ultra low cost hood...anyone interested?

[madmaninshed]

Hi,
I have been waiting for a hood maker to make me a new custom hood for my stylus. They are a good company, but are fully booked until the end of May. Being the inventor of the Skroatbag - a device either to transport wet windsurf sails/anything wet or mucky, or to keep clothing etc dry in a boat or open car, I have access to heavy duty plastic seam welding equipment.

I have tried inserting hood fasteners to 1000 gauge polytough plastic, and to my surprise they seem to stay put very well indeed. The next step is to buy some very heavy duty tinted plastic (light blue in my case) and make a new hood. It will not need a rear window, as you can see through the material quite well, and will be supported by the roll bar, plus one hoop that I have made. It should be light and airy inside too.

This will be an "emergency hood" rather than one to use all year round, but should be quite durable and quick to put up. It will cost a fraction of the cost of a normal hood, and once a pattern is made, a new one can be knocked up easily. If anyone is interested, let me know, and I'll post pictures of results.....should be a laugh if nothing else!! Now you know why I'm known as madmaninshed

[madmaninshed]

First prototype. I know..it looks crap! The seam welder I have has massive jaws, and I can't get into the small areas I need to weld. The reinforcing plastic around the poppers works well, and can probably be made out of fewer pieces, which will look neater. The hoop support needs re-shaping to keep the sides sealed against the side screens, and additional seals are planned. The front is taken over the glassfibre support and velcro is used. This works very well allowing adjustment, and the bolts through the top of the screen surround clamp it tight. I have tested it at up to 60 mph in the dry.....and it is still there I need to get a new welder, but am certain it will all work well. Any colour 1000 gauge material could be used. I tried the light blue as it is just about see-through. The car does feel pleasantly light inside with the hood up. Once welded properly it should look a lot better, and a clear window can be welded in. You can see through it reasonably as it is, but not brilliantly with rear view mirror. In materials it will probably cost about £15....which beats the £450 quoted for a real one......if you can stand the laughter!! better keep the day job

[stylussprinter]

Do you recon the hood would stay on the car at 80mph ? Also I see the hood is on the inside of the sidescreens so presumably the water would pour into the floor/door skins ?

[madmaninshed]

Hi, Once the tension is in it....possibly, but personally I would think that about 70 would be a safe limit. There will be more pressure from the hoop (or maybe 2 hoops) to hold the sides of the hood tightly to the side screens. I was going to design mine so that the passenger gets in first, and an extra flap is sealed outside the passengers side screen by the driver. He then gets in, and there will be a couple of self adhesive velcro fasteners on to the drivers side screen, and another flap. It should be quite water-tight....hopefully being dry on the inside

It doesn't exactly look the dogs bxlloxks yet.......there again speaking literally....but heh it's just an emergency quick fit hood. With a bit of time and a new hand held heat sealer, it could definately look far better, in a number of colours including transparent, and even with a transparent panel in the back. Going to have to sort it quickly though. The car is up for sale - at last going to build one myself. It has a full tonneau and a half tonneau if the hood fails

[Werner Van Loock]

It's looking good.
I'm certainly interested as I won't have a hood. I will be building a hardtop for it, but for the meanwhile a low-cost hood like this one could do.

BTW, didn't you build this stylus yourself? What will you be building when it's sold?

Werner

[madmaninshed]

No, sadly I didn't build mine, although have almost re-built it over the last 18 months. There are only a few very minor things I still wanted to do to it. It has a lot of grunt with the big valve vitesse V8 and puts a smile on my face in a few seconds, and is more fun than the Caterham 235 Evo I had before. My dream has always been to spec and build a new car and have the chance now. Hoped to keep the Stylus while I did it, but space (and funds) don't allow. First choice would be to build a new Stylus, but they have stopped making V8's, so am looking at the Sylva Riot with a type R honda v-tec engine. As a first build it looks very simple with no doors, no body panels to spray, and I quite like the look of it somehow. Over 200bhp in 470 Kilos?

I'll let you know how the hood goes. Regards, Paul.

[stylussprinter]

What you need is an RT without doors(single skin fixed)and a flip bonnet and left bare alloy/carbon ? That's your ease of build sorted then what you need is a 2.3 lt Duratec sorted to 280 or even 320 bhp which would give you 210 to 220 ft/lbs of torque. That's your power/torque sorted so you'll not miss the V8 grunt . Being alloy it's so much lighter too and could easily be 600bhp per tonne . Come on , stay with the SSC !!!

[Werner Van Loock]

Hey Paul,

I agree with rob on this one. What does a Riot has to offer compared to a stylus?
1. It has no boot (the engine is there)
2. It has no looks (even cycle wings at the back)
3. It has no hood and I don't think it is even possible
4. No windscreen (or a very little one), so start thinking about a helmet if you don't want to pick flies from yer teeth every ride you make

So even if you stick with sylva just make sure you get a mojo, it's much more of a car compared to the riot, but still nothing compared to the Stylus

Werner

BTW Rob, I've put your page from the doingitinstylus site under competition tab on the site

Werner

[hearbear]

do what I did order a stylus for the pinto and then decided to fit an RV8 it did not take much to modify to get it in. the hardest part was the pedal box removal and rebuilding. you could get Tim to leave these parts of and assemle the tunnel and pedal box your self

[madmaninshed]

Thanks guys.....doing some soul searching....if in doubt do nowt....

[stylussprinter]

Thanks Werner ,
I'll be out testing at Goodwood on June 6th p.m. half day at £100 . That will be the first time out in the car since Oct 2005 sprint at Lydden on 29th ! I'm busy trying to mount quad lights to make it legal for M.O.T. but it's going to be tricky clearing the tyres as I've lowered the car so much over the past 3 years , cutting out 30mm of fibre glass all round and extending the arches to cover a 40mm wider track. You name it and it's been changed at least twice , shocks , springs , wishbones , rocking arms , uprights etc etc plus rear similar changes !!!
I'm seriously thinking of getting it log booked (passed by a scrutineer for racing) if I can't acheive the lighting plan . That would save me taxing and insuring/m.o.t. it every year. Would save around £500 a year ! Then I'd have to enter it into class D9 which is anything goes , slicks/wings/no lights/any engine size etc etc but it will mean being in competition with the big boys with powerfull cars weighing next to nothing. In other words --- out classed !
If anyone fancies a day at Goodwood , free entry , watching some varied machinery buzzing round , it would be nice to see any of you.

Rob.

[madmaninshed]

would love to come and watch.....but it's a tuesday and I need the day job. I'll see if an afternoon off is possible....or perhaps I can visit some customers in the Chichester area.

[stylussprinter]

would love to come and watch.....but it's a tuesday and I need the day job. I'll see if an afternoon off is possible....or perhaps I can visit some customers in the Chichester area.

Be even more fun if a few Stylus's showed up at GOODWOOD , nice PR for Tim ssc ?

[madmaninshed]

I went to Goodwood recently to a Sunday breakfast meeting of one of the classic racing/sports car clubs....was so busy looking at the cars that can't even remember which club. I took the stylus...the only one there compared to about 15000 Cateringvans. There must have been a few hundred people there, and a big queue for breakfast, so we went to a Little Chef. From GT40 replicas, to Lotus Elans, to E-types, Morgans....it was all there. There was no racing which was a shame.

[stylussprinter]

I went to Goodwood recently to a Sunday breakfast meeting of one of the classic racing/sports car clubs....was so busy looking at the cars that can't even remember which club. I took the stylus...the only one there compared to about 15000 Cateringvans. There must have been a few hundred people there, and a big queue for breakfast, so we went to a Little Chef. From GT40 replicas, to Lotus Elans, to E-types, Morgans....it was all there. There was no racing which was a shame.

I don't mind a bit of tyre kicking but I'm getting a craving to get back inti the car after watching Button testing today at Silverstone. I clocked him 3 times at 80 sec's , absolutely on it !!!

It's just 35mins away from me and free !!!