Fiberglass Shop
Welcome to the fiberglass shop at Unique Motorcars factory. This is the place it begins, with a choice of body mold, either 289 or 427 model.
In this first photo we see Maurice Weaver and the glass man lifting a new 289 body from the mold.
The doors, hood and deck lid are molded separately. All glass work is done by hand layup method. That means the glass man puts each successive layer of mat, and cloth in by hand, applies the resin, and then rolls out the resin by hand. Rollers and squeegees are used for this work. it is important to get a solid bond of layers with no air bubbles.
Now we see a hood being laid up by hand. Here the resin is being rolled out with a roller.
Here the glass man is doing finish glass trim work inside a body still in the mold.
This is a dashboard which has been laid up. Now, the man is using a squeegee to remove air bubbles and excess resin from the layup.
Our glass man is applying more glass cloth inside a stress area of the body. He squeegees out the excess resin in this shot.
After all the mating parts are finished (body, floor w/foot boxes, hood, trunk lid, doors and dash) the body is taken out to the assembly area. The steel brace framework is put under the cowl, and then the floor and foot box assembly is installed. Then the body is ready for assembly on the chassis.
This concludes the Fiberglass Shop tour, next, is the Fabrication/welding Shop (please click here to continue with the factory tour).