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 Post subject: Ways to mount the body
PostPosted: January 25, 2019, 5:42 pm 
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Joined: December 27, 2018, 9:17 am
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Hello, everyone I was wondering if there are any good book or article that go over the different methods for attaching a typical enclosed car composite body to a tube frame. I know some of the most common methods are the ones typically used in dragster where the epoxy weld plates to the body and weld tubes from that to the body or just rivet the body on to tubes attached to the tube frame but I am curious to see other methods my apologies if it seems like a stupid question.


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PostPosted: January 25, 2019, 11:03 pm 
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Joined: January 31, 2012, 12:49 pm
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Location: Louisville KY
I pretty much asked the same question here a couple of months ago. Lots of helpful guidelines (ie, make sure the 'glass is thick at the mounting point" but beyond that, no secure things. Plates on both sides of the 'glass riveted together looks like a secure idea... just ugly.

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PostPosted: January 26, 2019, 8:43 am 
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Joined: October 6, 2009, 9:29 am
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Location: Tallahassee, FL (The Center of the Known Universe)
I have some fiberglass/foam composite panels and some aluminum pieces. On either one, I have used "sidewalk bolts" and "clip nuts" to attach them.
Attachment:
Body fasteners.jpg
A piece of angle with a nice big hole in it riveted to the frame or an "extension" (piece of aluminum tube) works with a clip nut. The nut clips into the hole (Hmmm... Is that why they call 'em clip nuts???) and provides a rather solid mount with some wiggle room. The big flat head "bolt" (Looks like a screw to me...) goes through the panel. That wide head spreads the load, doesn't protrude much. You can paint 'em if you like, but they're not gonna be invisible. Mine is a track car, not a beauty queen to begin with, so I didn't worry about it. Your mileage might vary...

There's also "Terry Spring" latches which are popular with the sports-racer crowd. I don't have a picture, but you can google 'em up for a look-see. Seems like I got mine from Pegasus.

Another option is the "Slidey Latch"... Sorry, don't remember the right name... I used them on the panel beside the driver that covers battery, fuel cell and such. They look like this:
Attachment:
7 13 13 Slidey Catch.jpg
Again, not invisible, but they're easy to open/close and rather small.

Last, but not least, the ol' "Draw Latch" from your local hardware store. Cheap, easy to find, easy to mount, not invisible worth a damn, and subject to criticism from people who have never built a model car, much less a real one... "Hey, that looks like the latch on my tool box!" "It might be, you better go look at your tool box"...
Attachment:
Draw Latch.jpg


And that's my .02... For you, No Charge!

:cheers:
JDK


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PostPosted: January 26, 2019, 9:41 am 
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Warp,

It sounds like you are looking at ways to mount an existing body without doing additional glass work or transferring loads through it. In that sense it is much like mounting a thin steel fender to a heavy chassis or a glass scuttle to a locost:
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtop ... 7927#17927

The idea is very low clamping pressure spread over a large, supported area. Bonding direct makes future repair from accident damage a hassle to where you might want to start over instead. If you have no flanges, bonding to an intermediate flange that will bolt to the chassis would work well. Doubled, “jamb” nuts are better than self locking nuts in that they hold better, don’t wear out, and cost much less but the bolt must be longer for two nuts. You can use half height nuts for jambing to save weight and space.
If using rivets on glass, they should be 1/8 or thinner shank, have rivet washers under the head and have an aluminum stem for lighter clamping.
Bodies are usually supported the full length of the rockers with deep glass ribbing/bulkheads or steel firewalls/bulkheads rising to meet the glass.

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PostPosted: January 27, 2019, 10:03 pm 
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Sorry for not explaining better what I am trying to do. I have an old fiberglass mini body that I am currently building a tube frame for and I am trying to come up with a way to mount it to the chassis without it being noticed like to look as close to a steel normal mini as possible.


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PostPosted: January 28, 2019, 4:11 pm 
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Location: central Arkansas
I'd like to recommend this book: "How to build your own Supercar: The Essential Manual" by Brian Thompson. https://www.amazon.com/How-build-your-o ... B01MUC1X9I

The author bought one of a set of "Super Cars" built for an advertising campaign by a British commercial bank. It looked really good at 20 feet... but everything below the paint was a cobbled-up disaster. He wound up doing pretty much everything - mounting the body securely to the chassis, panel alignment, cutting and finishing hatches for access to minor bits like the engine and master cylinder, legal lights, window recesses and gaskets, doors with proper hinges, jambs, latches, and weatherstripping, wheel wells, wiper mechanism... all the not-fun bits that get glossed over.

Bear in mind the car had done its photo shoots and was technically driveable when he bought it; all the subsequent work was to bring it up to the level of sophistication of, say, a 1984 Yugo, as opposed to "sleazy 1970s VW body kit."


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PostPosted: January 28, 2019, 7:26 pm 
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Warp,

post some pics of the inside of the body and we can provide some ideas on mounting and support.

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12


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PostPosted: January 28, 2019, 8:36 pm 
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Joined: December 27, 2018, 9:17 am
Posts: 5
hopefully the photo works
Image


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PostPosted: February 3, 2019, 7:12 am 
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Anyone else got any ideas? :cheers:


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PostPosted: February 3, 2019, 9:01 am 
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Sorry I missed your post. If you are willing to do some fiberglass work, I suggest urethane foam ribs with 3 layers of heavy weave, then drill and fit rubber well nuts or riv nuts along the inside face. Bolt steel strip to these nuts, then build your chassis out to these strips and tack weld them on tot he chassis, remove the body, then final weld.

You can find urethane foam to make ribs from at a home improvement store (insulating sheathing with an aluminum face) in various thicknesses and use polyester resin.

I drew very basic support ribbing. If you have door latches, they should tie into the ribbing or be part of the chassis

If you do not want to do any glass work, steel tube with rivets on the outside will work. Soft pull rivets, washers, and lots of rivets to spread the load.

There are special high density epoxy boards you could glass into the body for hard points. One type is called G10 board. You can buy premade ribs to fit.

Composites and monocoque structure are huge subjects so be specific as possible when asking questions.


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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12


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PostPosted: June 6, 2019, 11:01 am 
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Location: Rome, GA
I'm planning on an almost total FRP body and when I was in the air national guard the people in structures would epoxy a stud with a flat base onto the bulkheads since you weren't allowed to weld the bulkheads. They worked flawlessly. I'm planning on doing this on all my panels except the back and nosecones. FYI look up fiberglass studs. They are dirt cheap.

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PostPosted: June 6, 2019, 12:31 pm 
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You definitely need to purchase KB58's Kimini book who did the exact same thing with a carbon fiber Mini body.

http://www.kimini.com

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PostPosted: June 9, 2019, 10:10 am 
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Location: Rome, GA
rx7locost wrote:
You definitely need to purchase KB58's Kimini book who did the exact same thing with a carbon fiber Mini body.

http://www.kimini.com

I'll do that! Had no idea that he did that as well!

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