Fiberglass Truck Cap Factory
A.R.E. Truck Caps are fiberglass composite pickup truck accessories that add features and benefits to make these vehicles more user friendly and customized to the user’s needs. These are made in a traditional fiberglass factory and they posted a tour on Youtube.
The method they use to fabricate these parts is very similar to most open-molded fiberglass parts of all kinds. The molds, tools, materials, and methods are similar to marine, consumer, automotive, and other recreational applications. The parts are basically made from the outside in: gelcoat, fist laminate, second laminate, and support structure.
This factory tour that is very interesting. You can see that all of the fiberglass parts are made using a gray sandable gelcoat, which is later painted to match the vehicle color. This gelcoat can also be colored and used as the finished surface, such as done many times in the boating industry. The gelcoat is difficult to match with factory vehicle paint colors and does not allow for metallic and pearl coloring effects.
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Fiberglass, what would rv’s be without it?, answer looking like 1970′s style motorhomes. I spent close to 30 years in this industry, and I would have say fiberglass is one of the best materials rv’s have intigrated into them. Simple to manufacture, easy to work with, excellent to perform repairs on, it’s been a real benifit. Now with the high gloss gel-coat finish, both sidewalls and front and rear caps have never looked so good. Did I mension shower stalls?, well in your high end coaches these to have become fiberglass. As far as rv’s go, fiberglass is going to contuinue to play a large role where construction materials are concerned.
My 1980 chevy blazer has the fiberglass back half top and it needs to be repainted.