Some of you may have seen this tread, there I was wondering about making my own snorkel from fiberglass.
I decided to make a new thread only about that fiberglass experimental snorkel.
So this is how it goes.
I started by masking off the parts of the car where the snorkel touches it, both the fender and on the top. First I waxed the area but I did not polish the wax off, then I laid a painters tape over the wax and then plastic tape over the painters tape. Fiberglass does not stick to the plastic tape.
Then I laid two layers of fiberglass over the taped area to make a base for the rest to stick to. This way it is also sure that the fiberglass piece will fit the car perfectly. I lifted the glass on the top about an inch from the top in the back, the reason I did that is so that water on the top does not flow inside the snorkel when braking or going downhill. The snorkel will suck air in from the back. I haven´t designed that part yet.
When these two parts were hard I padded the a-pillar with an old camping mattress and tape and joined the two parts together with glass. I used the mattress to lift the glass from the pillar because I want to allow water to escape the windshield.
To make the tube up the a-pillar I used some foam tubes I found in the hardwarestore, I taped them together and made sure that the tube is wide enough to allow enough air flow. These tubes I taped onto the base and glassed over them.
Then I used polyurithane expansion foam to cover the top and the bottom pieces. When that dried I formed that to the shape I wanted and classed over it.
When all of that had hardened I "broke" that thing off the car. With that off the car I could glass the parts of it I could not glass on the car.
Now I had a rough shaped fiberglass chunk to work with.
Now I used a fiberglass bodyfiller to smooth out the most obvious low spots and then sanded all down with a handheld belt sander. And glassed two layers over that. Then I had much smoother and better looking "thing" and when I had the edges cleaned and sanded down I started to look like a snorkel again.
Now I decided to test fit it on the car and see how it looked.
I´m going to cut it where the black line is and redo it to look better.
It does block the view a bit but I don´t think that it will matter.
This is how it looks right now. Now it is time for me to decide if I will keep on working on it or throw it in the garbage. The next step is to cut it open and remove all the stuffing and then drill all the holes to the fender.
What do you guys think about it... how do you like the design?
I´m thinking If I should cut the top open and make it again a bit lower, It will decrease the airflow a bit but it will might look better.
I decided to make a new thread only about that fiberglass experimental snorkel.
So this is how it goes.
I started by masking off the parts of the car where the snorkel touches it, both the fender and on the top. First I waxed the area but I did not polish the wax off, then I laid a painters tape over the wax and then plastic tape over the painters tape. Fiberglass does not stick to the plastic tape.
Then I laid two layers of fiberglass over the taped area to make a base for the rest to stick to. This way it is also sure that the fiberglass piece will fit the car perfectly. I lifted the glass on the top about an inch from the top in the back, the reason I did that is so that water on the top does not flow inside the snorkel when braking or going downhill. The snorkel will suck air in from the back. I haven´t designed that part yet.
When these two parts were hard I padded the a-pillar with an old camping mattress and tape and joined the two parts together with glass. I used the mattress to lift the glass from the pillar because I want to allow water to escape the windshield.
To make the tube up the a-pillar I used some foam tubes I found in the hardwarestore, I taped them together and made sure that the tube is wide enough to allow enough air flow. These tubes I taped onto the base and glassed over them.
Then I used polyurithane expansion foam to cover the top and the bottom pieces. When that dried I formed that to the shape I wanted and classed over it.
When all of that had hardened I "broke" that thing off the car. With that off the car I could glass the parts of it I could not glass on the car.
Now I had a rough shaped fiberglass chunk to work with.
Now I used a fiberglass bodyfiller to smooth out the most obvious low spots and then sanded all down with a handheld belt sander. And glassed two layers over that. Then I had much smoother and better looking "thing" and when I had the edges cleaned and sanded down I started to look like a snorkel again.
Now I decided to test fit it on the car and see how it looked.
I´m going to cut it where the black line is and redo it to look better.
It does block the view a bit but I don´t think that it will matter.
This is how it looks right now. Now it is time for me to decide if I will keep on working on it or throw it in the garbage. The next step is to cut it open and remove all the stuffing and then drill all the holes to the fender.
What do you guys think about it... how do you like the design?
I´m thinking If I should cut the top open and make it again a bit lower, It will decrease the airflow a bit but it will might look better.
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