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Go Back   Madabout Kitcars Forum > Mad Build Area > Sammio Builds and discussions

Sammio Builds and discussions Sammio bodied car builds and specials

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  #81  
Old 6th May 2012, 20:38
Nick59 Nick59 is offline
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Default Better progress

Well seem to have made a bit of progress this weekend and another day to go
Floor pans are all repaired and a bit of seam welding to give me another half inch on the tyre clearance, rust treated and primed.

before
Also got the petrol tank bolted in and connected, bolted the rear frame and corners....not a bad fit at all

Also thought I would drop the engine and gearbox back in to settle the suspension prior to bolting it all up....put the brake lines in and ran fuel pipe through....facet electric pump to come

Also got a BMW mini 1 handbrake for a fiver on ebay....thinking I am going to mount the plate on the underside as low as I can go...it seems to have a centre pull so hoping I can connect in a straight pull without the fulcrum thingy?

Floorboards cut ,sealed and primed


...think I deserve a bottle of wine or two as I am now knackered
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  #82  
Old 6th May 2012, 21:06
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Looking good. Enjoy your wine!
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  #83  
Old 6th May 2012, 23:05
Nick59 Nick59 is offline
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Hic thank towed...2nd bottle!
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  #84  
Old 10th May 2012, 16:53
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All looking good Nick, did you do much on the monday? Or did you have another bottle of wine?
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  #85  
Old 29th May 2012, 13:10
Nick59 Nick59 is offline
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Can`t believe that nearly three weeks on from last post I have not got much further on....mind you I did manage to sneak to Barcelona for the Grand Prix Everything is now ready for the body bonding to begin Gravicol is ordered for Friday delivery and NOTHING is going to stop me getting it bonded on whilst Queenie paddles the Thames apart from all the beer festivals that appear to be on! Hopefully next pic will be with the tub on! then to attempt the first DVLA inspection in Kent! quickly followed by a trip to Gary and his inspector inspector when ive upset my local one !
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  #86  
Old 4th June 2012, 21:23
Nick59 Nick59 is offline
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Default Body trial fitting

Ho Hum.....having watched others doing their cuting and shutting...its now my turn.......here is a little picture montage of where I am at....currently scratching my head as to whether I am just about there, or whether to cut and shut abit?



Didn`t think it looked too bad...but not sure on a couple of things......



Not sure I can do anything about this? I measured the centre of suspension to bulkhead and they are parallel....strangely one wheel is tighter to the bulkhead than the other and you will note the bottom cill projects further one side than tother....The tub is tight back against the frame member (note G clamp.
On the inside the frame is about 6mm from the tub lip whilst the other is about 50mm? The front trays has about 80mm gap behind..... so I am thinking it might be a bit high although I have cut the corners off the frame and the centre tub sits down tight on the bulkhead......So whilst the rear wheels sit in the same position both sides I would have liked to set the body further back to centralize a bit better? can`t do this as the tub is tight against the hump frame rail. Cills tuck under chassis on passenger side and "most" of drivers side although I might have a further tweak as its not tucking under at the front?
Something is out on the suspension chassis although the frame was a bloody good fit with little to alter.







Like the look of the wheel line in the arches.....just need to weld some knives onto the spinners





Comments greatly appreciated....as this bit has me most worried about whether I am on track?






l
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  #87  
Old 4th June 2012, 21:41
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DOESN'T LOOK TOO BAD TO ME NICK....You are definitely getting there....

The bodies aren't totally universal due to 'peculiarities' on each car....you say the wheel is closer to the bulkhead one side compared to the other ...have you checked your wheelbase measurement ? We built a car for a customer last year and couldn't get it right , after hours of going crazy , trying to work out what we had done wrong , I measured the wheelbase and it was about 3/4'' out !!

You may need to cut that cill overhang off , if you can tease the body back a bit more even better ...we have clamped one side before and pulled the other because the bodies have parallelogrammed whilst sitting about ...if you do that make sure you fix or clamp the rear in place and then re-centre the front to avoid the body being too far over one side...
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  #88  
Old 4th June 2012, 21:55
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Thanks Gary, yep I am pretty pleased so far, just wish i could spend more time on it.
I will have a further little tweak before I commit to the bonding paste. The rear dimensions all sit pretty square and the rear wheel dims in the arches are about a match with each other....so if it looks about right I will bond it....Still tempted with the chrome wrap.....Also now realize that the 15" wheels make a difference.....Its quite a leg over!!! Cordite for me before too long
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  #89  
Old 4th June 2012, 22:11
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I'm afraid there's only one solution when you have irregular gaps above the wheels - slam it onto the deck! Do it. Do it now!...
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  #90  
Old 4th June 2012, 22:28
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Just make the wheels as centred in the arches as you can make them and be happy with that!
I'm an IT bod by day and used to things being right or wrong, and it wasn't until I talked to Gary on my inspection trip that i realized that there is a third state of "near enough"

my experiences of talking to others over the last year, no 2 of these donors are anywhere near identical so just get yours right for you.
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  #91  
Old 10th June 2012, 23:06
Nick59 Nick59 is offline
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Default More haste less speed or look before you bond!

Well as others have said, you can only look long enough before the big decision to bond and having thought I had got it just about there....the day of bonding cometh!

Straps ready and ratcheted? and paste and glass in hand and this is where I got





Was generally quite happy with my work.....Until realization took hold....that little alignment that I thought would be just a trim back on the cill line


All looks fine

Other side



Not only serious bulkhead bashing to do (yes it is sitting square) but there is no way the wheel is going to run past that shutline.....Unless someone would like to tel me otherwise I am in for cutting the panel and shunting it all back?

Then I looked at the top


not sure if you can see it but the far end kicks right forward! so I have definately got an alignment problem.

Bugger! its bonded and glassed
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  #92  
Old 11th June 2012, 00:28
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Nick,
What about cutting through your glass and bonding down the left hand side and pulling the body back into position, now the right hand side is fixed you may get enough flex to align it all?
Would be better id have thought than cutting a section out from the front.
Pops
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  #93  
Old 11th June 2012, 07:44
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Ooh, bad luck. Did both sides line up on your trial fits? Is the rear face of the cockpit straight across the top of the frame or has it slipped forward on the nearside? I hope you find a simple fix for this one.
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  #94  
Old 11th June 2012, 08:25
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NICK , CLEARLY SOMETHING IS WRONG ....Its very difficult to say what the issue is without seeing the car ....our bodies do run out a bit on the pass. side , but it doesn't normally create an issue like that ...all the bodies are from the same moulds , so they cannot change , all the cars are slightly out one side , but yours is puzzling ....

Sometimes an unfitted body can parallelogram a bit whilst sat around , depending on how it is stored.....we fit one side , clamp it and then tug the other into place when we do ours ...

I think you may have to do a bit of corrective surgery like tlrtone did on his body , but you may want to check your bonnet alignment first ...

You can cut and fix this area even though its bonded on if you haven't fitted the end caps yet....
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  #95  
Old 11th June 2012, 10:36
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Thanks for your comments,

It all looked sort of right everywhere, although the difference between the suspension and wheel to the bulkhead is concerning, as driver side plenty of clearance, passenger side tyre is rubbing the bulkhead? The bulkhead is square to the chassis and if I had moved it back to clear the tyre, it would have made my current situation worse!

I trial fitted the bonnet for alignment and I rekon passenger side needs to come back a good 2".

I know I am not sitting square with the frame rail at the hump....hump is tight against the frame and runs out about 1" so need more than that. Can`t go any further back driver side as I am already sitting tight against the frame rail?

Looking at the rear arches, if I pulled the body any further forward the wheels would touch the rear of the arches



From the rear, all looks like it is sitting square and I am happy with the body sitting where it is.

Am thinking this car will be good at going round left hand corners!

Think I will need to sit and ponder a while before I start any cutting as with the amount of bonding paste I used I dont relish cutting through it!!!
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  #96  
Old 11th June 2012, 11:10
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It may be the angle the picture's been taken at, but to me it looks like your nearside rear wheel is too far back in the arch. That would explain the front of the body being too close to the nearside wheel. How set is your bonding paste? I'm aware that it can take a few days to go off fully, depending on how much catalyst you add (if any in my case!) and it might be worth seeing if you can separate the body from the chassis now and have another go if it isn't aligned properly. Good luck.
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  #97  
Old 11th June 2012, 12:28
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Nick, it sounds exactly like mine, so I would say that you may not have anything wrong with your body or your chassis.

The side rails on mine needed widening at the rear to sit under the body (and have space to put the ply side panels under the lip), and the rear frame was not square with the back of the cockpit on the body.

The first bit was rectified by cutting and re-welding the side rails. I did mine with the body off though which did make life easier. You could try and do it with the body on, or even cut the rail and then make up a bracket that can be bolted in - it is purely a strengthening rail so bolting it would be fine.

the rear frame was a minor issue in my mind as I just cut and trimmed the plywood panel at the rear to fit and then made adjustments with the final filler and bonding paste, so no major trauma.

The front wheel arch looks exactly as mine did and I too pondered a while over a few evenings. The outcome was my cut and shut story, that is on my thread, and actually I think it turned out better for it! You can get the bonnet to line up and fit, so don't panic over that. I am still not sure why the body fitted like it did, I took many measurements and diagonals and in the end decided that I would fit MY body to MY frame and MY chassis and this meant minor adjustments to all of them! The overall results is very good and even though things are not 100% square or a mirror image from side to side, it doesn't really matter in the overall scheme of things, people WILL NOT notice!

So don't pull you hair out trying to decide where the error is, just satisfy yourself that you have no major chassis twisting by taking diagonal measurements and the bulkhead is fitted correctly ( you can't really get this wrong if the bolt holes line up!) and then just make a plan to adjust the body to fit.

Take a deep beath and get your marker pens out and plan your cuts. Remember that it is only fibreglass and the worst that can happen is that you make a wrong cut and have to add more fibreglass or cut it and do it again!

Good luck!
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  #98  
Old 11th June 2012, 13:20
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You're not the first to need to make "adjustments" after things were bonded in place! Tips from my experiences would be to do a lot of thinking befpre making any cuts but as soon as you know what needs doing then get the 1mm cutting discs and just go for it!

Best of luck matey, it is worth it in the long run!
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  #99  
Old 12th June 2012, 13:57
Nick59 Nick59 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tlrtone View Post
Nick, it sounds exactly like mine, so I would say that you may not have anything wrong with your body or your chassis.

The side rails on mine needed widening at the rear to sit under the body (and have space to put the ply side panels under the lip), and the rear frame was not square with the back of the cockpit on the body.

The first bit was rectified by cutting and re-welding the side rails. I did mine with the body off though which did make life easier. You could try and do it with the body on, or even cut the rail and then make up a bracket that can be bolted in - it is purely a strengthening rail so bolting it would be fine.

the rear frame was a minor issue in my mind as I just cut and trimmed the plywood panel at the rear to fit and then made adjustments with the final filler and bonding paste, so no major trauma.



The front wheel arch looks exactly as mine did and I too pondered a while over a few evenings. The outcome was my cut and shut story, that is on my thread, and actually I think it turned out better for it! You can get the bonnet to line up and fit, so don't panic over that. I am still not sure why the body fitted like it did, I took many measurements and diagonals and in the end decided that I would fit MY body to MY frame and MY chassis and this meant minor adjustments to all of them! The overall results is very good and even though things are not 100% square or a mirror image from side to side, it doesn't really matter in the overall scheme of things, people WILL NOT notice!

So don't pull you hair out trying to decide where the error is, just satisfy yourself that you have no major chassis twisting by taking diagonal measurements and the bulkhead is fitted correctly ( you can't really get this wrong if the bolt holes line up!) and then just make a plan to adjust the body to fit.

Take a deep beath and get your marker pens out and plan your cuts. Remember that it is only fibreglass and the worst that can happen is that you make a wrong cut and have to add more fibreglass or cut it and do it again!

Good luck!
Thanks for the comments: I think it is the thought that I am missing (or screwed up) something obvious, as I could not believe my luck (or Garys spot on frame) that everything lined up even to the extent of bolt holes into the original door hinges...I have studied your thread and will now attempt corrective surgery....watch this space
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  #100  
Old 12th June 2012, 14:41
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Perhaps that's the problem - if your chassis lines up with one of Gary's frames without loads of hammering, levering and swearing, then your chassis must be out of alignment.

My frame was a nightmare to fit and yet the body looks like it's going to go on relatively easily, with the only mismatch being where the body doesn't quite fold under the outrigger at the very front of the driver's side.

I do hope you find a simple solution to the issue.
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