Nice Job Pirate. I like the round top on the gauges.Got any pix on how you made those?I will be making consoles for mine soon.

the front and top are 3/4" ply. the top is 1/4 and i used 1/64 hobby pine to make all the curves on the top. it sucked to sand, took probably 40 hours and put about a pound of bondo on then sanded almost the whole pound off. it sucked.
Im almost scared of the fairing im building right now. ill have to have 100 lbs of bondo just to sand off 99 1/2.
when your building your dash, go by michaels or some other craft store and look at the model and balsa wood section. it makes things alot easier when u can cut the intriget pieces with an exacto. email me and ill send you all the pics along the way....

We use ridgid insulation foam. Glue it together with hot glue. It's easy to carve and shape with a cheese grater DA or orbital sander. Then you need to load up all the corners with Cavasill filled resin. Then lay your cloth over the top and roll it out. Once cured you go in and carve out the foam from the inside. You can leave and inch thick layer for structure. Then you lay up the inside. Now you have a foam core part.

This method is fast, easy and light wieght.

Here is a hatch we are building out of foam. We will use a Devinicell foam sheet for the core. Same stuff boat builders use for hulls and decks.

you just put resin right on the rigid foam? like the pink panther stuff from home depot? i would think the chemicals would soften the foam kind of like gas does. Thanks for the info, I will try it on my next project. sounds like it will make things much easier...

we worked with the cheap home depot foam doing experiments with it for a school project. epoxy resin works with it, but the cheap foam is not structural... most resins eat it like gas does.

Ernie

TopSpin80 is correct, this foam is NOT structural but it does make for a good plug. Some of he foams ARE compatible with resin but you'll need to experiment. The white stuff melts but the yellow foil backed material seems to work well. Remember we use this material to make a form only.

The best foam material for structural components, like decks or engine hatches, is Divinycell made by DIAB. It is far from cheap but works great.

http://www.diabgroup.com/americas/u_...pdf/H_DS_U.pdf

Good luck on the next project!