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Yep did exactly what the title says but before you conger up images of duct tape and bailing wire take a look at how I was able to make a "fiberglass" fan shroud.
I first started by cutting the plywood and screwing it together to form a plug.
I then draped an old fleece blanket over the plug and began stapling it down.
As the blanket was pulled tight it stretched over corners and provided a gradual change in shape from the main body of the shroud and the opening.
You can already see the shape of the shroud coming together. My original plan was to make this a two piece shroud. The middle of the flat edge was intended to be cut away and I was going to use a metal piece to cover the gap. Once I had the shape I applied a liberal amount of fiberglass resin, and let it harden.
Here you can see the shroud after I popped it off the plug. The next step would have been to apply fiberglass resin to the inside of the shroud, but I decided that I wanted to make some changes to the plug and try again. The two main improvements I had in mind were a one piece design and to make the side walls 3/4" taller so there was more distance between the shroud and the radiator.
For the 2nd attempt I reduced the over all size slightly to accommodate for the thickness of the material and the fiberglass, and added the wood to make the side walls thicker. I then cut an opening in the round piece so I could screw on the top round piece. the idea here is after the material has been resined I can unscrew the two pieces, pop out the main piece then remove the top round piece.
When I made the first shroud it stuck to the plug in a few places. I was able to get it out with out issue but figured why risk it and covered the edges with masking tape.
As before I covered the plug with fleece material and stapled it in place.
This material (purchased in bulk from Walmart) was thinner and a little less fuzzy. This made applying the resin a whole bunch easier.
The whole thing is now drying. I will add another cote of resin to it in the morning and then after it cures I will remove the plug and do the back side.
This has been fantastic project. The technique works well and is easy to do. I can see lots of other applications for this technique.
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That's one big speaker enclosure! It's gonna be loud!
It looks like there is still a fair amount of texture to the surface. Are you going to build that up with resin to permit sanding it smooth, or use filler? It could make for a plug to fab a mold for a fiberglass piece. Good work!
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70XL wrote:
That's one big speaker enclosure! It's gonna be loud!
It looks like there is still a fair amount of texture to the surface. Are you going to build that up with resin to permit sanding it smooth, or use filler? It could make for a plug to fab a mold for a fiberglass piece. Good work!
I think I am going to leave it rough. I may even spray it with truck bed liner to get an intentional texture.
I decided to add some glass to this after realy thinking through it. I got some glass cloth. It is not as forming as the mat but is significantly stronger. (if you look online the prevailing opinionis the mat is stronger and people who believe that think so (and there is some logic to it) because the fibers go in all different directions but after looking at some manufactures web sites the reality is the cloth is much much stronger. Besides what the manufacturers say if the mat was stronger carbon fiber would be mat instead of woven cloth.)
Anyway the cloth had enough give to it that I was able to shape it over the resined fleece. The rough texture of the fleece actually helped grab the glass cloth and hold it in place.
After I got the cloth roughly shaped I pealed the cloth back, applied resin to the shroud, then reapplied the cloth. the hardest part was working the bubbles out. The same rough texture that helped hold the cloth in place also created pockets. I was able to get about 90% of the bubbles out and the end result should be a good one.
It was suggested to me by a Mustang friend of mine, "They make carbon fiber cloth that would look TOTALLY COOL if you put a layer on the exposed side. It is not real expensive at AIRCRAFT SPRUCE."
I ended up with that look by accident. The glass cloth is woven just like carbon fiber and it turned black when I resined it due to the black fleece I used.
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Made some more progress on my shroud. Discovered a couple of things I did really well and a couple of things that I should have done differently.
First thing I did was remove all the staples from the back side of the shroud so that I could trim off the excess material. I have an aggressive kitchen knife that I keep in my shop for cutting rubber and other things where normal cutting tools don't work as well and it was the perfect tool to trim the excess. I was able to use a sawing motion with the blade flat against the back of the plug to cut off the excess fairly close to where I wanted it cut.
With most of the excess off I still had a rough edge that needed to be cleaned up, so I put on my respirator, fired up my orbital sander and sanded the edges flush with the plug again using the back of the plug as a guide. 
Using the plug as a guide gave me a really nice straight edge.
from there I flipped the shroud over and cut away the excess material from the round opening and also removed the staples from that side.
I was now ready to begin releasing the shroud from the plug. I started by gently working an extremely thin putty knife between the shroud sides and the sides of the plug.
After going all the way around I still could not get the plug to budge from the shroud. Fortunately for me, I had had the foresight to build the plug with screws and in such a way that all the screws were accessible (with the exception of one piece) so that I could take the plug apart and remove it one piece at a time. The first screws that had to come out were the ones that held the half round top piece to the top of the plug and then the 5 screws that held the main round piece of plywood to the main body of the plug.
I then flipped the unit over, unscrewed the bottom piece of plywood and began working it loose. this is where I discovered one of my mistakes. when I taped the edges to avoid sticking I did not think to use multiple piece of tape and maintain the seams between the pieces of wood that made up the plug. In other words I had taped over the seams and in essence taped the wood together. It was only masking tape and I was able to tare it as I removed the plug pieces but it would have been easier had the pieces not stuck together. If I was doing it again I would have either built the plug, labeled all the parts, disassembled it, taped the individual edges and then put it all back together OR taped it up the same way I did the first time and simply split the seams with a razor blade.
The next image shows why the masking tape was so important. You can clearly see where the resin soaked through the fleece in the places where it had been pulled tight over the plug and was coming in contact with the plug. Had I not used the tape the wood would have been in essence glued to the shroud in those locations. In retrospect the masking tape worked well but I think clear packing tape would have worked better.
With the shroud out I was able to turn my attention to the wire ring I put in the fan blade opening. I started by stretching and working the fleece around the wire.
I then applied a liberal amount of resin to the wire, folded the fleece over and used clothespins to hold it in place. 
The clothespins worked well and clamped the fleece down beautifully however they almost ruined my shroud. I didn't think to put any tape or other non stick material on the close pins and the pressure they provided caused the resin to soak through the fleece and into some of the pins. About half of the nearly 100 pins came off with out issue BUT the other half were a nightmare to get loose. They were basically glued in place, most of them broke as I tried to remove them and the wood left behind had to be chiseled out with a pick. This took a long time as I was walking that fine line between applying enough pressure to get the wood out but not so much pressure as to damage the shroud.
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That is really creative. How much room is between the fan blades and the shroud?
My fan is 18" so I started with a 20" opening. As the resin and cloth was added the opening shrunk slightly and now there is about 3/4" between the end of the blades and the opening.
Started today with a test fit, and all looks good.
Once I knew I had the fit I wanted I applied the last coat of resin to the inside of the shroud. I decided against using a layer of glass on the inside. The shroud was already extremely strong and was getting fairly heavy, so I decided the fleece and one layer of glass clothe was enough. all it needs now is some mounting brackets, a little sanding and a coat of paint and it will be done.
UPDATE, Works great in hot weather. It has been in the 90s here in MT and even when idling the car temp holds firm. This shroud is one of the better improvements I have made to this car.
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Always great when things work out, at least as well as imagined!
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