recently i saw something in a h.a.m.b. post that made me think you guys might know how to make canopy bubbles alah jet fighter look just curious and thought it might be handy to know how
cut a hole in a piece of plywood, sandwich the flat plastic between that and another full sheet of plywood, which has an air hose fitting in it. Put it in an oven, get it warm, then turn on the air. We made a little one in college, but that was a long long time ago. I'd suggest going with the pros, if you plan on building a nice car.
IMO... get a cheapo toaster oven, [wife doesn't want you to use hers]. I used '70's F1 tail light lenses... place 2 metal blocks in the oven... tested pre heating on s**** plastic strips. use a baker's timer, test how long and what temp will let the s****s sag... then set up your "dies", slide the whole thing into the preheated oven, set the timer... watch closely so it doesn't melt... spay bottle with water could save it if too hot... made a red third brake light lens for a '38-'39 plate light housing... even lined up the magnifier with the bulb's element... worked slick...
I met Ed Roth years ago in Seattle where he was sponsoring independent short films of all things and asked him how he made bubble tops. He did it as Squirrel describes and used a friend's large bakery oven.
yeah thats the plan i knew someone would have done it before my wife worked in a plant that did injection and extrusion moulded plastics(we both work in a plant that makes things from sheet round and square bar metal a.t.m.) and i used to ask about every process in there also my nephew was a mold changer at the same plant i have enough basic knowledge to pull off sag moulding plastics i think i could even do crude injection moulding its the moulds that become the issue there but the skill to make a wood mold for sag molding would be much less technical than one from tool steel not to mention the huge cost difference.
Like this - Full Custom Garage. He has done a few different projects involving blown bubble tops, or lenses, or something else.
Do a search for Plowboy or the Atomic Punk,he is a master of the bubble. HRP And if you build it right you too might end up at the ******* Manson.
Since Charley died today, and Hugh died a week or so ago, I think it ironic that you Freudian slipped and spelled ******* Manson.
One of my cars has a bubble roof, I purchased the top from Germany. The optics are perfect, in fact the original top for this car had more distortion than the repro. I believe it was vacuum formed. Jim
Aaron bought a ready made round bubbletop for his car I built the plywood blow form mold to do the one on Ed Roth’s road agent when I owned it and I built the mold for the one on the Futurian that I built Also before I built the one for the road agent I did a small test bubble in my kitchen oven
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