Shark teeth and fiberglass

Having learned a thing or two in the process of making 15 replacement teeth for the shark in downtown Darlington I began making the 24 new teeth I would need for the KidWind wind tunnel shark. First I would cover the original shark teeth I had with Saran Wrap. This would keep the plaster cast material from sticking to the original's tooth surface. 

After a few minutes the plaster cast material was hard and the cast shell removed from the original shark tooth.

Now the plaster cast for each tooth was covered with a layer of 9 ounce fiberglass cloth. Hot glue was used to keep the fiberglass cloth in place until a coat of resin hardener was applied.

The final step was to remove the plaster cast material from the inside of the hardened fiberglass. One down and 23 to go.

While working on the teeth I could go back to the shark frame. First I covered the 1/2" rebar with 1/2" chicken wire using hog rings to hold it in place. The chicken wire would help give the fiberglass cloth some shape and support.

Here you can see some of the chicken wire on the top of the sharks head.

I got the idea to try fiberglass made of chopped fibers about 1" long called  fiberglass matt. This was a mistake and the matt literally fell apart do to gravity when it was soaked down with the resin hardener. 

Now it was time to start covering the chicken wire with the fiberglass cloth. Again hot glue was used to hold the fiberglass cloth in place. The cloth would then be covered with resin and hardener. The finished product would be just like a Corvette body. It looked like it was going to take a lot of cloth and gallons of resin to do the job.