Welcome to Web Wednesday!
Your digital outlet to Dynamic Corvettes!
1963 Corvette RestoMod
The RestoMod is almost finished! More and more interior pieces being created and installed by Jim (Master Upholster & Owner of General Top & Trim). He created the custom embroidered close out panel with the cross flags and the side close out panels with speakers. He is creating the new door panels while the owner is working on getting all of his little pieces and parts in order.
Now that we have made our mold of the custom hood we created for this build, we can move forward with getting the hood primed and painted. After the hood was removed from the mold, Corey washed the entire hood with warm soapy water twice. This was to remove any mold wax residue that might have remained from the mold making process. After the hood was completely cleaned, he wet sanded the hood and then applied a coat of primer. Following that primer, Corey applied a light guide coat of black paint and started to block sand the hood before finally applying base and clear coats.
1980 Corvette
Last week, Corey and Tyler stripped all of the remaining paint from the 1980 Corvette. After stripping that paint, Corey took a dye grinder and ground out all of the body seams. Once he was finished, he filled those ground out seams with epoxy and sanded them flush to the vehicle. Afterwards, he applied a thin coat of Duraglas over the epoxy and let it dry. Once the Duraglas filler was dry, he sanded it down flush to the vehicle by block sanding. After sanding the Duraglas, he applied a coat of lightweight filler over the fenders and quarter panels and proceeded to block sand them down to reshape the body and insure perfect lines.
1960 Corvette
The seats have arrived for the 1960 Corvette and Ed is working on getting them installed into the vehicle.
1959 Corvette
Ed has started to grind out the seams and cracks in the fiberglass on the 1959 Corvette. After grinding out the fiberglass, he will repair the cracks and fill the seams with epoxy.
1954 Corvette
Tyler and Steve have started to put some finishing touches on the front end of the 1954 Corvette.
Custom Fiberglass
We have been working hard on getting some new molds made and some custom fiberglass created for our customers out of state.
Pictured below is the mold being made for the custom 1963 Corvette hood for the RestoMod. After finishing the back side, Ed and Corey applied fiberglass mat in layers to build up the mold. Once sufficient fiberglass was applied, they applied a layer of coremat and then let the mold sit and cure for 24 hours.
Once the mold was completely cured, it was time to crack it open. First, Steve took a grinder around the edge of the mold and ground down the seams so they were nice and flat. Ed then stepped in and drilled location pin holes on each of the corners of the mold. Once the holes were drilled, Steve smacked the mold a few times with a rubber mallet to help the mold break apart from itself. He then shoved into the side a wedge and got the mold to release.
We are also creating a 1-piece front end for 1963-1964 Corvettes for a customer out of state. The mold was broken down into it’s separate pieces and gel coated. Once the gel was applied and curing, Steve and Mark started to assemble the mold. After the gel coat cured, Mark and Corey started to lay up the fiberglass mat and resin. Upon completing that task, they set the mold aside to cure for a day. Now that the fiberglass part has cured, Ed is going around all of the finished edges and cleaning them up.
