Beautiful weather this weekend. Worked all day today on the board. Got 90% of the low spots filled. Still needs several more hours of work to finish leveling it out. Will try to crank it out in the next week if I can.

Here are the pics after I called it a night tonight. I'm beat, but it's getting close...very close...What began as a very rough surface with large low spots where the top layer partially came off with the removed headliner fabric has turned into a surface that is rapidly assuming the smooth appearance of a wee one's behind:

 

Yep. After we hit the interest threshold last November I got my replacement board out of storage and have been getting it into shape to make a mold. As soon as it's actually molded I'll start a sales thread.

 

Spyhunter, is that out of your '86? It looks exactly that same as my facelift one, which I recovered last year. And yet, these guys Jaguar XJS Headlinings offer three versions for different years: 75-91, 91-93, 93-96. I wonder how different they are from each other.

 

No, the one in my '86 was spray glued to the inside roof and had to be torn out in chunks. This one came from a parted out '76.

 

The most obvious difference is the hole for the dome/map light. The images of the face-lift model does not show that hole. I have not clue past that...

Marty....................

 

Thanks Marty. Here's my '92 (built May '91).

 

So how goes the battle man? Just wanted to let you know you were not forgotten.....:-)

Marty........................

 

It's almost there. Hope to make glaze fills soon, but I keep finding more low spots or nicks that I need to fill. Will post update pics at the end of this weekend.

While I'm posting, I want to make sure everyone knows that these replacement boards won't have a pretty white gelcoat surface. Gelcoat is usually used for parts that will be a bit thicker/heavier/sturdier than this so that you can sand the surface of the part a bit without hitting the fibers underneath—a "safety zone" if you will.

But in order to keep unecessary weight down, these headliners will only be as thick as absolutely necessary to hold their shape. Being thinner than a replacement fiberglass hood or fender, they will flex more, so adding any hard gelcoat surface wouldn't be a good idea, as it would crack as it flexed. Plus, there is no need for a pretty/glossy white surface since you won't see it, and you won't need a saftey zone for sanding, as sanding isn't necessary before gluing the headliner material down.

 

From someone who has done this "a lot" you still want to gel coat before you glass it otherwise you will suffer with "stickies" just a thin layer of gel coat will do, no matter how well you wax your mold you will have issues if you don't

That's enough "finger waggling"

 

It would appear that he is molding the inside of the panel which would make the smooth side facing the metal roof. If he put any gel coat on it would only make the roof side smooth, not the side that you see or touches the fabric. As long as he does a reasonable job of laying out the glass he should be able to produce a decent part that requires minimal work. If a "peel ply" is placed over the wet resin/cloth the results should come out even better with even less finish work. This is what I do for a living.

 

Perhaps I read it wrong but I got the impression there was to be no gel coat finish on either side?

Why would you gelcoat the inside of something that will not be seen, having a gelcoat finish to glue the material too will be fine as would a resin finish, all I was implying is to save the mold it would be advisable to have a gelcoat finish even a very thin one, as it will save the mould and help release

 

I agree you want to gelcoat the mold, otherwise releasing anything mad in that mold will be difficult and the mold will not last very long.. I would also use gelcoat on the new headliner boards to assist in mold release.

He is taking a mold from the inside so when the new boards are made they will be smooth on the side that has the material fixed.

 

My mistake. I was looking at the picture wrong. I should pay closer attention! I'm not sure how Spyhunter will build his mold but most mold systems utilize a gel coat as the first step. I have made many molds without a gel coat and pulled many parts from these molds with relatively few problems. It largely depends on the surface prep and mold release used as to how long they will last. Hopefully Spyhunter will comment to clear this up.

 

You can buy moulding gelcoat which is a lot tougher than the normal suff, this is what I use, cost a little more than the normal stuff but much harder wearing.

Depends how many you expect/want to make from the mould

 

Wow, who knew gel coat could generate so much interest.

Ok, to clarify: I am working on surfacing the inside surface of the headliner board that is facing the occupants. A mold will be taken of this side.

I will definitely be using a thickened/filled surface coat on my mold surface, which will be several times thicker than the parts that are pulled from it. I say "surface coat" now instead of "gelcoat" because really that's more correct as I will be using epoxy resin to both mold and create the fiberglass parts, and that's the term used with epoxy-based systems. I've sniffed my last stinky breath of the styrene monomer that's in polyester-based resins.

Unlike parts made with polyester-based resin systems, where a thickened/filled unreinforced gelcoat is pretty much standard on all but the thinnest parts, parts made with epoxy resin rarely have any filled/thickened surface/barrier/gel coat applied, since such a thick layer of unreinforced material would be highly prone to cracking given epoxy's increased flexibility when compared to polyester, and the fact that weight is often a factor with epoxy-based parts.

I'll be using fiberglass as my reinforcement but consider that carbon fiber is often used as a reinforcement with epoxy resin, and you can virtually always see the fabric because there is no surface coat other than one or two layers of unfilled/unthickened/unreinforced clear resin.

So I will be using an opaque thickened/filled surface coat on my mold surface that I create myself out of graphite powder mixed with West Systems 404 filler mixed into a batch of epoxy resin.

On the boards themselves, I don't intend to use what most people think of as a gelcoat, which is a colored/thickened/filled layer. That said, I DO plan to apply 1 or 2 coats of pure epoxy resin as a thin surface layer before applying the fiberglass fabric to ensure that the fabric is isolated from the surface. Since this surface layer will be clear, you'll be able to see the fabric through it. The appearance of the fabric itself through the clear surface layers doesn't usually appear as "pretty" as a shiny white gelcoat on the surface, unless you take the time to orient the fabric in a symmetrical way and overlap separate pieces symmetrically, as is done with carbon fiber parts where the underlying fabric will be seen. Since this surface will never be seen once headliner fabric is glued to it, though, I'm not really planning to get **** with the symmetrical placement of the fabric, and I just wanted to let people know in advance that these won't have a traditional gelcoat. Now you know why: epoxy parts are not gelcoated in the traditional sense of the word.

Hope that clears it up.

 

I pretty much lost my garage temporarily which ground this to a halt since my last post. We put the house up for sale and have had a steady stream of people looking at the house, making the use of smelly polyester-based fillers which stink up the whole house for two days every time I work on the board not really possible.

So...I'm just going to go ahead and pay a shop a couple hundred bucks to finish the surfacing of the board, which they can hopefully do within one week. Once it's ready to mold, I'll be working in virtually odorless epoxy to both mold and make the new boards, so it shouldn't be a problem to work on it in the garage again once I get it back.

If this wait has become too long for those who hoped to get one of these, I understand. No one is under any obligation. But it will be finished, because as I've mentioned before, I need one of these as well.

 

No worries man! Boating season is here and the cat is resting in the garage so I can wait some more....:-) I am just happy you are able and willing to do this.

Marty.......................

 

No problem here. Wife is wanting me to slow down on my spending anyways.

 

Cool. Thanks for your patience.

 

Any news? Inquiring minds wanna know......