- First Name
- Evan
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2021
- Threads
- 45
- Messages
- 706
- Reaction score
- 1,136
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Car(s)
- 21 Nitro Yellow A90 Supra, 10 Honda Fit Sport 5spd
- Thread starter
- #1
Just wanted to share the Aimgain replica lip I built from scratch over the last 3-5 months. Always wanted to learn how to work with fiberglass and thought it would be awesome to incorporate 3d printing. I found files for a 1:10 scale A90 Supra model by TunerKits and decided to investigate further. After talking with the author I realized those files could work on the full size car, albeit they needed to be sized up, sliced to fit on the print bed, modified for mounting holes, and general optimizations to be printed at 1:1 scale.
After printing the lip in 8-9 pieces I connected them all with superglue and a fiberglass backing to give it some strength and mounted it on the car for the first time. Seeing that it fit I decided the next step was to sand and prep the 3d printed lip to act as a plug for a fiberglass mold.
After prepping I built a fiberglass mold using Vinyl Ester resin from fiberglast and a mix of chopped strand and some finer weave to get more of the detail along with orange gel coat (hence why the mold is orange).
Upon making the mold then came the actual wet layup to make the final product! I'll admit, being my first time it didn't go as well as I hoped but I still was able to pull a lip from the mold and see that it was a good 80% of the way there! Success!!! Next came body filler and sanding ?
Many days of sanding, body filler, and an extra layer of chopped strand on the inside left to mounting again and determining mounting of the small winglets. Once I figured that out I sped things up and gave the lip a VERY quick couple of coats of satin black spray paint so that I could mount and drive with it as a Maiden voyage and test run (i.e. if it'll explode into 1000 pieces just trying to get out of my garage). Luckily it survived and faired EXTREMELY well! Even when I wasn't paying attention and hit a dip at 15mph or so, rhe lip took it like a champ and I couldn't even tell where it contacted the ground.
Anyway, it still needs some finishing but I just wanted to share and encourage others to step out of their comfort zone and teach themselves how to do things. Could I have just bought the real thing or a Rexpeed replica? Yeah, but where's the fun in that? Besides, now that I have a mold I can smash this thing and make another ???
Also, shoutout to Matt at 777 Performance for the scans, Ångström Performance and AtlasCoreComposites for answering a ton of my questions, and Easy Composites Ltd for some awesome how-to videos!
After printing the lip in 8-9 pieces I connected them all with superglue and a fiberglass backing to give it some strength and mounted it on the car for the first time. Seeing that it fit I decided the next step was to sand and prep the 3d printed lip to act as a plug for a fiberglass mold.
After prepping I built a fiberglass mold using Vinyl Ester resin from fiberglast and a mix of chopped strand and some finer weave to get more of the detail along with orange gel coat (hence why the mold is orange).
Upon making the mold then came the actual wet layup to make the final product! I'll admit, being my first time it didn't go as well as I hoped but I still was able to pull a lip from the mold and see that it was a good 80% of the way there! Success!!! Next came body filler and sanding ?
Many days of sanding, body filler, and an extra layer of chopped strand on the inside left to mounting again and determining mounting of the small winglets. Once I figured that out I sped things up and gave the lip a VERY quick couple of coats of satin black spray paint so that I could mount and drive with it as a Maiden voyage and test run (i.e. if it'll explode into 1000 pieces just trying to get out of my garage). Luckily it survived and faired EXTREMELY well! Even when I wasn't paying attention and hit a dip at 15mph or so, rhe lip took it like a champ and I couldn't even tell where it contacted the ground.
Anyway, it still needs some finishing but I just wanted to share and encourage others to step out of their comfort zone and teach themselves how to do things. Could I have just bought the real thing or a Rexpeed replica? Yeah, but where's the fun in that? Besides, now that I have a mold I can smash this thing and make another ???
Also, shoutout to Matt at 777 Performance for the scans, Ångström Performance and AtlasCoreComposites for answering a ton of my questions, and Easy Composites Ltd for some awesome how-to videos!
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