Project biota, help and suggestions

[starch]

Ive been doing this little project for a while now, and was wondering if anyone has any good ideas of what should be done, or just general feedback on the project.

For those who have missed it

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/proje...nderway/70851/

I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

[Quinten]

I was just looking at that thread and thought "cor blimey, you've sure got some work laid out ahead "

Keep us updated, I love reading these project journals

[ric04vrs]

looks to be progressing very well , its quite scary what you've had to work with though , at least the "chassis" is standard box tubing which is easy to get hold of .

[starch]

I intend to keep the updates coming, but its progressing nicley. It was billed as a resoration project for the brave when we bought it, and I would tend to agree with that.
Yes the chassis is standard box section, but where it has been bonded to the body is proving particually challenging. This is apparently becasue fibreglass doesnt stick to steel so in order to bond the two together fibreglass tape was wrapped around the steel, then coated with resin, to bond the body to. So you can imaging how difficult it is now to seperate the two.

[Wardy]

Hats off to you, that looks to be an epic job

Just think of the satisfaction when you arrive at the finished article though

Steve

[TeflonTom]

you must have the patience of a saint....

i think many of us would have scrapped that, but you have persevered with it.... well done

[andy2407]

Originally Posted by TeflonTom

you must have the patience of a saint....

Not sure about that, but I do notice a lot of empty boxes of Stella in the last pic. Perhaps thats what keeps him going!

I've never undertaken anything like this myself (and to be honest wouldn't have a clue how to) but the journal makes fascinating reading. Good luck to you - keep at it and keep us updated please.

[ncarring]

It's looking good. What will you do with the fibreglass where you've sliced right through it? Do you have to thin it down and patch over the gap?

[starch]

Definatly dont have the patience of a saint. The Stella all comes from belgium, we have regualr trips there and if you take the bottles back they refund you the money so all you end up paying for is the beer, and it ends up something like 30-40p a bottle.

As for the fibreglass the car will be going back to the man who originally made all the bodies for these cars. We managed to discover through one of our serches for information that the bodies were all made by a chap called Stuart Pease who since then has set up his own fibreglass company in Rotherham, and can currently be found making bodies for Ginettas and varoius other cars.

Apparently all we need to do is sit the cut parts together, like you can see in the photo, then he will use fibreglass on the back of the gap to stitch the two pieces together to hold them in place, then the gap that remains can be filled, this can be done with normal body filler, or (the more likley appoach) it can be filled with the gel coat layer, just like all the original parts were when they were joined together in the firstplace.

That is the beauty of working with fibreglass i suppose it is a very versatile material that will allow you to be able to do things like this with no real consiquences.

[ric04vrs]

Originally Posted by starch

I intend to keep the updates coming, but its progressing nicley. It was billed as a resoration project for the brave when we bought it, and I would tend to agree with that.
Yes the chassis is standard box section, but where it has been bonded to the body is proving particually challenging. This is apparently becasue fibreglass doesnt stick to steel so in order to bond the two together fibreglass tape was wrapped around the steel, then coated with resin, to bond the body to. So you can imaging how difficult it is now to seperate the two.

make sure the steel is properly treated before you wrap the fibreglass round it , otherwise you may get rust forming under it again ( i'm sure you will do it anyway, don't know why i mentioned it really )

[starch]

Originally Posted by ric04vrs

make sure the steel is properly treated before you wrap the fibreglass round it , otherwise you may get rust forming under it again ( i'm sure you will do it anyway, don't know why i mentioned it really )

Thats the sort of thing that we will forget to do so all suggestion are good. It was originally coated with what seems to be a very hard wearing enamel. The reason that it has rusted seems to be because water has made its way in to the tubes over the years, but never got back out again. It ws amazing the number of tubes we cut and found loads of water pouring out.

[ric04vrs]

strategically placed drain holes sounds like a good idea , plus a light squirt of waxoyl inside the tubes

[starch]

We were thinking of doing that, as we have to drill some holes in the base for the aluminium floor to go in, and we will probablyspray up the ends of the open tubes when we get chance. The we just have some logistical issues with moving the car to Rotherham and back for the fiberglass to be done etc and then just deciding upon the best time to do the work, this sort of thing is half the fun though really i think.

Current issue and debating point between me and my dad is how to mount the seat and belts (which we havent bought yet), we have a good idea of the seat we want, (Click here and look for the odyssey) not wanting to really drill into the spaceframe to mount a seat or belts this then leaves us with an issue. The we are going to go for full harness belts, and at this moment in time we are looking at putting in a seatbelt bar in the back of the car somewhere to wrap the over the shoulder belts around, and I think we will be putting a flat plate in the bottom of the car to mount the seat and lap belts to. If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know.

[ncarring]

Will the whole chassis be a single standalone framework when it's finished? Galvanising would be the ultimate protection, I would think. Not sure what it would cost, though.

[starch]

It will be and it was something that we considered but in order to do that it will require us to rmove the rest of the fibreglass, so unfortunaly that will not be possible, as far as I know. Ultimately dont anticipate it getting wet very often, it lacking a roof, doors etc. So our current thinking is to just prime and hammerite the chassis prior to re-fitting the fibreglass.

At the end of the day, this car is 36 years old, has done well in excess of 100,000 miles I would guess, and lived outside under a sheet for at least the last 15 years, so it has done better than most minis.

[ncarring]

Presumably you will have to get a VOSA inspection done and a Q plate - are you involving the inspector as you go along so he can see the quality of your chassis work before it disappears under a fibreglass shell and becomes more difficult to inspect?

[starch]

This chassis already has a number plate assigned to it, so as far as I know we dont need a Q reg.

It is a good though it may be that we should involve an inspector, but essentially it is just as though it has been on a sorn for the past 15 years or so. On that basis I imagine that all it would requre is the standard MOT etc.

The other beauty of the number plate is that it is tax exampt, so another reason we want to keep it.

[storm monkey]

If you are open to sugestions for rust protection, there is a company that we use at work who can hot dip a pretty durable and incredibly thin (microns!!) protective coat. Its a very good rust preventer, and being a dip process, will coat the insides of the tubes also, you just need to make sure there is adequate drainage. The company is called Metokote, and the coating is called E-coat. The dip tank is easily large enough for a car chassis (some DB4 chassis went through there a few years ago). There contact number is 01455823874, and the plant is in Desford, Leicestershire, in the Caterpillar facility. I have no idea how much this will cost, but it is a very good process.

Phil

[KenONeill]

You may already know this, but make sure you use big plates, not just penny washers, both sides of any seat or seat belt mounting holes in the floor pan. I've seen the results of a mounting pulling through, and it's not funny for the guy it happens to (though it was funny for the rest of us watching when his "washing machine" trip stopped and he wasn't seriously hurt (closed car though).

As for moving the bits about, I think the best thing to use would be a car trailer.

[ncarring]

It has a full reg already rather than a Q? Wow - not bad for a production run of what was it - 20 cars?!