Okrasa Special

[911hillclimber]

That's it then.
I have to say a great take on the car 'in period' and I'm sure the next big debate will be the colour...

Until we have to wait for that merry-go-round, we all look forward to tin-snips, wheels and dollies.

So envious!

Just where do you start?

[Barry]

At the beginning .

No, actually here's the plan for the next few stages:

1) Return to the workshop in a week or so, and put in an approximate second side, just enough so that we can see the width of the bonnet / boot areas, and get a feel for how the cabin will be from the inside.

2) Fit suspension bits (Ian), so that we can start to wheel it around at the correct height, and also test for wheel-to-wing clearances.

3) Wheel outside and double double check proportions, plus get some decent pics (this is where we'll re-surface in something plain).

4) If above all O.K., go back through roughed out wire-form, and turn it into a combined ply / mdf / wire buck, complete with accurately (hopefully!) duplicated sides and features.

That then completes my 'Phase I'

Phase II (assuming Steve is happy for me to continue at this stage) is to form the outer skin, and also modify the scuttle and rear deck to accept the new bodywork. This phase basically will get the car looking as though the body is complete, although in fact the skin will merely be hanging on the buck, and there will be no structure underneath it.

Phase III: This part puts the structure underneath the skin, so clamshell support frames and bulkheads, headlight support assemblies, door frames, A-posts, sill attachments, engine cooling ducts, oil cooler ducts, inner wings where required, door gaps etc etc.

In terms of percentage, I've not worked out each area this way, but would guess that Ph1 would be 30%, PhII 37% and Ph III 33%. To put it another way, I reckon the buck is just under a third, and the inner structure is going to be very nearly as much work as the outer skin.

As for colour, we've got something in mind, but it depends on quite a few issues . Bottom line is that we almost certainly won't know more for a year or so on that one I'm afraid, unless Steve wants to comment before. Suffice to say, we're aiming for something suitably period.

As for refections Bruce, I think we're working (hoping?) on the priciple that if it looks fine made out of old paper, bits of wire and some masking tape, things will probably pan out O.K. in the metal. Certainly the fundamental shapes should ping the light around quite well I should think.

[steve wright]

my attitude to painting the car has always been that you wouldn't put clothes on Rachel Welch if you had the choice, seems a shame to cover up all those lovely lines... so we might leave the body in bare aluminium and let it "mature" over a winter outside. Barry is understandably nervous about this as it takes the metal finishing to a whole new level. plus then we have the issue of what to do with the steel roof. i've a few ideas on colour schemes but as always I'm open to ideas!

[tim78]

That would look amazing


Well done to all involved. Really enjoying the build

[Ferry Man]

That will complete my 'Phase I'

Looking great Barry. All good so far, excellent progress.

Frankly, I thought this was going to be a 'Mike' paced job but it's racing ahead.

So, is it to be alloy bodied? Obviously it should be really.
I don't know why but I thought it was going to be fabricated in steel - because of the existing roof, I guess.
How do you work with that join? (between roof/body & alloy/steel).

[Gary71]

Shiny

[911hillclimber]

That's an interesting schedule Barry and proportion of time.
The thought of doing it in steel would scare the hell out of me, and bare aluminium would have me leaving the Galaxy...

At a much lower level to this car, but framing my Lola to support the clams was surprisingly easy, but tedious getting it all to fit time after time removing/pivoting the parts without damage.

Has anyone sat in the bodied car yet to check visibility etc?

To the roof/body interesection, I would think that could be bonded with a modern adhesive? This would stop galvanic corrosion and be water tight.

Time to fill the auditorium and watch the event.

Fab, and thanks to all those getting it here for us.

Graham.

[Barry]

That would look amazing


Well done to all involved. Really enjoying the build

Oh yes, thanks That should be pretty straightforward

The trouble with a metal - finished body is that every single minisule graze, welding hiccup, wheeling mark, hammer mark etc etc is there for all to see. To give an example, even if you get a tiny bit of rubish on a hammer, it'll tranfer onto the work. My coachbuilding chum / mentor has a very small mark in the upper wheel of his English wheel. That mark gets repeated all the way down the panel.

This all assumes that the actual body is perfectly straight, and that every weld is blow-hole free, that every gap is spot on etc etc. The counter to this is that we are going to use (in the main) 16g, which is thicker than a full racing car would have. This gives me some margin for wheeling and welding, and more to the point, has a little safety margin from the point of view of denting.

With 16g, if we do indeed go for the metal finish, there's quite a lot there that can be hit with the bodyfiles, blocks and then DA. Then it would be a case of polishing the thing right up, ready to mellow back down again.

Bottom line is that we'll give it a bash, keeping the metal-finish option in mind, but we've got a back-up plan that would still be appropriate and show off the fact that the car is in aluminium.

[Barry]

Paul / Graham, yes it is in aluminium. Personally I'd have no issues with doing the same shapes in steel: it's less buttery than ally, and tends to be a bit more progressive in the way that it moves. Hammerforms need to be very sturdy of course, and I've got great plans for hammerforming some detaily bits and bobs later on.

Against that, ally is a bit kinder on the hands and joints (nowhere near as hard to move), and certainly takes wheeled in shapes much, much quicker.

Overall though, the priciples are about the same.

As the steel-ally interface issues, the idea is to cut back some of the scuttle and tonneau, and then add a fairly deep swage (step) to them. We'll have some sort of rubber / canvas gasket type thing going on top, and then the clamshells will drop onto this. Obviously there'll have to be locating pegs etc, but that's the basic principle of that area.

As for doors, I've got in mind to have steel A-posts to take the door hinges, but ally door frames. Ally B-posts and sill tops. I'm guessing there will be some sort of cosmetic 'outer A-post' in ally. That then leaves the sills: I would think some fabricated steel supports coming out from the chassis, and then ally from there out.

I'm sure we'll end up doing quite a lot of research into the best way of mounting aluminium up against steel. No doubt the DDK family will come up with various solutions. My own personal leaning is that I'm guessing we'd want whatever solution to look period correct if possible, even if the reality is that a modern solution has been used / hidden.

Lots to think about, but I'm in big project mode: don't look too far ahead other than a rough scan of the horizon, otherwise just concentrate on the next task or two ahead .

[911hillclimber]

Study a Bird Cage Mazza?
http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/pic/295/ ... ge_29.html

[Bruce M]

full polished alloy body?

madness

Perhaps a couple of polished features like gumballs on the doors would be a backup.

Mind you with a polished body and a black roof the visual effect would lower the apparent roof line.

[Barry]

Yes, or at the very least, a silver body with black roof would look quite nice.

We'll see, I'd love to be able to say that I'm confident of doing a metal-finished body, but I've been involved with an Austin Seven single seat racing car (I did all of the curvy bits: nose, tail, headrest etc), and at one point we thought we might just polish it up. Oh my word: how much extra work . We quickly gave up .

Nevertheless, this is a bit different, and I'm certainly keen to give it a go. In effect it's a whole extra process, but you would need to start off with panels that are fundamentally straight enough, and without too many significant blemishes.

Steve's been very good, and the way we left it was that we would kick off aiming for a metal finish (which would then add a 'Phase IV' to the above list), but if it turns into a real millstone where every small mark and mishap turns into either a disaster or a scrapped panel, we'll go back to the paint option, but leave plenty of bare metal (inside of doors, headlight cowls, vents etc etc), so that it's clearly an ally body.

Busy getting the current 911 on it's final approach for the next weekend, but hoping to sort the remaining side before or over Chrismas, plus the surfacing in something plain.

BTW folks: it did occur to me today: I wonder if there's some silver paper I could get hold of? Industrial quantity of wrapping paper perhaps? It would need to behave like the newspaper.

Either that, or just do the plain white newspaper blank, and ask our Photoshopping chums to turn it silver .

[sladey]

Can't you spray the newspaper?

[Barry]

No, Steve tried that. It's safe to say it didn't go very well . To be fair, he suggested it to me, and I said it should be fine. It wasn't.

What happens is that the paint acts as dope (for you tissue / nylon wing-covering model aircraft folk), and tightens the paper as it dries. That would be quite good if we were using big single sheets of paper, but all it did was curl each individual strip, which then exposes the un-painted surface underneath.

TBH, not a great look .

[911hillclimber]

Best ask the techies on the computors to colour it in i think, in silver, in red, in blue, in ...so that the colour debate can get going.

At work I find getting new products names or colours takes longer than design, tool in China, test and ship!