Royale Sabre - Take two!

[Amir Manzoori]

Your improvisation is second to none. Good on you Peter.

[peterux]

Originally Posted by Patrick

I like the 'torque wrench' nice work

Originally Posted by Amir Manzoori

Your improvisation is second to none. Good on you Peter.

Thanks, chaps. With hindsight (which is always a wonderful thing!) I could have made it more accurate by using a small ring spanner as I didn't take into account the weight of the adjustable but its done now.

[peterux]

Despite the cold weather, I've removed the body tub (again!!) which is now mounted on the trailer. I can now finish off the gearbox tunnel mods and prep the body tub before painting.

Gearbox tunnel by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I need to keep the body tub dry in the garage as it's prep'ed for paint so the chassis will have to live outside for a while.

Chassis under tarp by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

( Note to self: a trip to the dump is overdue )

Gearbox tunnel mods need to be bonded on this side and finished.

Gearbox tunnel by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

More next week....


...peter

[peterux]

This weeks report is a miscellany of updates but all with the same aim of getting the body tub in shape for the paint bodyshop.

Following on from last weeks update I've done some more work on the gearbox tunnel reshaping.
I reinforced the gearbox tunnel mods by first grinding back the gelcoat on the surrounding bodywork and then bonding on a layer of chopped strand mat followed by a layer of tissue. I then sanded back, smoothed out with a skim of P38 filler and then sanded smooth. It will be finished off by the bodyshop.

Gearbox tunnel mods by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

The modified gearbox tunnel jointing angle doesn't quite fit flush to the body. My original idea was to fill this gap with a closed cell foam strip but I wasn't happy about the size of the gap. So I covered the angle in parcel tape and filled the gap with body filler. When I finally fit the gearbox tunnel it will only need a thin smear of mastic sealant.

Gearbox tunnel mods by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

Another small job was to enlarge the heater hose hole to take this rubber grommet.

Heater Hose grommet by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

And the bulkhead had this rather ugly hole where the OB had cut a hole for the loom connector.

Body mods by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I have tidied up the hole by cutting a circular hole with a hole saw. An off-cut of MDF was screwed to the bulkhead to support the hole saw's central drill bit. The mounting holes will be filled and I'll fit a suitable grommet after the tub is painted.

Body mods by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I then turned my attention to the windscreen surround sides which are supported by steel inserts. According to the Royale build manual these should be painted and then bonded to the GRP frame with body filler. On my car the filler has cracked and I wanted to see if the supports were still bonded securely.

'A' Post steel by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

Close up of the cracks.

'A' Post steel by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

On the drivers side I had already removed the door hinge, so I cut out the filler with a plunge cutter multi-tool. The filler was really soft and came away easily. When I finished cutting out the filler, which only took about 5 minutes, the steel support fell out.
The bond between the steel and GRP had completely failed!!!!!!

'A' Post steel by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

Here you can see the very little bonding used by the OB.

'A' Post steel by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

And the bond between the 'A' post steel and the back of the hinge box had also failed.

'A' Post steel by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

This photo shows where the windscreen surround steel bonding has failed.

'A' Post steel by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I'm thinking of using something like Tiger Seal to re-bond the 'A' post and windscreen surround but I'm open to expert advice


Hopefully more updates next week....

....peter

[Paul L]

peterux – Hi Peter,

I’m certainly no expert, but based on the advice of others on here, I bought some bonding paste from Glasplies.



This works with a catalyst, in a similar way to fibreglass resin.

This was a test piece I did to stick metal to fibreglass and it was rock solid.



I used the bonding paste to join my bodyshell to the inner framework.

But I also used Tiger Seal to close any small gaps that were left.

Hope that helps, Paul.

PS
Not really sure why I haven’t posted on your thread before?

As it is a very meticulous build with great attention to detail and problem solving.

Good luck.

[peterux]

Hi Paul,
many thanks for your feedback, but I had a 'free' day today and the weather was quite mild so I was keen to crack on whilst my motivation was high.

I found a couple of tubes of this stuff in my 'come-in-handy-one-day' box and a quick check on the manufacturers website confirmed it was suitable for bonding GRP to steel (amongst many other things). I can't remember why I bought it but its seemed to be suitable so I've used it on the first side.

Polyurethane Adhesive/filler by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

The first side is setting over night so I'll see how strong it is tomorrow.....


....peter

P.S. I've watched your car building and I'm amazed at what you achieved on a slopping front drive. It's a great looking little car, well done!!

[MartinClan]

That stuff looks idea as it remains flexible once cured (according to the data I read). One of the main problems and causes for failure when bonding disimilar materials is their different expansion rates so a flexible addhesive has got to be a good bet.

Cheers, Robin