Almost ready to lay up some bucket bodies!

Acetone works faster than lacquer thinner. End results are the same. Just the accetone costs more and evaporates much faster.

 

yeah we use acetone. We buy it by the barrels. It really isn't that bad buying in the drums.

 

Should have kept the flathead! Bodies are cheap.

 

Molds aren't cheap. When I was building cargo trailers to pull behind motorcycles, my largest initial expense was the making of the molds. A trailer body that in raw form cost me 600.00. The mold for that body cost 8000.00 to make. Remember, first you need a plug to make the mold off of.

 

Oh man materials alone are around $1000 to build a t bucket mold. This bad boy is a couple hundred pounds and no less than 1/2" up to 3/4" everywhere. Not to mention the time invested to lay it up. I bet you would be looking at 4k and up to get one made at a glass shop. I am glad I did it. Flathead was cool and was close to a runner but I can build 2 to 3 small block chevy's for one flathead rebuild. Yes it is just an sbc but that does not bother me. Ok off to wax and buff!

 

Didn't say building molds to produce bodies was cheap. Buying commercial built bodies is cheap compared to buying flathead engines.

 

Ohhh, I must have misread. I thought he traded the f/h engine for a mold, so he could build his own body. I wouldn't trade for a body either. Just sold my 60hp flatty for an obscene amount.

 

I don't remember the last time I saw a raw flathead motor. They are pretty scarce around here, like old hemis.

 

You are correct chopptop, I traded a 48 merc flathead v8 for the mold in the pictures above! I would not have traded for a body only. I gave the flathead, a front axle, heater core, few sbc parts, for the mold, a t bucket body from the mold and a glass radiator shroud.

 

I still have another 48 merc flathead and i could go pick up 6 tomorrow if i wanted them for $250 each. Also kniw where there is 2 hemis for $800 each. They are around here anytime I want one.

 

It may not be a bad investment.

 

"

and "This is purely to build a couple of cars for my son and I." from you post #8.

So, what you actually did was trade the flathead for TWO t-bucket bodies and misc. parts. Of course there is the small matter of being able to say that you did it yourself which, like the saying goes, is priceless.

 

If you buy metal rollers instead of the plastic ones you can burn the resin out. A small propane torch should work. I don't recommend trying what we used to do. We put a small amount of acetone in a metal coffee can. Small means a tablespoonful or so. Acetone is REALLY flammable so less is better. We hung the roller on the lip of the can. The handle should be not be anywhere near the top of the can - it can burn. We stood back and tossed a match into the can. Got the rollers really clean and I'm still alive to tell the story. We did this outside and made sure nothing else was around that could catch fire.

 

If you buy metal rollers instead of the plastic ones you can burn the resin out. A small propane torch should work. I don't recommend trying what we used to do. We put a small amount of acetone in a metal coffee can. Small means a tablespoonful or so. Acetone is REALLY flammable so less is better. We hung the roller on the lip of the can. The handle should be not be anywhere near the top of the can - it can burn. We stood back and tossed a match into the can. Got the rollers really clean and I'm still alive to tell the story. We did this outside and made sure nothing else was around that could catch fire.

 

Sorry for the double post

 

How thick....how many layers are you going to do? If you lay them up a little thicker than the bodies you can buy, you can probably skip reinforcing your bodies with wood.

 

My body was made thicker but we also applied a two part foam to the inside of the sides and rear of the body. After that we ground and sanded the foam to our liking and then proceeded to glass over the shaped foam thus making a very strong, solid body. I might also add that before pouring the foam we installed a 3/4" square tube from a 3/16" plate that was attached through the floor to the frame, which was also fiberglass, across the bottom of the dash to a corresponding piece on the other side of the body. This gave us a very strong mounting point for the steering column. The two 3/16" plates that I mentioned earlier are only two of ten mounting points (five per side) for the body. Consequently, we have a completely wood free, very strong body.

Jim