help needed with molds

[blacksnake]

Hi, I am new to the forum. I have a 12ft fiberglass mini speed boat that was built in the late 80s. The company that built it went out of business right after it was built. How would I go about getting a mold madde so the boat can be reproduced? Who would I contact? Any ideas on a strarting point?

[rwatson]

There are a number of quite recent threads asking about making moulds off existing boats that would be worth looking up.

The process of creating the mould itself is straight forward for a small craft of this size, but the hard bit is knowing how much glass ( thickness, location and type) to place in the mould once finished ( and getting it out safely).

To get it all done professionals would run into many thousands of dollars.

[tunnels]

Originally Posted by blacksnake

Hi, I am new to the forum. I have a 12ft fiberglass mini speed boat that was built in the late 80s. The company that built it went out of business right after it was built. How would I go about getting a mold madde so the boat can be reproduced? Who would I contact? Any ideas on a strarting point?

Go find a fibreglass company and get some prices before you get to invloved with doing any of the work yourself !! its a starting point and could be scary !!
If the boat is only 12 foot long it would be a good excise for you to learn all about fibreglassing starting at the very begining !!
Making or splashing a set of moulds off an already exisiting itam is real quite easy but a few things you meed to take careful note of . The product needs to be 100%any defects get reprodduced so check to make sure its fair all over , any scratchs and the like need to be filled and sanded back and painted with a 2 pot paint . . If the surface is dull it needs to be polished to a high glossand as perfect as you can get it !!
The better the product ,the better the mould surface will be . This needs the be done the the hull and the deck !!
If there is a rubbing strip or any fittings on the hull or the deck they all need to be removed ,all hole filled level Remember if you are going to be using the same location again when you start making the boats a very slight mark left as a location point to redrill the holes when you start to product a boat in the future but because of it age find the new fittings and check if they will fit the same holes before you make the lcator mark . Thinking way ahead of yourself is very important !!

Now the tricky part building a set of mould .will need to post picture to show details of what you have to give some decent advise on how to make the molds
will leave you at this point and wait to see what you want to do ! Carry on or shelve the project .