I can't wait to get to the stage when the question is relevant.
It seems to be taking a while before I even get to what I would call a starting point, however there has been some progress.
Emzedder has very kindly lent me a tank to see if it will fit the SS frame. It is sadly rather badly damaged with holes, crazing and blisters, but with care I can make a clone which can be tried on the frame.
First stage is to add an extended flange around the periphery by hot gluing balsawood all round. The bobbins at the back are blanked with plasticine, as is the filler flange. The balsa is masked with aluminium tape as supplied for joining foil backed insulation.
I called in to a tyre fitters and begged some old valves which they had cut out. I stuck these on the tank with hot glue.
Note the lovely set of dumbbells gifted to me by Ally-m900. brilliant for forming radii in plasticine. A couple of lovely metal spatulas there too which are great for sculping.. Thanks Ally.
The valves were bonded in when I laid up over the tank. Some bits of wood were bonded over the mould for feet.
You can see how the air releases the mould when injected into the valves with a tyre inflator. The whiter areas are just from the first little puff.
When the mould is released, I cleaned off all the plasticine and broke off all the balsa flanges from the tank and pushed it back into the mould. I then scratched the mould with a scriber all around the edge of the tank to get a reference to trim the final moulding.
I added a disc of Formica to form a flat land where the filler neck will be fitted and faired it into the lines of the mould. The troughs left by the plasticene fairings for the bobbins were refilled with plasticine and smoothed flat-ish. Other dodgy looking areas were "papered over" with aluminium tape.
I double gelled the mould as a thicker gel coat is going to be desirable with all the finishing that the moulding is going to need with all the reproduced damage and the cutting and shutting to get the thing to fit.
Once laid up and cured it popped out of the mould with the greatest of ease with a puff into each valve. Very satisfying..
