2013 Subaru Impreza WRX STI - Project Log

[jedi_sol]

Originally Posted by Xist

Somehow I always visualized the mess of just spraying Great Stuff into my fog lights and smoothing it down. It might hold until the insulation shears.

How about I do plasti-dipped coroplast and then replace it with fiberglass, also held by double-sided tape?

Somewhere I saw foam sheeting linked. It was awfully thin and basically came on giant pages, with perforations to break off each one. One of those would probably work as a good core, putting fiberglass on the outside, but I would use such a small fraction of it for this job!

Plus, I do not have any idea where to order it!

I am also beta testing the great foam-in-a-mold. After 2days, it looks as though its fully cured. In the course of the two days, I noticed the foam has expanded, then slowly shrank until it has fully set. The foam is now pretty sturdy, so I think it's ready for sanding. Therefore, I think another key to using great foam is to let it fully cure for at least 2 days before sanding.



Since your fog lights seem shallow, I think coroplast/double sided tape will work. Then if you want it to look nicer, bondo the edges until they sit flush with the bumper.

You don't necessarily need to use plasitdip, regular spray paint is fine. The main advantage with plasitdip is that its scratch resistant from rocks, and that you can peel it off if you don't like the color.

The foam board you can get at home depot or Lowe's in the wall insulation section.

[Xist]

This is it! Shop Pactiv 1/4-in x 50-ft x 4-ft Extruded Polystyrene Insulated Sheet at Lowes.com

I do not know when an ecomodder would want two hundred square feet of foam board, I just thought that something that thin would be great for small projects, especially if you need to bend it. A quarter-inch before fiberglass would still be too thick for my fog lights, but that could work for someone. It is cheap enough that I would use it freely.

For the record, someone made a boat tail with one-inch foil-covered foam board and he did a beautiful job bending the foam.

Honestly, coroplast might be too thick to cover my fog lights. You certainly need to use it so that the corrugations are perpendicular to the bend.

I bought a garage sale sign. I looked at signs just made from a single sheet of plastic, but I thought that paint (or Plasti-Dip) would just flake off.

Would Plasti-Dip waterproof poster board?

Well, I ended up trying something else, and learning a great deal. I will start a thread once I have gotten anywhere.

[jedi_sol]

Originally Posted by Xist

I bought a garage sale sign. I looked at signs just made from a single sheet of plastic, but I thought that paint (or Plasti-Dip) would just flake off.

Would Plasti-Dip waterproof poster board?

Plastidip is aerosolized rubber coating. It can 'resist' rock chips...however, the more layers you put on, the tougher it gets. I have about 6 layers of plastidip on my bumper, and after 3 months of driving, i see a bunch of little rock "flecks," but nothing has penetrated the plastidip yet.

It's also difinately water proof. There is a youtube video of someone plastidipping a regular cardboard box... filled the box with water...no leaks.

[jedi_sol]

Making progress on upper grill block v 3.1
Fiberglassed


Great foam - going to let it sit for at least 24 hours for it to fully cure. Hopefully this will avoid the shrinking problem that Great foam has when you start cutting it.

[Xist]

My can of Great Foam had a little plastic screw-on nozzle\straw. The instructions do not say how to reuse it if you did not empty the can in the first place.

Are you spraying the foam directly on the foil\plastic wrap\painter's tape?

Mine stuck to foil, plastic, and everything else, except itself.

[jedi_sol]

Originally Posted by Xist

My can of Great Foam had a little plastic screw-on nozzle\straw. The instructions do not say how to reuse it if you did not empty the can in the first place.

Are you spraying the foam directly on the foil\plastic wrap\painter's tape?

Mine stuck to foil, plastic, and everything else, except itself.

to reuse the plastic straw, you pretty much have to stick something skinny into the straw to unclog the straw. Even though great foam sticks to everything else, it does not stick to the actual straw that hard, so it's easy to unclog the straw for repeated uses.

Typically what i do is:
1) cover the piece of the car with painters tape for the "base layer of protection

2) then cover the painters tape with foil. the foil acts as the "release agent." Be sure to tape the edges of the foil really well so that the foil does not shift around and lose its shape

3) spray the great foam directly onto the foil.

4) wait 24 hours to allow great foam to fully cure

5) after fully cured, you should be able to easily lift off the foil that has the great foam on it. Use this time to trim/sand the foam to whatever shape you want. Then apply resin (polyester or expoxy) to harden the foam so that the foam does not shrink.

check out my old thread on my Del Sol on how I made my fog light plug
http://ecomodder.com/forum/189201-post66.html

[jedi_sol]

the great foam has fully cured, it's pretty hard.


Cutting down the foam to make level with the grill


a little sanding to even out the foam to make it more flush


a single layer of fiberglass for strength


next up: bondo and sanding

[COcyclist]

Nice. Thanks for posting your technique and your trials and tribulations with the grill block.

[kach22i]

Interesting project, thanks for documenting it.

Regarding side skirts, outside of a wind tunnel with turntable it would be hard to judge the true full benefits with a heavy cross wind event.

Still the straight line (despite foggy condition thing) does make me wonder why such a small difference.

[Xist]

Funny story: My Great Foam is seriously stuck to the aluminum foil. When I try to peel off the foil, it actually removes a layer of foam, so I need to use a grater or something, the plug is just a little big. Thanks for linking your Del Sol build, that was interesting! Before I saw that, I thought "There must be a reason that everybody removes the parts and place them with the foam on top," but yours pointed slightly up. I just wanted to put a little at the bottom of mine and build it up in sections, so that there was never enough weight to fall out, and that it could cure better.

So, it fell out right away, and apparently, that 'Stuff collapses on itself when you touch it, but I very roughly shaped the plugs tonight. I really need to wait to work any further. I just had a test and I have another on Monday.

Great builds, though! Keep up the good work!