 7kg fibreglass bucket seats. If you really want to keep the parts, you could try 1.5mm vacuum formed Perspex. It's lightweight, available in many colours and can be painted on the inside with a great finish, but it's not very stiff.

[Vekke]

Remember that 10% of weigth saving gains you about 2% of fuel savings. There are modifications to get more gains easier.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Vekke

Remember that 10% of weigth saving gains you about 2% of fuel savings. There are modifications to get more gains easier.

Wouldn't that depend on where one drives ?

Weight doesn't matter much on the motorway - my best MPG ever came about with a lot of extra weight in the car.

But it does matter when your accelerating often, like in the city.