| Quote, originally posted by b16_DIM » |
| I've never done anything the size of the whole pannel but I've done several items in the 2x2 foot range. I plan on doing two hoods this summer. if you want I can help walk you through the whole process. PM me. I agree, charge him a lot though because you are going to mess up and will probably have to do it a couple of times to get it right. Also how much time is he giving you to do it? Do you have a good idea of what he wants the body to look like? If you are really good with metal then do the first one in metal and then take a mold off of that. Just charge him for it. |
I disagree don't charge him a lot because you don't have the experience for the job, charge him a lot to do a nice job for him. If you don't have the experience but still want to take on the job go into it with the idea that you are going to take a loss on the first one especially. It's good that you were upfront about your inexperience with the customer, at least then he can expect a bit longer wait time. If you are good enough to build a body kit in metal that is good enough to pull molds from in the first place you should stop there because that would be much cooler than a fiberglass body kit. In fact I have never seen a body kit in metal but the cost just for that would be pretty high. The reason to go with glass in the first place is lower cost and the ability to make complex shapes easily.
What material you will use for the pattern depends on how extensive the modification to stock will be. If it's an extreme change you would be best ot go with polyurethane foam to creat the shape from. It's very easy to shape, fill and coat and is compatible with most resin systems. Build wood stations and fill in the gaps with foam, then cut the foam back to the shape of the wood station. Then glass over, fill and sand your ass off. Use a contour gauges and templates to make each side identical. The pattern will probably get pretty heavy so you will want to brace the plastic bumpers so they don't sag under the weight. After you get your shape down you can pull molds from the master pattern. I would charge him a bunch for the initial design and modeling work because that requires a good eye and lots of time. Each mold will probably be $1000 min if they are made well and even more if you use epoxy to build them. Then charge him to make the parts, install and paint. A conservative estimate for this job if you know what you are doing and have the materials and equipment is in the range of $15-16K. That is probably a few months work if you have other things going on as well.
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