MadaboutKitcars

Those pipe benders work on red band steel tubing, much thicker walling. If you google up roll cage manufacturers you will find people with mandrel benders who will knock up your tubing.

I'll try that Landmannn, thanks!

I even thought of sneaking out at night with a hacksaw, looking at handrails, but none of them are stainless steel!!

or find someone local that makes stainless stair hand rails???? They are good at tube bending

Show me what you are trying to achieve and I'll see what I,can come up with

Sunday

Crimson rodent cycle, or redratbike as you prefer:-)

In answer to your question, what am I trying to achieve? I sometimes find myself asking the same bloody question, and at times I'm not even sure..........

Right, here are some pictures and drawings, which would not win prizes, but hopefully will explain what I'm trying to do, with these bent pipes in order to make a thousand quids worth of XKSS bumpers.

As I said once before, I am not keen on the original XKSS bumpers at all, and want mine to be the shape in my pics.

They are purely for asthetics, (a bit like the real ones then!)

Since I last posted, I have had another re-think, and have decided on pipes with a diameter of 1.5 inches, and not the 2 inch ones.


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On another note, I started work on assembling the doors today, which threw up even more complications, (a bit like Paul I guess!)

When I stuck the alloy plates on the inside of the door skins, it seemed to somehow flattern out the curve, so when I mate up the skin to the door, it takes quite a lot of pressure to bend the skin around the frame and hold it there.

So much pressure, in fact, that I am thinking that bonding alone may not hold it, as it wants to spring open all the time. I did not really want to use rivets, as it would not look right.

Then I came up with the idea of trying to re-bend the skin to the correct shape, and to that end, I have clamped the skin up, and will leave it that way for a day or so to see if it will reshape.

I will post the answer in due course........

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Monday

Today I put in a full day, I started at 0800hrs and have just finished now.
The time now is just gone 4pm.

I have achieved a lot, I have taken the door hinge off and cut, reshaped and welded it back, so now I have the correct hinge angle, or at least as good as its going to get for me.

I have trimmed the door and the skin,and made it fit well, and finally bonded them together using J B epoxy glue, which the company bills as the "strongest glue in the world"

I don't really care if it is, as long as my door stays stuck together!

I used the whole 2 ounces of the stuff, so we will see.

I have drilled two extra holes in the hinge, so it will be 4 bolt, not for strength, but so I can fine shim the angle, top and bottom, as I made need to for a perfect fit.

This is only the drivers side mind you! But I have learned from the mistakes I made, so the passengers side will be quicker and easier.

( Where have I heard that one before?)

At least I know the precise place to slice the other hinge now, and also how much to bend it,so won't be wasting time re-welding up my mistakes.

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Scottie - Great effort.

Although as I read your update I feel much happier about sealing my own doors shut.

I know I keep saying it, but your car is going to be great when it is done.

Good luck, Paul.

To be honest Paul, I had thought of sealing my doors too!
What stopped me was the thought that its going to be hard enough getting in and out anyway, but with no doors at all, nigh on impossible!

Fine collection of mole grips Scottie

I thought so too! I didn't realise I had so many!!

Have you got enough mole grips left over to do the other door too?

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Brilliant, we need another thread for our best collections

Wednesday

Well I started at 0830, on the passengers door, and after an hour and a half, I have, cut out the hinge slit, (the other one was so fresh in my mind I did not even measure this one, just cut where I knew it should be!)

Also I have cut a strip off the alloy I put inside the skin, because it got in the way of a perfect fit to the door.

I have trimmed the door so it will fit into the skin probably better than the drivers one did. But that is what the experience of doing it once already teaches you!

I must cut and rework the door hinge next, then hang the door for checking,
watch this space...........

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session two Wednesday

Right, I went out and toiled in the midday sun, as per mad dogs, (and I am an Englishman)

At the end of the day, or, more to the point, when I was pissed off with the heat, dust and all else, I packed it in, but have now got the last door bolted on
in roughly the right place. (In the big hole on the passengers side)

I have not bonded the skin on the door, as the adhesive has not arrived yet,
( I did not plan on using the whole 2 ounce pack of epoxy, on the first door, but that's how it turned out) so I had to order more.

Also, I have not welded the door hinge yet, but that is small potatoes, the important thing was to get all the angles correct, and the door hung, which I have done.

Looks like I might have to use two or three tons of filler on the back edge of the passengers door to get the curves to match a bit better, but that is not a big deal either, so at the end of the day, a I am a happy bunny.

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Another landmark reached, well done.

Sorry, got to go, Paul.

Post

Well, the epoxy adhesive arrived today, giving me no excuse for not using it,
so I took off the door hinge and welded, painted and replaced it, having first drilled out two more holes

I fitted the door and drilled the extra holes in that too, then took it off to have the skin bonded on.

Again, I used all two ounces of the adhesive, which worked out just about right, then clamped it up.

I am not certain that it needed quite that many clamps mechanically to suffice, but it did need that many to appease my sense of humour and presentation! (But I did have quite a few left over.)

You would not believe how heavy those clamps made the workpiece, I could hardly carry it at arms length!

I will have to leave it for a day or so, like the other one to cure and harden properly, then I can get on with making both doors fit right, filling, sanding and making them look right prior to painting.

I feel I can see more clearly the light at the end of the tunnel.......

I have been thinking that a lot lately, but it is not getting any brighter just yet.

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Hahahaha Brilliant, that made me laugh out loud.

Friday

Today I took the clamps off the passengers door, which took about 2 hours :-)

Got the other door off the car and sanded them down, trimmed all the edges,
filled where required, and then re-sanded.

In this heat, the filler went off nice and fast, I sweated well, and all the dust stuck to me, and I looked like a zombie afterwards, at that stage, I had had enough, so I packed it in, but I now have two quite presentable doors.

When back on the car, I will adjust them, then fill as necessary, to make them as near perfect as I can.

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That's a very nice job. It's a shame you couldn't skin the car in aluminium. Thinking how artists and especially hot rodders glue gold leaf to everything, I wonder how long aluminium foil would last if coated with two pack lacquer. Strangely, my spelling corrector changed lacquer to law queer. I can't imagine why stupid software developers would think anyone would need to type law queer. Funny old world.

So far I have used around 36 square feet of aluminium on the interior and other parts of the car, and a lot more will go inside for the central transmission tunnel and the sides too.

A lot of that will remain un-painted bare aluminium, so there should be a fairly strong suggestion that the car has an alloy body. Which of course is the aim of the exercise!

Incidentally, one of the companies that will build a replica similar to mine for you, starting at £60, 000, increase the price to £108, 000 if you want the body in aluminium!!

So an ally body costs 48 grand??

I should have a well presentable fraudulent car for a lot less than that!

On the regular occasions when random people ask me how much mine cost I tell them, "well, it wasn't quite a million US Dollars..."

So far nobody's challenged that rather conservative estimate.

Well it looks like a million bucks worth Towed!

Can't wait for mine to be in a similar condition.

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