Restoration Tooling

A painting pressure pot tank was saved after a fire and re-built. It was converted and equipped with a vacuum generator to de-gas the polyurethane rubber prior to pouring. The tank also acts as a pressure vessel to pressure cast the polyurethane rubber compounds used in reproducing rubber parts. The basic (more difficult than it looks) steps are shown below for the tooling and part creation.

I was told that on a level of difficulty from 1 to 10, these parts were an 11 (although the rep assured me that these could be reproduced - he had never seen anybody do a part quite like this). So that challenged me to succeed in making these. You have to start off with a good part (or a good representation) - as shown in the first two pictures - build pour boxes and mould around the part. The picture to the left shows the completed mould (4 piece). The picture next to it is a reproduction part that is about 95% perfect. I am in the final process of getting the right amound of pressure to force air bubbles out for pressure casting these parts in the tank shown at the top of the page.

To create tools for a thermal vacuum form mould, I had to say goodbye to one of my spare windshields. The first picture shows a building of plastic forms around the existing windshield. I decided to extend the height available for custom requests, so there was a lot of bondo applied to form the multicurved shape in the plug for the additional height. This plug was used to create the fibreglass shell for creating the vacuum form mould.

The above left shows the fibreglass shell after it was removed from the plug and trimmed. The photo to the right shows the inner surface of the shell and how it was re-enforced to withstand the high pressures created during the vacuum forming process. The below left photo shows the vacuum form mould after it was laminated to it's landing. Final bondo was applied to ensure an extremely well blended surface. The picture below and to the right is the final vacuum form mould. After final sanding, it was coated with Hi-Temp paint, wet sanded and then polished. This creates a perfect surface which gives clarity to the moulded polycarbonate (Lexan) windshield.

The last two pictures show the jig used for laminate trimming the plastic to shape, as well boring the mounting holes.