Ok.
Probably not what you want to hear, but once it’s well shaped and all pretty smooth, skinning it with satin or laying one final sheet of glass fabric (not chop strand) over the whole thing might help hold it all together…? 
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Youre probably right but I think I’ll just bodge it and see how things go.
It’ll probably come back to bite me, but this whole enclosure is a bodged job anyway and if it all goes to shit I think I’ll just build a 3d printed enclosure with fibreglass reinforcement.
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3D printed reinforced with glass was how I did my first enclosure. A contour gauge helps to get the curvature mostly right, no 3D scanning necessary.
But what you’re attempting now is something I’ve thought about trying, but man looks tough.
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Without a proper vacuum setup it’s damn near impossible. Air gaps everywhere.
Practice makes perfect though I guess 
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I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglassI hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass I hate fibreglass
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I feel your pain. Which of the many sucky parts are you referring to
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I know this pain.
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The never ending filling and sanding cycle. I’m trapped in my own personal hell.
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The worst part is, you’ll probably choose to venture down this path again in the future
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Qcel dude… you can slap it on like you’re frosting a cake if you have to and it sands down easy peezy
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The key is to overfill the entire surface, and sand the whole thing down exactly once.
http://curedcomposites.com/finish.html
It sounds like more work than doing spot fixes or multiple thin coats, but it’s actually not. Since you don’t have to worry about blowing through the filler to the surface of the part, you can go ham with a super low grit sander. Like 60 or 40 grit. Once the part surface starts peeking through, even out the finish with fine grit and call it done.
I did that (albeit without proper surface prep and a tiny rusty spatula) and though it worked to some degree, sanding it back revealed more spots that need filling.
I’ve ordered some fibreglass structural filler which I’m pretty sure is marine grade, so my plan is to wash off the filler I previously used as best as I can with Acetone, do one more layer of fibreglass in the areas that require it such as the hole in the corner, give everything a resin top coat, then sand and fill with the new filler.
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Enclosure update time!
On Saturday I filled the big gaps with more fibreglass and gave everything a top coat of polyester resin to fill the small gaps.
Sunday was spent sanding for 8 hours. I finally got the shape dialed in. The side walls are now as flat as they can feasibly be and the chamfers are all in the right place.
I started drilling out the deck mounting holes, and stupidly jumped straight into using a 5mm bit. It should come as no surprise that this happened:
Because I rushed it, some holes were too close to the edge as well. Luckily I had only drilled the holes on one side before realising my fatal error.
Luckily the fibreglass filler I bought is incredibly easy to work with and compeltely structurally sound. I filled the dodgy holes, and re-drilled. I used a 2mm bit, and went up in 0.5mm increments until all of the 5mm holes were drilled.
Now for an important life lesson. Don’t drink and drill.
I was so excited to finally get the motor phase wire holes in place, but my largest drill bit is only 6mm. My plan was to drill them out to 6mm then dremel to 15mm, and use a rubber grommet to cover any imperfections. Unfortunately the dremel didn’t work out and all I ended up doing was creating a bunch of smoke where I burned the pink grinding bit. Then I realsied I had a stepped bit I bought for this exact reason.
Where I had dremeled the hole on the left, it wasn’t totally concentric to where I wanted it to be, and this happened:
Luckily, the fibreglass filler has come to save the day once again. I have just filled the hole and sanded it back to the original surface which only took 15 minutes. If I had done it properly with fibreglass and poly, it would have taken an hour or so I’d imagine.
Im currently spot filling and tidying up a few tiny gaps that I had previously missed, then I will reattempt the motor cable hole.
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I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I drilled out the hole in the wrong position a second time and had to fill and re drill once again…
But third times a charm!
I also made cutouts for the charge port and loopkey, and finished the top surface off with some 180 grit.
Here’s her final form before paint:
I gave everything a wipe down with some IPA and then sprayed on the primer:
Went a bit heavy in some places so there are some drips which will need tending to, before a second coat of primer then black paint.
Shes not perfect by any means. Her curves aren’t all in the right places. Her edges are soft. And she has many dimples. But she’s mine, and I fucking love how this is turning out.
After seeing her primed I’m starting to feel a bit emotional. It’s almost the end of the road with this enclosure. Depsite our hardships and tough times, we’ve perservered and come out even stronger.
I’ve also repaired the chipped epoxy in the deck. Sanded the chipped area to 180, re stained the wood, and applied a coat of epoxy. It’s still drying so I can’t quite tell how well it will come out but I can already see it won’t perfectly match the rest of the epoxy. Then again, it’ll all be covered up by the enclosure so I’m not too worried.
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I have inhaled so many solvents today, my brain is mushy.
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And just like that, the lifelong obsession with fibreglass was born.
Congrats mate, looks awesome. Remember, there’s no mistakes with fibreglass, just more sanding 
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I’m not so sure about that!
But yeah, I’m really happy with it despite my mistakes and I’ll be much more confident using fibreglass if I ever choose to go down that route again in future.
And thanks, it means a lot coming from you. I’ve always looked up to your builds and used your comments and posts for reference more times than I have fingers 
Here’s a sneak peek of the paintjob…
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Fuck yeah, looks mint!
No problem dude, glad I could have helped inspire you to have a crack! Its usually always worth it in the end!
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Damn dude… you got what the ol’ folks call gumpshun’. Watching you make this enclosure was like binging a Telenovela lmfao. Well-fuckin-done!!
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Haha thanks man, appreciate your help with things too!
Glad youve enjoyed the show. However it may not be quite over…
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