New Stylus RT owner! Let the fun begin!

[stylussprinter]

Ross , you appear to have cut away all the inner body rising to the bottom of the screen. This is where the front body , just in front of the screen gets bolted onto that inner body . Also the sides of that inner body must be bonded to the outer body , just by the doors .

Has the previous guy done this or you You'll have to replace it or the body will be a jelly

[PuppiesBalls]

Not to worry mate, She will be stronger than ever when I have finished with it!
The fibreglass work was terrible, there had been no prep work so it all peeled off so easily! its all going to be redone properly, I built a speedboat with a relative last year so have a bit of experience with fibreglass

[stylussprinter]

Sounds as though I needn't be telling you how to ' suck eggs ' Just worried you weren't aware of the original construction disguised by the bad glassing you've found

[PuppiesBalls]

No worries mate! when its back together I will pop down to see you so we can get it handling as it should!
Ive got a spare standard ecu for it now so in the wet months I can plug that in, turn the boost right down and have 160 bhp rather than 300 which should be safer!

[norma]

jeez whoever 'built' that must be very ashamed.
Good on you for rebuilding it properly though - a heart-sinking job I imagine!

[stylussprinter]

jeez whoever 'built' that must be very ashamed.
Good on you for rebuilding it properly though - a heart-sinking job I imagine!

The first owner/builder was a guy named Hooper and he got it put into a magazine article . I imagine purely on it's crazy power and yellow paint job. Then after that , it was rebuilt/painted by the guy in the Midlands(shan't name him ) who advertised for work,builds or rebuilds on kit cars , in both kit mag's .

[Alex H]

Note to self- seriously research whatever car i buy. At least the new owner seems to know what he's doing and will get the car back into ship shape.

[PuppiesBalls]

Here is the progress from the last few months..


To start with, Here's a few pics of the crap removed from the car

Left, the mass of electrical tape, literally everything was taped up, & on the right a spaghetti of wire!

Here's some pieces of fibreglass, aluminium & various other sh1t which was riveted, bolted or stuck to the car!

Next task i set about was to make a new firewall,

I started by making a flat piece of fibreglass by covering a piece of polycarb panel with release wax then covering it with

numerous layers of both chopped strand (CSM) and 3 layers of woven roving's to add some nice strength,

once I had my flat panel I then cut it to shape & trial fitted it,
here's it is held in place with some tape,

I also added a small strip the width of it to the bottom

I then stuck a strip of tape underneath so the resin didn't drip all over the car & glassed the 2 pieces together

I then removed the panel from the car & added extra re-inforcing layer of fibreglass on the inside edge

After that I prepped the area for glassin by grinding the old joint smooth

After that I measured up the holes & matched the new fibreglass panel to them.
Then smeared tiger seal all along the bottom edge popped a few rivets in place

View from the inside, All nicely sealed

[PuppiesBalls]

Next task was to glass the firewall in,
Here you can see i thinned out a strip either side of the joint ready for a layer of woven rovings

And there she is, fibreglassed either side

Along the top,

And inside all along the top & sides too, Thats not coming out any time soon!

& here it is after a lick of paint

[PuppiesBalls]

Carpet & seats were removed

Biggest job to date...New dashboard!!

Making the plug....

Started by making a wooden top peice & cardboard front peice, then bonded them together,
Then added a drivers pod using ply & foam

After a few coats of filler

Then added a brow to shade the dashboard from sunlight & also the gauges from reflecting on the screen at night

Brow complete, Decided to make a cut out to aid leg clearance,

Back of the leg cut out

All cut out

After around 5 kilos of filler & a rediculous amount of sanding,
The finished plug

[PuppiesBalls]

Once the plug was finished I made a mould of it

I then pulled the first dash out of the mould, it was actuall quite a nightmare getting the dash out of the mould, took me a good few hours of hamering wedges into it, swinging & wrestling with it to get the bastard thing out!

[stylussprinter]

Bloody well done Ross , looks as though you're probably the best guy at making moulds from all of us With your ability we'll be suggesting complete body shells soon ---- well perhaps hood rails anyway I have the only spare hood rail waiting to be copied

[Antnicuk]

that is some very clever workmanship, you a re certainly dedicated. Can i ask why you made a fibreglass bulkhead instead of fitting something like a sheet of ali?

[PuppiesBalls]

that is some very clever workmanship, you a re certainly dedicated, can i ask why you made a fibreglass bulkhead instead of fitting something like a sheet of ali?

Thanks mate, its prooving quite a task but will be worth it in the end,

Fibreglass seemed the obvious material to use, everything that Its bonded to is fibreglass & a fibreglass to fibreglass joint will be far stronger than fibreglass to ally,
Also as its the same/similar material it will flex, shrink, stretch etc similarly to the body of the car,

As a rule of thumb, when aluminum is used for building 1mm for every meter in length must be allowed for expansion due to the change in temp, The bulk head would be subjected to significantly larger change in temperatures than an building panel so would expand considerably more, the expansion would cause stress on the joint & 'could' cause it to break

[Antnicuk]

I used a sheet of ali for mine as the original fibreglass was full of holes. I just bolted the ali over the top as a bit more heat and fire protection as turbo rotary engines give off lots of heat and the exhaust runs in front of it. Beingn bolted it doesnt seem to have any issues with expansion.

Keep up the good work, what do you have planned next?