My failed door panel build

[Rell]

Well for starters this is definitely not a Fail. We all start from somewhere, others might just have it a little better on their first try cause it just comes natural I guess that or lots of research/planning.

I'm not sure why you used plywood as your base. Why not 1/4in MDF? If they don't sell it at your local Homedepot or Lowes etc then hit up a local lumber yard. Also why did you need to make a router table(I guess you can say) with the Jasper Jig to do the rings? That wasn't really needed. You say the rings you cut didn't fit? How is that?

As said already you definitely over saturated the Chop mat, even kinda looks like you built up too much mat in some places(might just be the pic though)

What kind of sanders do you have? I hope you have something else besides that belt sander cause thats not going to get the job done. May be ok for the top flat surface area of the doors, but what about all the curves and sides? You need to pick something like these up and hit it with 36grit or so.

Ryobi RS290 5 in. Random Orbit Sander

Bosch ROS20VSK 5 in. Random Orbit Sander Kit

DEWALT D26456 5 in. Low-Profile Random Orbit Sander

If you are using the Bondo/3m brand resin then you also need to sand in between layers also. After you soaked your fleece with resin I would left it outside in the sun, hit it with some 36 grit with a palm sander.

Take your chop mat and rip pieces out of it, maybe bigger pieces then these here though lol.

I wouldn't cut out little squares or strips though on something like this. Start from the top(flat areas) and work your way out to the sides of the doors. Mix up your resin, brush a little resin onto the doors, take a ripped piece of chop mat and lay it down, take your brush and do a stippling motion with your brush just up and down. Take another piece of mat and overlap it a little with the other piece you just laid down. You need to get a fiberglass roller too so you can try and roll some of the air bubbles out. Other wise you will have fun sanding/grinding those air pockets out.

Once you cover the whole door in chop mat, if your not going to go right back over the door again with more mat then you need to let that first layer cure, come back and sand that down. Then lay more chop mat.

[mbdblue]

another option that would make this job much easier...if you were up for not fully enclosing the speakers, you could cut large shapes, or access holes out of the ply base and glassed from the inside, making sanding much easier, and you wouldn't have to sand down the flat spots...and if you wanted to enclose them, you could go for a thinner panel to mount everything to, make the access holes, glass from the inside, then mount the thinner panel to another whole panel.

[jizazz12]

Not bad at all...........

[Dubpower]

it looks good lad, I have been scratching my head as to where the fail is or did I miss something??????????

we all have made mistakes in the passed and we do learn from them as said above. keep up the good work

[Autruche]

Fail my azz great start, just need to finish them. But since you changed your mind/plans finish them & sale to someone... I would buy them if they fit my bronco.

Thanks, and the problem is that the panels will only fit two cars; a Saab 9000 and an Alfa Romeo 164. I know of no other car they would fit at all.

Those panels look sick. I bet they would have been crazy loud.

I understand if it's not in your budget, but next time get some high end body filler like Rage Xtreme. I noticed you had a gallon of Bondo brand in one of your pictures.

I have used both and the Rage is LIGHT YEARS better. You really get what you pay for. It's easier to lay down, easier to sand, and most importantly Rage is truely pin hole free which saves you hours of work and frusteration.

Only body filler you can find around her is bondo. I'll be damned if I'm ordering body filler if i could just make a thin layer of milkshake to take care of the pinhole problem.

Well for starters this is definitely not a Fail. We all start from somewhere, others might just have it a little better on their first try cause it just comes natural I guess that or lots of research/planning.

I'm not sure why you used plywood as your base. Why not 1/4in MDF? If they don't sell it at your local Homedepot or Lowes etc then hit up a local lumber yard. Also why did you need to make a router table(I guess you can say) with the Jasper Jig to do the rings? That wasn't really needed. You say the rings you cut didn't fit? How is that?

As said already you definitely over saturated the Chop mat, even kinda looks like you built up too much mat in some places(might just be the pic though)

What kind of sanders do you have? I hope you have something else besides that belt sander cause thats not going to get the job done. May be ok for the top flat surface area of the doors, but what about all the curves and sides? You need to pick something like these up and hit it with 36grit or so.

Ryobi RS290 5 in. Random Orbit Sander

Bosch ROS20VSK 5 in. Random Orbit Sander Kit

DEWALT D26456 5 in. Low-Profile Random Orbit Sander

If you are using the Bondo/3m brand resin then you also need to sand in between layers also. After you soaked your fleece with resin I would left it outside in the sun, hit it with some 36 grit with a palm sander.

Take your chop mat and rip pieces out of it, maybe bigger pieces then these here though lol.

I wouldn't cut out little squares or strips though on something like this. Start from the top(flat areas) and work your way out to the sides of the doors. Mix up your resin, brush a little resin onto the doors, take a ripped piece of chop mat and lay it down, take your brush and do a stippling motion with your brush just up and down. Take another piece of mat and overlap it a little with the other piece you just laid down. You need to get a fiberglass roller too so you can try and roll some of the air bubbles out. Other wise you will have fun sanding/grinding those air pockets out.

Once you cover the whole door in chop mat, if your not going to go right back over the door again with more mat then you need to let that first layer cure, come back and sand that down. Then lay more chop mat.

Thanks man, but I know what I'm doing, for the most part. I actually did start to tear up the chop mat, but with .75 ounce stuff, it didn't make much difference for applying it. The belt sander was just to sand the fiberglass before body filler. I have an orbital sander too.

another option that would make this job much easier...if you were up for not fully enclosing the speakers, you could cut large shapes, or access holes out of the ply base and glassed from the inside, making sanding much easier, and you wouldn't have to sand down the flat spots...and if you wanted to enclose them, you could go for a thinner panel to mount everything to, make the access holes, glass from the inside, then mount the thinner panel to another whole panel.

I was going to cut out the speaker hols in the backing wood before I started, but I forgot to. they aren't supposed to be sealed. After doing this project I started thinking about my next door panels being glassed on the inside, cuz it'd save me hours of work.

it looks good lad, I have been scratching my head as to where the fail is or did I miss something??????????

we all have made mistakes in the passed and we do learn from them as said above. keep up the good work

The fail was that I made something that I'm not going to use, and now I have no door panels left for the car at all.