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Building Complex Parts of Your Flightdeck

At the risk of getting ahead of myself and the A320 Project I thought I would share an idea used in the Custom Car Audio field. Many times in custom applications it is necessary to build fairly complex shapes to mold speaker pods into doors or what have you. In the older days we would build entirely out of wood and sand for days! Someone with a clever mind came up with a way to avoid all of that and the idea lends itself perfectly to our pursuits in Flightdeck building.
As an example, lets take the Captains side window area of the airbus. The picture below gives you a rough idea of what the overall look is.

Now that we have a target we need to cut two pieces of wood, the front portion and the rear of the main structure. This next image (though crude) represents those pieces

The top piece would be the back while the smaller the front. We could sand the corners round if that is desired or leave till later. The next step involves setting the depth for the entire structure. Three or four strategically placed "props" will set the height and add some needed strength.

These "props" can be nailed or glued to the two pieces. Once that is accomplished you have the skeleton structure required to move ahead. At this point you will require some cloth material, large enough to cover the entire structure. Any local fabric store will have rather inexpensive stretchy cloth that you can wrap the structure in. Place the cloth on top of the structure and stretch it around to the back and either staple or glue in place. Once you have done all the sides it should look like this:

The next part is the only tricky part that may require some newfound skills... First and foremost though think safety here! Visit your local hardware store and pick up some fiberglass resin, liquid form of course. You will also need some "Bondo" or bodywork putty used to fill fenders or what have you. Make absolute sure that you are in a well ventilated area and if you are married or within range of a female nose work outside or in the garage!! (Trust me on that OK)
Read the instructions on the resin and be careful of your mixture with the catalyst needed to set the fiberglass, too much and things can get pretty hot (trust me on that too OK?) Using a paint brush, (not your wife's good one, you know.. Trust me on that too) you will brush on the resin and bondo mixture until it is soaked through the cloth.
Once you are done applying leave in a warm area and allow to set for a few hours. You'll be quite surprised at the strength of the entire structure once the glass dries and hardens. Simply sand out any ripples or bumps and you are one step away from being done.
The last phase requires you to have your finishing material at hand. In the A320 Project Steve and I will be using automotive vinyls to cover all the window and overhead areas. Using contact cement and a blowdryer we will warm and stretch the vinyl over the structure and glue in place. When we are done it should have this sort of look:

You can picture the possibilities and time savings when you go at this part of your sim. Any part can be built in this manner, for example the window pillars, overhead trim pieces etc. That's it for now, if you have any questions send me an e-mail. PC