I’ve finally managed to do a bit more to the hatch over the last few weekends.
The reason for the lack of progress is that a few construction problems have been holding me back;
• Should I make the hatch as a one-off!
• Should I be taking a mould of it for future use?
• How to fit lighting (and maintain it) in something that has no access points?
In the end I worked out how to get the lighting in and that I was going to make just the one -
for now. Easy!
I started by cleaning up the basic shapes and strengthening the internal joints as it’s starting to get a little heavy.
I finally realised that the only way to get to the inside was to cut away as much of the area behind the instruction panel as possible.
Was this the way they did it on the original? We’ll probably never know.
The crew back then had to contend with using neon, which is notorious for breaking with even the gentlest of knocks – I know as I’ve used it!
I’ve chosen to use Led’s which should have a very long life and will generate little or no heat when mounted on a heat sink.
When I was happy with the interior I glued the two halves together and attached the hinge box structures.
There’s another box section between the feet but I didn’t add it at this stage as it would have been too difficult to finish and paint between the structures.
Also this is where the hinge mechanism needs to go.
After adding some filler and some more rubbing down it was time to start the process of making it look like it was all made out of the same material.
To get a really perfect surface finish I’ve started to use a sprayable resin material.
The product used is called Crystic Primecoat by Scott Bader.
It was developed to coat timber patterns and moulds for the fibreglass industry.
The finished surface is extremely tough and can be polished if need be.
You add a hardener to the resin and then apply by spraying.
It’s quite similar to fibreglass resin in that you add catalyst and thin it with acetone.
You spray it in thin layers and let it dry for a few minutes between coats.
Using this method you can build up to 1.5mm of thickness at one go without it sagging or running.
I only used about four coats and that was enough to obliterate the majority of the surface imperfections.
I let it dry overnight and then sanded it smooth before adding a bit more filler and another couple of coats.
The result is a great surface finish with no hint of the different materials used underneath.
Once I was happy with the surface finish I fitted properly the remaining lightbox (in white primer) which sits underneath the overhang.
The lightbox will need to be removable and will be attached using magnets or some very small machine screws.
The three ‘padded looking’ objects around the lightbox were made from 3mm Mdf.
I’ve just realised that these will also have to be removable if I ever want to remove the lightbox.
These last two photographs are a couple of general shots.
I think it’s starting to look pretty good now that its got some colour on it.
Next task will be to wire up some lights and see if all that effort was worth it!