With the trim attached I can now remove the panel from the forms. It only takes a bit of gentle prying and the hot melt glue breaks free. You can see some of the residue on the tape on the forms.
The next step is to clean up the all the glue residue on the back side. I’m using a sanding block with a curved face and 60 grit sandpaper. You can see progress on the bottom of the photo.
Once all the residue is off I can smooth out all the steps from strips that shifted slightly during the glue up. Pencil marks show the high spots.
I don’t need a scratch free surface, just a continuous surface the cloth can conform to. Once the back side was smoothed out I weighed the panel out of curiosity. Current weight is about 6 ¾ pounds.
Now it’s time to fiberglass the back side. I have some 4 oz cloth left over that I am using.
I’m using an automotive epoxy on this side as it is compatible with the adhesive I’m planning on using to bond the panels to the car. After the epoxy cured I trim off the excess cloth.
Now the panel weighs about 7.5 pounds.
The last step is to trim off the extra trim from the original layup. A coping saw, rasps and sandpaper work well here.
The panel now weighs a bit less but I haven’t weighed it yet.
While this work is going on I am also building up the second panel (for the driver’s side). I’ll cover that next.
