This month covers the buildup of the most complex fiberglass panel inside the Civic Si. The back seat is the location of the amprack, which holds six Sony high-power amplifiers. I created this piece to achieve several design elements. First, it had to be the focal presentation of the car. Second, its design needed to match the shape of the exterior and interior of the car. Third, it had to reflect the theme of the installation. This fiberglass cover panel protects the six amps' wiring and highlights the Sony amps' installation. The six LCD screens at the top and the bottom of the amprack act as video displays and allow me to constantly have different MPEG graphics accenting this installation.
There are several things to keep in mind when building large-scale fiberglass panels inside your car. First, the look and shape of your panel need to match the factory bodylines of the exterior of the car as well as the interior shape of the vehicle. In this Civic, the factory dash was 48 inches wide and surrounded by thin door panels on each side. Therefore, in the back seat area I created a 48-inch wide center panel surrounded on the sides by thin side panels. Try not to create a fiberglass piece inside of your car that's too large in scale or weight to be removed from the car later on. Any fiberglass panel has to be able to move in and out of the vehicle numerous times for both test fitting and shaping onto other fiberglass panels. I've actually heard rumors of installers creating pieces so large that they couldn't be removed. They had to actually sand and paint the panels from inside of the car-this is not what you should do.
The Civic Si fiberglass panels were created in the same way the factory creates interior panels-as trim accent panels for a substructure that's already built into the framework of the car. This design system adds aesthetic appeal to a vehicle, as well as creates functionality when I need to access wiring. For example, if I need to rewire or replace a defective amp, I can remove the fiberglass trim panels and have full, unobstructed access to my wiring.
It takes six layers of 1.5-ounce fiberglass mat to get the proper thickness and strength for your interior panels. This ratio doesn't apply to subwoofer boxes. When creating any fiberglass panel, especially one this large, it's also important to mix enough fiberglass resin to evenly cover your entire mold for each layer. This means that you'll mix resin and cut fiberglass mat and apply a single layer to the entire mold. You'll then repeat this process six times.
The exterior theme of this Civic Si was blue and silver candy paint with flake and graphics, as well as polished aluminum wheels. To integrate the stereo system as the main focal point of this car, the exterior design elements were added to the interior panels in the exact same way-they have blue and silver candy paint with flake, and polished aluminum inserts.
When creating large fiberglass panels, it's important that you allow proper curing times in the vehicle. The final layer of fiberglass will dry first and not allow air to reach the bottom layers. If you remove your panel too soon and the bottom layers of fiberglass aren't fully cured, it will cause the panel to warp, which is an unfixable situation. My panel cured for over 30 days inside of the vehicle.
Next month, we'll wrap up the fiberglass molding in the very back hatch of the Civic with the creation of the upper and side hatch fiberglass panels. Until then, feel free to e-mail me with questions or comments at techpanel@sourceinterlink.com.