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-   -   Spyder number 125 (https://madabout-kitcars.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3907)

Mister Towed 13th May 2020 17:26

Hi Slarti, gel-coat makes fibreglass waterproof - without it water can get through the paint and discolour the surface beneath.

Assuming it's a female mould, I'd give the inside a dozen coats of release wax, each buffed to a shine and left for an hour before the next, then a coat of catalysed gel-coat, followed by four or five layers of CSM once it's tacky to the touch. That should give you something that's heavy duty and weatherproof.

Good luck and welcome back.

slartibartfast 13th May 2020 20:02

Thanks guys. Most helpful. I hope to get some photos uploaded soon. An engineering guy is making up some bits for me to stabilise the steering column and mount the seat belts. More soon
Slarti

slartibartfast 24th September 2020 20:53

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Well, lockdown has certainly meant I have made a lot of progress. I, started to panel in the cockpit and in the process of making interior side panels in burgundy vinyl. I have not yet bonded the body to the frame just want to make sure everything fits first. The next job I'm going to tackle is trial fitting a wind deflector. So here's the question: Which material would you recommend, acrylic or Perspex? 3mm or 4mm and how easy is it to bend? Do I need to heat it?
So many questions, I hope you can help.

The lights and indicators work and I am about to ask my son to make up a nice wooden dashboard.

I hope I have attached some pictures.....:icon_surprised:

slartibartfast 24th September 2020 20:56

....oh, by the way, the air scoop seems to have worked well. I purchased a kit which included gelcoat. Thanks for the advice Mr T

Mitchelkitman 25th September 2020 11:12

Wind deflector material
 
I have a lot more knowledge of the options (than I previously had), due to experiencing a crack in my caravan window. When I cut and fitted the original windows (8 years ago) I used acrylic - VERY difficult to cut without it cracking! It seems the material of choice is polycarbonate, which is much easier to machine, and can even be bent cold! trring to source some (in the Covid times) is proving difficult and expensive, so I'll wait until I need to use the caravan next year. I won't be using acrylic again. I guess when (if?) shops don't need polycarbonate screen, there will be a lot of cheap second-hand material on the market, and the new product will be cheaper/available.

slartibartfast 25th September 2020 11:42

Thanks. More pictures to follow soon
Slarti

Mister Towed 27th September 2020 08:05

Nicet to see some more progress, Slarti, and it's coming together nicely.

I do like your battery location, very neat and it'll move some of the weight towards the back.

slartibartfast 1st October 2020 20:06

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Another good day in the "office". Fitted the support for the wind deflector; just waiting for the polycarb to be delivered. Will make a start on covering the side panels with the vinyl. More pictures to follow.

Mitchelkitman 2nd October 2020 10:59

Can I ask where you sourced the polycarbonate? Best deal I can see at teh moment is Screwfix or Toolstation.

slartibartfast 2nd October 2020 13:33

Try this: https://www.sheetplastics.co.uk/
I ordered 4mm not yet received product yet but will post a comment when this arrives.

Mitchelkitman 2nd October 2020 15:03

Thanks!

slartibartfast 6th October 2020 20:08

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Yet another good day in the "office" ....glued the scrim to the side panels and very pleased with the results. The self tapping screws all "seem" to line up. Tomorrow I plan to attach the vinyl. Still awaiting the delivery of the polycarb for the wind deflector.
I've now made a bracket for the choke cable and connected this up. Works well. I got one for an MGB. Starter her up again as she had not been run for a few months .......runs lovely but I expect I will need it tuned a bit.
I think that very soon I will reach the "point of no return" when I finally bond the shell to the frame ..... keep your fingers crossed.
I hope I have attached some piccies.
Any help/advice/tips ....always welcome
Slarti

slartibartfast 7th October 2020 19:34

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I can't believe the progress I'm making! Have now put the vinyl on the interior panels and test fitted them. These will come off before I bond the shell to the frame. I have tested .....and I will be able to fit these once the shell is in place. I need to work out how I am going to hinge the bonnet so any tips most welcome.
Slarti

slartibartfast 16th October 2020 19:44

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The polycarb has arrived and I'm very pleased with it. You can cut it easily with a fretsaw and it drills pretty easy with a standard HSS drill, but do clamp it down. I filed it after cutting then sanded down with wet & dry. I'll polish the edges later. Really getting close to bonding the body to the frame now. Our son has got the dashboard template to make a start on that. Started making the panels for the footwells; bit awkward trying to fit but I'm sure I'll work out something. More photos to follow idc.

slartibartfast 22nd October 2020 11:40

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With a bit of a struggle lining up the existing brackets to the new holes required I have now trimmed out the footwells. Onward and upward.

slartibartfast 22nd October 2020 19:29

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More progress.
QUESTION: when can I "trim back" these ..... I'm reluctant to cut too much off as I'm aware that I need a full chassis to get re-registered as a Sammio.
Any advice gratefully received.
Slarti

Mister Towed 23rd October 2020 08:09

Good to see some progress. As for losing the front and rear extensions, the way I understand it is that the chassis needs to be unmodified between the axles, so it's okay to cut the ends off what are effectively support brackets for a body that's no longer going to be fitted.

There's some helpful advice here, albeit written quite a while ago now -

http://www.nsra.org.uk/newforum/show...initive-thread

I'm not sure how the vehicle inspection part is being conducted now that all the local DVLA inspection offices have gone, but I believe quite a few have been done through the post recently.

Good Luck!

slartibartfast 23rd October 2020 08:40

Thanks Mr T. Most helpful. Having read through it looks like I need to be ready for an MOT within a month of getting it re-registered. Not close to that yet but I suspect I could go for an MOT in the knowledge that it would probably fail and then I could re: SORN it ....?? Just a thought but not that close yet.
Thanks again.
How's your new project going & where can I find your build/thread.
Best
Slarti

Mister Towed 24th October 2020 08:29

Hi Slarti, I think the 'MOT within a month of inspection' thing isn't really a thing. There was about nine months between my Spyder being inspected and it being ready for its first MOT. The guidance from Gary J at the time was that to have the car inspected it only needed the body to be bonded on with the vehicle commission and body number tags attached, it didn't need to be driveable or even have its bonnet fitted.

The inspection, if DVLA decide to do one, just results in your V5 being changed to reflect what the car has been altered to, so I don't know where they got the 1 month MOT deadline from. There were individual differences between regional DVLA offices, though, there's a big Hot Rod/Special building community in East Anglia and the East Midlands so our local office was used to having all sorts of contraptions presented and nothing fazed them. They just inspected what they were shown and followed the simple rules to decide what to put in their report. I understand that some other regional inspectors had no idea how to apply the rules so turned stuff away that they should have been accepting.

More recently the whole thing's been centralised and I can't remember the last time a rebody actually got called forward for a physical inspection - it seems to have become a postal exercise for the most part now, but there's always going to be an exception...

My build is progressing slowly but surely - I'm hoping to fire the engine for the first time today, but I've had a problem getting the cooling system to be leak-free. I'm on my third water pump housing now, two were cracked and this one has its threads stripped on the thermostat housing. That's the price you pay for using 50+ year old parts, though.

My thread is on the Vintage Roadster forum if you're interested, and I should be putting an update on there soon. :)

Lucky@LeMans 24th October 2020 16:07

No mention on the form about the mot. I've just done my rebody ( Z3GTC ) paperwork. Sent them the before and after photos, the receipt from Tribute and filled in the form. Sent it off along with the old V5 and received the updated V5 10 days later. The car wasn't mot'd, that didn't factor into it at all. Sending the paperwork to K and R at the DVLA speeds up the process as it goes straight to the Kit and Rebuilt department.


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