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I hear there are 2 good places to get the complete press mold front ends, Corvette Image and Sermersheim's Corvette, Inc. I have also heard that the Image one it thicker glass which makes it harder to use but I also hear that Image uses the GM origninal tooling. Where do you guys suggest getting one? Any input welcome.
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Re: Press Mold Front Ends
PS, I forgot it is on a 66 or C2 model. -
Re: Press Mold Front Ends
I have used serm. on several cars and could not be more pleased with his product. Waiting to pu a 66 complete doghouse now.Comment
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Re: Press Mold Front Ends
I am replacing the whole front end on my '57 and have Corvette Image parts... stay tuned... at first glance the parts look great.Comment
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Re: Press Mold Front Ends
The one time that I have seen both the Sermersheims and Image parts side by side, there was quite a difference in appearance. The Image fiberglass had a much "flatter" finish on the back side of the fender panels, while the Sermersheims part was much glossier and slicker. The Image panels looked more "correct" to my untrained eye.
Perhaps some experienced midyear judges can comment on which is more correct in appearance.Comment
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Re: Press Mold Front Ends
David,
I'm going out on a limb with this, but I'd be VERY suprised if the original GM tooling is used to make Image parts (or any others) I believe the original tools were very heavy dies and required a mega ton press to operate.
tcComment
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Re: Press Mold Front Ends
Good point; the original male and female molds were machined from huge blocks of tool steel, and one set weighed 20,000-30,000 pounds. They were run in huge high-pressure hydraulic molding presses (see pages 37-38 in Noland's C2 book) at the A.O. Smith molding complex in Ionia, Michigan. Those are true "press-molded" panels. I'm pretty certain that Image and Sermersheim use reinforced epoxy male and female molds that provide smooth surfaces on both sides, but are under very little actual molding pressure - probably more accurately described as "match-molded" panels, not "press-molded" panels.Comment
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Re: Press Mold Front Ends
I had the opportunity to tour one of these two facilities a few years ago. They build their own molds off of various pieces of original Corvettes sitting around just like John says. The male and female molds are held together and "pressed" by a whole series of different depth, welding style C-clamps, the jaws of some are about 2 feet deep. Then they pump in the resin through several "taps" located in different place on the mold. They've got hundreds of different length C-clamps sitting around on racks. The "pressure" applied is controlled by the manual tightness of the adjustable C-clamps. I asked them how they control the thickness of the middle of a large panel and they said it's "by feel and experience". I suppose that's why the panel thickness is so variable.....Comment
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Sounds like the "Resin Transfer Molding" (RTM)
process and it's pretty much an art form to place all the injection ports and time the flow rates into each port so as not to trap air. I imagine all the hullabaloo in years past about panels from these shops "out gassing" in the sun is simply trapped air inside the panels expanding when the panel is exposed to sunlight and gets hot.
This is common occurance if the molds are first coated with a surface coat layer of paste prior to clamping down on the cloth. Air pockets abound in this environment.
I'm told that the use of a surface coat (gel coat) is now history and you can see the fiberstands in the part.
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