Mini MINI Mini!

Introduction - explaining what I want to use for the new ICE Install.
Part 1 - Custom MDF Rings to Support the speakers.
Part 2 - The Fibreglass.

As mentioned in my last ICE post the fibreglass (FG) that we did in Scott’s car failed to dry and just turned to a sludgy mess.

Note: Click any image for a larger version.

So, I purchased some bits and pieces and started again, this time on my own car. I covered the requirements and safety when using FG in Part 2 so will not bother going over them again. If you haven’t read them, please do so before going any further, especially if you are using this as a gide to doing your own FG work!

This is the Halfords Fibreglass kit. I have laid it and a couple of other essential items for you to see. From the left:

• Cup of tea. Probably the most important item there. This is not a process that should be rushed, take your time and get it right the first time. Unlike me!
• Latex gloves. Fibreglass and resin are nasty products. One will get into your skin and the other will stick it together. Permanently. Wear gloves!
• In the white container are a calibrated mixing cup, application brush, resin and hardener and mixing sticks.
• Next to the white container is the Chopped Strand Mat (CSM). Much better than the tissue mat I used last time!

The first step is to clear the area of everything that you do not want the resin to get on:

This is the space I have to work in. I took out the carpet and underlay, cleaned the area as best I could and moved all the floating cables. The long cables running from the front to the back of the footwell is the main loom for the car which I cannot remove. The area I am working is on the very left. The tabs that you can see hook through the original carpet and underlay to hold it in place. I had to bash these as flat as I could (with a rubber mallet!) as I don’t want to cut them out. They make very little difference to the FG install and if I want to put standard carpet back in later then I can.

Next up, cover the area with masking tape. Last time we only used one layer of tape over the area. I thought I would take a little more time and put two over, one vertical and one horizontal. No particular reason, just a little more protection for the metalwork. If you don’t do this step then (if you can get it to hold in the first place) the resin will stick directly to the paint and will be impossible to remove from the car to clean and cut later.
 
 
 
 
 

Step 3: Stop for tea. Or not. It took me about an hour to get to this stage, after clearing and cleaning the footwell and applying the tape. Seemed a good time for a cuppa and a smoke.

Step 4 was to cut the mat to approximate size. These mat sections are much larger than I actually need for the end product. It’s much easier to cut away mat later than it is to add it on. Therefore, be generous with your mat size! You can see five cuts of mat in this picture. I only used 4 sheets per side in the end. I still used all the mat that was in the kit though! It’s much thicker than the 4 layers of tissue mat from last time too! 
 

Now comes the fun bit - mixing the resin. Using the calibrated measuring cup I poured out 110 milli-litres of resin. Why 110ml? Dunno. It looked like it was about the right amount. I had no frame of reference for this amount and was confident that I could quickly mix up a little more if it was needed. As it turned out it was pretty much spot on.

The Halfords FG kit instructions say 2-3cm of hardener to every 10ml of resin. In theory that should be 22cm of hardener then. Try measuring hardener when it’s floating on resin and you’re scared it’s gonna go hard before you’re ready to mix it. Yeah, I think I ended up with about 15cm of hardener. As it turned out, it gave me a long working time and still dried ok.

This is me! Applying resin to the top of the masking tape. Just enough to get the CSM to stick to it. It just meant that I could let go of the CSM while applying the resin. Don’t forget, apply the resin in a stippling (stabbing) motion. Don’t brush it on. If you brush it the CSM will move out of place. Not such a problem on the first layer, but when you are doing layer two or three it’s much more important. Brushing on layer three will make layers one and two move and they will be the queen of the biatch whores to try and re-align.

I repeated the process for all four layers, “wetting out” the CSM and not drowning it. Wetting out means that you put enough resin on to make the CSM change colour. The resin is pink, the CSM is white. If you see a white bit, put a little more resin on. If you see resin running down the mat then you’ve put too much on!

So, there it is. The wet resin and mat, just drying. It took about 48 hours for this to go completely solid. I think that was simply the lack of hardener that I put in the resin when mixing.
 
 
 
 
 
And this is the driver’s side. See the colour difference? That’s because I put more hardener in the resin for this batch. It also dried in about 90 minutes and hardened in 24 hours.

These are the two bits of fibreglass removed from the car. They are completely dry and solid and are ready for the next step which is cutting and cleaning. I don’t want to do this until I have the speakers and I know exactly what FG I need to leave in place. I will cover that in Part 4 or 5 once the speakers have arrived (ordered today) and I am in possession of a rotary Dremel type cutting tool. I am bidding on one of those on eBay at the moment.
 
 
 

I will leave you with this scary image of me looking a complete knob, wearing all my protective gear (except the mask). What do you think of my do-rag? Cool huh!

I must say thankyou to Luke (Fou Lu) from P&SMOC who took a couple of the photos while I was doing this.