Honolulu 818S Hana (work/build) Thread

[Xusia]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a void?

[Aloha818]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a void?

No ignorance, maybe my bad photography and/or explanation!

This is a pic if the forward trunk lid, leading edge that meets the top of the door. In this pic the panel is upside down. I ground off the gel coat to prep for building up this area with fiberglass to close the gap to the door. The void (air pocket in gel coat/fiberglass) I am talking about is the area from the point if the arrows to the white line of the gel coat. The void is about 1/8" tall by about 1/8" deep. If you look at the bottom left corner you can see where the gel coat had chipped off. FYI the gel coat had chipped off before I started grinding on it.

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[Xusia]

...(air pocket in gel coat/fiberglass)...

Gotcha

[longislandwrx]

image.jpg

Go home hula girl, you are drunk.

[Aloha818]

Go home hula girl, you are drunk.

Thanks for the reply, made me laugh!!

[Wayne Presley]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a void?

They spray the gel coat in the mold first, then the glass goes on top of it. The trick is to get the resin to go on with no air bubbles in the resin itself or trap air between the glass and gel coat. Easier said than done.

[Aloha818]

They spray the gel coat in the mold first, then the glass goes on top of it. The trick is to get the resin to go on with no air bubbles in the resin itself or trap air between the glass and gel coat. Easier said than done.

Wayne, thanks for elaborating.

So anyone painting their 818 needs to try and find any and all of these voids during the prep stage, or discover later and ruin the paint job.

[Wayne Presley]

Wayne, thanks for elaborating.

So anyone painting their 818 needs to try and find any and all of these voids during the prep stage, or discover later and ruin the paint job.

An easy way to find them is to shine a bright light from the back side of the panel, the voids will show up as light areas.

[Aloha818]

I realized today I will never get finished building my 818. Every step I come to I see an opportunity to modify!

As I mentioned earlier, my guiding principal in building is to try and look as OEM as possible. I had installed the FFR license plate bracket between the back up lights (in previous pics). To me it looked like an after thought. Since a rear plate is required I started looking at how other cars have their plates mounted. It seems every car manufacture has some sort of recessed area with some design element to it. So here is what I came up with

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I kind of drew different angles and lines to try and match the FFR lines, and then opposite, then ended up with what I marked above. Then I started cutting and made up some aluminum angle brackets and 5 min epoxy in to hold in place during the fiberglass lay up.

image.jpg

The final design is that the top and bottom will go straight in, the bottom goes back 3/4" the top 1 1/2". The bottom of each side will tapper in on each side by 3/8" and the top side about 1" in on each side.

I should have it glassed in by Wednesday and will post the progress. I guess I'm not so intimidated by fiberglass work now so seems pretty easy now, just itchy!

[VD2021]

I realized today I will never get finished building my 818. Every step I come to I see an opportunity to modify!

Yeah. Makes the build seem to go on forever and quickly destroys the original budget. But it will be that much more enjoyable because you built it according to your vision.

As I mentioned earlier, my guiding principal in building is to try and look as OEM as possible.

Nice. That's the theme I have for my GTM build.

You're definitely on the right track. Your dual hoop mod is huge for the appearance. It really removes the "kit" look.

The small details like, the rear plate area and side markers really help bring an OEM or production auto them to fruition.

Great job!

[Aloha818]

That.... is impressive. The way it catches all the lines, matches the taillight recesses. Absolutely awesome, what an improvement! You are going to make the people who painted already wish they hadn't. Slow clap. Well done sir.

Agreed. Well played. If you're going to keep the upper panel, might as well sculpt it so it's not just a flat blank (for reference, FFR's early red S-car always bothered me here). This is a great improvement.

I actually like the hanging plate in its mock up stage. You (or like-minded others) might consider using mesh to hold it in rather than a solid fiberglass recess. Same lines, same planes, just use a mesh or perforated metal sheet. I think Ferrari is fond of this styling technique, so you can look into their rear-styling for cues. Just a thought. I think it'll be great anyway you take it.

Best,
-j

I don't post much on here, but I wanted to say congratulations to you for such detailed write ups, and for sharing your thoughts throughout. I also have to give you kudos for jumping in with both feet into areas that you are unfamiliar with.

Just a hint to you, and others on this site. The human body's tolerance for MEKP is ZERO. I once saw a guy die who had ingested a small amount of MEKP, it was agonizing. be very careful with it.

Love all this glass work. Almost makes me want to get started with it!

Yeah. Makes the build seem to go on forever and quickly destroys the original budget. But it will be that much more enjoyable because you built it according to your vision.




Nice. That's the theme I have for my GTM build.

You're definitely on the right track. Your dual hoop mod is huge for the appearance. It really removes the "kit" look.

The small details like, the rear plate area and side markers really help bring an OEM or production auto them to fruition.

Great job!

As always, thanks so much guys for taking the time to read about my progress and make positive comments! I'm glad that I'm not alone in thinking this mod will look good and not a mistake.

I didn't think about using mesh. That could look really great. I hope someone takes the initiative and tries it.

I had a little time tonight and put my first layer of fiberglass, I took Santiago's advice and used fabric. It is a little more flexible than the mat. Thanks.