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...Okay, it's not up to pro standard, it needs quite a bit of work to make perfect - the gelcoat surface is quite pitted from where the PVA had gone on lumpy and there's a heavy moulding seam to sand out, but it's light, strong and the shape I want, so I'm over the moon!..
And over the moon you should be.
For a first attempt at a two piece mould, I wouldn't be comparing yourself to Chris @ Tribute who does this sort of thing with his eyes closed.
The key point, for me, is that you have a lightweight custom build fibreglass part.
Whereas, I'm actually driving around in the 'buck' for my car.
Thanks for your input regarding the PVA and wax release agents, guys, and before I take any more mouldings I'll be testing different techniques out before using it on the mould.
And thanks for your kind words Oxford and Paul. If you'd told me ten years ago that I would be fabricating such a complex part in fibreglass and achieving the result I have I'd have thought it impossible.
But then I searched 'Spyder' on ebay hoping to find a 718 RSK project or abandoned kit, but came across Gary Jaynes' Sammio project instead.
Since then I've learned skills like welding, making my own moulds for complex fibreglass parts and spray painting to a standard that looks quite satisfactory. Well, satisfactory enough for a serious car collector to fall in love with one of my cars and display it amongst his selection of classic Ferrari's, anyway.
So, next step is to bond the new dash into the body, blend a fibreglass bulkhead I have managed to acquire into the body and dash, then fabricate and bond in a complete floor in fibreglass to pull it all together and give the body the strength it needs.
Just had time for a trial fit of the dash and bonnet onto the main shell this afternoon, and it looks like it's all going to fit together quite nicely -
And with the aeroscreen in place you get an idea of how it's going to look and the view the driver will have -
Should be a bit more progress to report over the weekend.
Forgot to mention that I am going to be able to use the floor mounted pedal box I have on the shelf which I thought might end up too close to the driver but will actually be fine -
Thanks for your input Froggyman, glad you like what you see.
Yes, Paul, that picture does quite nicely show how the dash will blend in to the 356's structure both at the top and down the sides of the inner bodyshell.
Over the weekend I started the process of mating the dash, bodyshell, bulkhead and bonnet by adding a lip to the dash for the bonnet to sit on.
I started by attaching the dash and bonnet together with strips of aluminium and screws so the leading edge of the dash and trailing edge of the bonnet were level.
Next step was to make a cardboard 'mould' (covered with parcel tape to stop it sticking) in-situ, both to form the lip and to give a 5mm gap for a seal between them to be added later.
I then gave the mould a coat of gelcoat and followed that up with three layers of heavy duty csm -
Next morning I split the bonnet and dash and ripped off the cardboard mould to reveal this -
Dropped in place with the bulkhead attached roughly where it's going to be and it looks like this -
...and with the main and inner bonnets fitted -
I'm happy with progress so far. It's clear that once the bonnet has a seal to bring it level with the opening it'll fit over the engine without fouling anything and everything lines up nicely.
Next step is to put some effort into smoothing the surface of the dash both inside and out with it off the car, then bond and glass the dash and bulkhead into the body.
I have now fabricated the upper bulkhead to link the dash to the lower bulkhead using high-tech cardboard aided design -
It's coming along quite nicely considering I'm making it up as I go along, and it looks like it will be a pretty rigid structure once it's all glassed together.
Fabricated some brackets to take the Honda Civic alloy radiator this afternoon and it all fits quite nicely -
The space around the radiator is a luxury I didn't have in my Spyder as the straight six was mounted much further forward than this four pot motor. At least that means a lot less likelihood of grazed knuckles if the radiator ever has to come out!
Despite looking a bit tight height-wise, there's actually about two inches clearance from the top of the radiator cap to the underside of the bonnet.
To keep as much air as possible flowing through the radiator I'll be making aluminium side boards similar to a Spitfire's to seal the sides, and an aluminium undertray with a discrete scoop built into it will pull air from underneath the front and from the two MGF vents in the front valance. That and the electric fan should keep it all cool.
its taking shape well and everything looks a good fit. The engine looks small and has room looking at mine today I said that's a small gap for a big engine. You can never tell from pictures the chassis look big in reality we put it in the back of a transit with the wheels still on. stay one step a head on the mechanics so I no what to do next. lol
...I could stay one step ahead if you slow down a bit. Perhaps your fishing trip will give me time to progress mine a bit further.
One thought on how yours is progressing. I noted that your headlight buckets foul the ends of the front 'crash bar'. On mine they're sitting well below the headlight openings, just above the front valance cooling vents. As I've set my body to put the wheels at the correct height in the arches, that might suggest that your body is going to be lower than it needs to be. I'm all for the slammed look, but you've got to get an engine in there somewhere.
...I could stay one step ahead if you slow down a bit. Perhaps your fishing trip will give me time to progress mine a bit further.
One thought on how yours is progressing. I noted that your headlight buckets foul the ends of the front 'crash bar'. On mine they're sitting well below the headlight openings, just above the front valance cooling vents. As I've set my body to put the wheels at the correct height in the arches, that might suggest that your body is going to be lower than it needs to be. I'm all for the slammed look, but you've got to get an engine in there somewhere.
thanks for the tip, they do foul by about 10mm just enough to hold the bucket out. slammed it is then lol. I will get some tiers on the wheels the body dose sit low but I was more thinking by the time its got 15" wheels on it will ride about the right height to the ground. wheels should clear as they are set in a bit more. only time will tell I will order some more cutting disc just in case I need to make some mods.
Thanks Car Photographer, progress is indeed rumbling along slowly.
What I've been doing for the last week or so isn't very photogenic, I'm afraid, hence no pictorial updates for a while.
I currently have the body off the chassis and I'm reinforcing areas of the shell that are too thin or where different mouldings need permanently joining.
These include the rear 'seat'/luggage area which is only a couple of thin layers of CSM making it flexible and fragile, and the sills under the doors which are a two part moulding that I'd bonded together but needed another 10mm of CSM & core-mat to keep the door openings rigid and raise the body up a fraction on the sub-frame.
While the body's off and upside down I'm also fabricating the mechanism for the fuel filler flap and spillage tray under the rear deck.
Should get some pictures of visible progress by the weekend.
I was shocked how thin they are in places thats if its the same body fab, the reason I flipped mine over was to reinforced all the fixing points and vitals.we seem to put a lot of work in were you cant see it but still coming on and it will be worth it in the end with a better build
I love the fact that you have come up with such great solutions for this, and love the idea of a speedster thats Front engine RWD. dont know if you have come across this stuff, Thermolite, its a GRP and cellulose composite board. here they use it for bus & horsefloat floors. Its easily cut to shape with a jigsaw, very strong. the only issue is its not UV stable, so give it a coat of GRP coloured resin.
I have done some playing with it and its strong and light weight. May well be worth looking at for your floor or boot. Its also used as marine bulkheads. comes in different thicknesses from 1/2" to 1".
Its also interesting as it just glues together. If you have some flexing it also works as good reinforcing and I even made a single person vehicle chassis out of it very easily (with the help of the local CNC machine) .
I was shocked how thin they are in places thats if its the same body fab, the reason I flipped mine over was to reinforced all the fixing points and vitals.we seem to put a lot of work in were you cant see it but still coming on and it will be worth it in the end with a better build
I'm pretty sure my shell is a Banham New Speedster from the late 90's or early 2000's. To be fair, it's mostly quite a heavy-duty moulding where it matters if it were to be mounted over a cut down Rover 100/Metro body.
The engine lid and front bonnet are quite thin but will be easy to strengthen, and the only place it's really thin is the rear seating area, which I think might have been laid up by a previous owner rather than Paul Banham as it's got strips of chicken wire and aluminium sheet bonded into the corners. They're going to be cut out and replaced with CSM so I don't get any corrosion bursting through.
As you say, work put in now to strengthen what we have will result in a better built car in the long run
Progress is a bit delayed this week due to wife demanding DIY jobs be done before car, so I have some bathrooms to redecorate as I ran out of excuses not to
Hi Ozzie Dave, glad you like my off the wall idea. The body I have - a Banham New Speedster - was intended to fit over a cut-down Rover 100/Metro, which, just in case they never made it down-under, was a front engined, front wheel drive 90's supermini.
I've just taken it back in time a little with an older donor chassis, which also happens to have the correct wheelbase where the Rover 100 was about 200mm too long.
I'll take a look at the Thermolite sheet as I do want my floors to be strong and light. I do already have a large roll of core mat though (bought very cheaply as a part-used roll via ebay) so I'll probably be using that, but I doubt this will be my last build so it might just feature in another project.
DIY now finished so I've been able to make some progress on the Speedster. Nothing particularly photogenic, though, just connected up and filled the coolant system ready for the first engine start and routed the fuel and brake lines with the body off the chassis so far.
Cooling system had a few leaks - my water pump housing is cracked so a second hand one is on its way and the water outlet pipe arrangement that runs from it under the exhaust manifold is knackered so all new parts are on their way from Canleys.
I also opened Pandora's box yesterday which contained the flying spaghetti monster that is a 1970's Spitfire 1500 wiring loom. It has tentacles of many colours sprouting out randomly from the main loom, none of which seem to match the colours shown in any of the wiring diagrams in the Haynes manual. It's a good job I used to be a detective as I'm currently having to forensically analyse every circuit to establish what it's for.
I immediately discovered that I need a new alternator - the one on my engine has a four pin and a two pin connector, while the loom has a single three pin plug. Should be picking up a new MGB/Midget alternator from the MGB Hive later today, and I know it'll fit because I have one on my MG Midget (running a 1500 engine so the same mountings and loom).
Next headache is the main light switch. I've been trying to fathom out which pin does what, but there doesn't seem to be any difference in which pins connect to which between the two 'on' positions. I expected the first click to be sidelights only then the second click to add in the headlights but that doesn't seem to be the case. Anyone know what I'm missing here?
Anyway, I'll post some pictures when there's something interesting to show you, hopefully soon...
Next headache is the main light switch. I've been trying to fathom out which pin does what, but there doesn't seem to be any difference in which pins connect to which between the two 'on' positions. I expected the first click to be sidelights only then the second click to add in the headlights but that doesn't seem to be the case. Anyone know what I'm missing here?
I have that style of switch on the A352. I'll investigate later, it may even lend itself to a picture if I've left enough slack in the loom. On the Monaco I've adapted the Spitfire loom for a two position Lucas toggle switch which I felt was more in keeping.
Re. the alternator connections: I cannot fathom why your existing plug has so many? It only really needs two: one to energise it (from ignition switch 'on' position via red dash light) and one to provide the power (the two big spades are connected internally). I imagine cable gauge restraints are the reason for twin outlets?
Right. The spade terminal stations on my A352 master light switch are numbered 1-8. nos 2,3 & 5 are blind. Power is to no.1; side and panel lights supply is from no.4; and headlight supply (via relay and dip switch) is from no.8. I'd put a piggy back connector on no.4 so that I had a separate feed to the panel lights, enabling them to be turned off for 180mph blasts in the dark on the Mulsanne Straight. I'd also put insulated female connectors over spades nos 6 & 7 to prevent idiot shorts if I was ever monkeying behind the dash blind. Belt and braces always!
Thanks Mick, that's going to be very useful info. I should at least be able to make a start on wiring in the lights - I think I'm missing the relay for the main lights but it would make sense if the outlet supply from that relay was only live with the ignition on.
As for idiot shorts while fiddling under the dash, I had smoke and flame from behind Iris' (the Midget) dash when the metal wound oil pressure gauge tube shorted against a live connector and set fire to a masking tape label attached to a nearby cable on start up. Needless to say, everything in my Speedster will be very well insulated!
