Ideas on rear cap for GMC Fishbowl

[buddydawg]

I am wanting to cap the rear of my Fishbowl.  I checked with RM and they do not make anything for my bus. 

I have pulled the the old A/C mechanicals and shroud and am going to remove the back glass.  I plan on skinning the top where the A/C components were with aluminum.  That leaves me with moving the air intake and covering the back with something.  I was wondering if one of the rear caps for another of the GMC models would fit close enough that I could modify it to fit.

I know someone here will have some excellent advice.....

[TomC]

If your bus is 102" wide, not much will fit.  If it is 96" wide, maybe a 4905 would be close. Good Luck, TomC

[buddydawg]

It is 96",  I guess I could find a 4905 and get some dimensions and see how close they are.  They look very similar.

[Jeremy]

Making your own one-off fibreglass caps is much more straightforward than you might think - basically you need some sheets of foam insulation board, fibreglass matt & resin, and some filler powder. Shape the foam however you want it, laminate glass onto the outside, trowel on a skim of filler, then longboard it to get it smooth and fair and ready for paint. Then shape the inside surface of the foam as required and laminate some glass onto that side too. The end result will be stiffer, lighter and cheaper than a glass-only cap from R&M or whoever, and will have built-in sound and thermal insulation properties too due to the foam.

I am doing various panels for my bus using this method, including the front cap. I did have some photos of some of the panels in production, but lost them when a hard disk failed - but there will be plenty of sites out there for one-off boat building projects etc that illustrate the technique.

Jeremy

[Paso One]

Hi Buddydawg

Did you see the link Mark K ( flying Fishbowl )  put on the "other board " 

Same kind of cap I got from Brian Browns Fishbowl.

Nice set of pictures  Its still on the front page I believe titled Re power pictures.

[buddydawg]

I went over and looked at his photos and did not see where he capped the back.  All I saw was where they were painting a mural on the back glass.

[Paso One]

I believe he removed the glass and put a metal insert. Then painted the mural.

[Charles Seaton]

There is a fishbowl for sale on ebay that has just the type of rear you are talking that.  Failing that, take a look at the huge rear window from a non A/C fishbowl.

-- Seaton

[buddydawg]

I think I am going to investigate glassing it myself.  It is going to cause me to have to move the intake air.  I am going to see if I can move it to the stock location of a non A/C model, which is above the rear side windows.