This morning I did the final sanding of the high build primer and then shot the JL-JK grille master with 2k clear coat for a smooth gloss finish to make the mold from. Normally you'd shoot a base color coat over the high build and before the clear but since this is a mold master and since there's no need for it to be a particular color I skipped the color step and shot the clear right over the high build primer.











I'll let the clear cure for a day and then I'll prep the master for molding with wax and PVA mold release. I'll do the fiberglass work to make the mold on Wednesday.

 

A few more.

 

Anyone who says the morryide jerry can holder isnt worth the price is crazy and not only did it hold the tree but never damaged the holder course my windshield frame is gone lol not even funny but (if thats not a weight test nothing is)

 

Wow, sorry for the damage to your Jeep! Glad the MORryde side mount help up.

 

I forwarded a link to your post to MORryde and they asked me to find out if you've got any higher resolution photos of this - probably they want to put it on their Facebook page or something like that. In exchange they'll probably send you a tshirt and some stickers... if you're interested send your photos to austin.conrad@morryde.com.

 

Yesterday I made the grille mold and this morning I pulled the mold off the master.



The mold master could be used again to make another mold - if the grille were to go into production I'd turn over the master to the company that would be making/marketing them so they could make their production mold from the master.

After trimming and washing off the mold release, the mold is ready use. The mold turned out very nicely - it will make very nice quality grilles.







I'll make the first grille in the mold tomorrow.

 

I am so excited about this it's silly. I would love to be able to do this kind of fabrication at this level of quality. one day when I have time this will be on my list of skills to learn.

When you make the grill, what material will you be using? How do you control the thickness across the piece? Do you mold over all the bumps and the headlight holes and then cut them out?

 

The good news is that projects like this can be done with tools found in many home workshops. The only special tools I used so far in this project were a paint gun to put a nice finish on the mold master (a $25 Harbor Freight gun would suffice) and a gelcoat gun to shoot the gelcoat when making the mold (and will be used when molding the grilles). A gelcoat gun is a fairly crude specialized spray gun for applying fiberglass gelcoat, they're about $130. Other than that I used ordinary hand tools plus a tablesaw, a router, a hand held jigsaw, a hand held electric drill and a sander plus a range of hand tools - sanding blocks, files, etc. All things a typical home workshop will likely have.

I'll shoot gelcoat as a first layer in the mold, followed by layup of several layers of 3/4 oz. and 1.5 oz. fiberglass mat, and polyester resin.

Thickness is controlled by the number of layers of fiberglass mat applied, and will vary - the edges will be slightly thicker where fasteners are used to secure the grille to the Jeep.

Best practice is usually to make the mold with the openings blanked out as I did with this mold, and whether or not you mold the part over the openings or not depends on the part. I won't be molding over the openings, you'll see that tomorrow when I post a photo of the completed fiberglass layup work.

If you're interested in learning more about moldmaking and fiberglass work, I recommend Fiberglass & Composite Materials by Forbes Aird. Many local libraries will also have books on fiberglass boatbuilding, and while many of them may have been published some years ago, the techniques and information in them still applies.

 

I will definitely check that out. It's funny how this kind of thing looks like absolute voodoo magic until you learn how to do it.

 

The fiberglass layup work is done on the first grille; JL-JK grille #1 will come out of the mold tomorrow morning after curing overnight.