298 replies to this topic

[gingerjon]

On the underside, i'm hoping it will line up something like this

 

Hinge position on the inside.

They may need som foan on the side nearest the window, but based on angles, i think it will clear it.

 

Small amoutn of product placement for BOT

[gingerjon]

Some measuring up later with the hinges on the topside for ease.....got me to here......

[gingerjon]

Which meant there was only one thing left to do.....

 

And with all the Dremel skils of a no armed monkey.....i set about slicing up a good few £££'s worth of GRP investment

Ignore the 3rd roll bar i have bought.....

 

 

 

So this is the plan :

 

Obviously some serious trimming required still.

 

Then i will attempt to work out how to fibreglass too!!! I have ordered all i need so hopefully will be able to crack on over the new 2-3 weeks and start bringing it from many pieces....to one!!

[gingerjon]

Last Sunday me and a friend of mine made the long trip north to Kippax....An 11 hour round trip to collect a Tiger Kit car he had bought (He was building a Locost.....started to build a house, forgot the locost, got scared at the amount i had done and cheated to jump ahead!!!!) After selling his unfinished project we trundled up, picked up his new one and trundled back.

 

Whlist putting it in the workshop it meant my car saw the light of day for the 1st time in about 2 years i think.....shameful!!!! This was suposed to be a "Quick Refresh!!!!" Bugger.

I think the engine weight missing means the rear sits fairly high

 

All this rolling the car out got me a little frustrated that i had faffed around so much and not finished it yet. However, i did make one major decision......I was off to buy a 911 last weekend and seeing the remnants of my VX out in the sunshine has given a new lease of life and stopped the purchase. The Vx will be Quicker and have less miles than the 911 i was looking at so why would i not just finish this 1st!!!

 

I can feel a cash injection coming on and maybe, the dammed thing may actually get supercharged soon rather than me just talking about it!! A lot of work still to do....but the as long as the A6 keeps on trucking, i'll put the cash into the VX and the 911 can wait. Not for long though

 

 

[FLD]

Looking like some good progress after a brave pill was taken!  Looking forward to seeing it done (just ordered some of those hinges myself)

[Nimrod]

A quality read.. please keep up the posts.  

 

Thoroughly enjoying watching your progress.  Great work...

[Graeme Lambert]

Inspirational stuff mate. Keep it up - and hurry up and finish the hinge arrangement so I can copy it

[gingerjon]

Cheers Guys, I'm jetting off on holiday Friday so there won't be an update for a couple of weeks i'm afraid. I'll get on it when i am back though, 1st job is to sort the front edge of the roll bar cover so it fits, then attach the 2 together.

 

Once done i'll be able to line the "inner" piece up with the existing holes.

 

I have ordered some 5mm Alu sheet to make the supports for the hinges out of and will end up fibreglassing over the top of all of it to keep it rigid. Just need to make sure it adds no hieght to the then new roll bar!!

 

Meanwhile, i'm still buying bits i don't need yet.....but hey, i will need them EVENTUALLY so whats the difference!!!

 

J

 

[gingerjon]

After a cheeky week away in Spain, it was back to the grind.....or cut as it turned out :

 

Having worked out what i needed to do, i just cracked on trimming and cut down the edge of the new roll bar top and the OEM seal from the old roll bar cover.

Everything looked to be going well.....until

I have cut too much off both sides meaning there was a massive gap on the sides.

I also noticed it wasn't sitting right on the rear part, it seemed to be too low and would need a lot of spacing before it would fit.....

 

Knowing i would inevitably cock the job i was preppared, i took out my 3rd roll bar cover, a shiney blue one this time and set about starting again and not making the mistakes i had just discovered.

 

I cut the front lip off so i could use the OEM seals for the soft top as originally planned. Then removed the inner skin as before to use on the coupe rear section i cut out.

I left more of the front edge on this time to help with the height when i place (Mainly because i knew what i was doing this rime and didn't just attack it with an angle grinder!!) 1 delicate Dremel cut later and some heat gun and chisel action and i was back in business.

You can see the maount of extra material i left on this time compared to last

 

[gingerjon]

It would seem the chaps at Vauxhall never thought that anyone would need to seperate the skins onf the roll bar covers to use for something else and decided to use an extrordinary amount of the gunk/glue/adhesive on them!! After a good 20 mins with the heat gun and chisel, all the exisiting fixings and the gunk was off and it was in a much better state

I bought some new "Big Head Fasteners"....not cheap are they!?!?!.....to fix everythign in place

I'm going to fix them in then use som 5mm Alu sheet and fibregalss over the top for extra strength.

 

@ FLD : I'm not sure that there needs to be a new box section made, there are 2 layers of thick GRP and the Alu SHeet and the adhesive and fibreglass. i think the way it lines up with will be stonrg enough so may save a job...??

 

It lines up much better now and at the right height, it even provides a handy intake for the air to direct into the the throttle body when i do it

 

 

[gingerjon]

Hinges in their proposed position

Just taped in for now but you get the idea

I was always going to lose the "Top Vent" of the coupe section to enable me to fibrelglass in some of the Alu Sheet to strengthen it. I may also need some carbon tube bonded in to help keep the shap on the coupes section as it sags (As mentioned before) with out any support

 

View from above.....hopefully....

 

 

SO next step is to start bonding things together, and cutting the sheet, then fibreglassing over it......new territory for me but hey, what isn't these days!!!

 

[FLD]

Great progress!  You might want the hinges wider apart if you can to give a better supportive mounting to the coupe back.  This will stop any wobble which may make the sides touch the rear clam scratching the paint.

[gingerjon]

Yeah, I thought that when i did it. Once i have cut the vents out i'll be able to line it up better and then hopefully spread the hinges further apart where the vents used to be! Honestly though, its pretty solid either side of the middle section which usually goes under the brake light, once bonded, with Alu and fibreglass i think it will hold well enough.

 

I may need an "inner" skin section of the OEM boot though to add to the rear coupe section now for strength.

Edited by gingerjon, 29 June 2014 - 08:36 PM.

[Sticky]

  I may need an "inner" skin section of the OEM boot though to add to the rear coupe section now for strength.

Not sure you'll be able to get the 2 apart

[gingerjon]

I have the "Knowledge" now!!

 

If i cut the front "Lip" off, i'll be able to get the heat on it and use the same prising method as the roll bar cover.

 

Thats what i'm telling myself anyway......

[techieboy]

Why wouldn't you just cut the boot lid in half at the front bulkhead line and bond that to the hatchback (sorry, can't refer to it as a coupe). Then you retain the OEM boot release and have a watertight boot still.

[Graeme Lambert]

Why wouldn't you just cut the boot lid in half at the front bulkhead line and bond that to the hatchback (sorry, can't refer to it as a coupe). Then you retain the OEM boot release and have a watertight boot still.

 

Agreed, that was one of my original plans (though I'm happy with an aerocatch, I would like to have a sealed boot).

 

G

[gingerjon]

I may well end up doing thing, need to sort the forward edge out 1st for the hinges, then work out the best way to seal the boot. if i get a spare bootlid to mess around with then i may well be able to trial fit the back end too.

 

Bonding the rear part of the boot and the "Hatchback" part won't be easy though as its all at different levels. would need serious fibreglass work or a box section put in to get the spacing correct.

 

I'll leave that for next week

[gingerjon]

So Next week quickly became this week and off i trundled again.....

 

Still working on the rear bodywork at the moment and continued today with some good progress....i hope!!

 

New roll bar cover was the 1st job. I trimmed the edges which would be joining togerther first of all, then held them together with a bit of good old Gaffer Tape to keep the shape.

I had bought some small 19mm L shaped alu bends to add some extra strength to the join.

I spaced them out and tiger bonded them into place as a starting point.

 

As per last weeks update i have been trying to work out how i would strengthen the rear part for the hinges to attach to. Cue the 3rd thing bought from Douglas VAaley Breakers in 2 weeks.....they must be seriously wondering what i'm doing with bootlids and roll  bars!!

After some heat, screwdrivers and an hour of swearing, i managed to split to skins :

 

I have cut the "Boot" part off and will look to bond this to the rear of the coupe if i can get it to the right level i can then use the OEM boot lock.

 

 

 

[gingerjon]

With the bits seperated i can start to see how it might actually come together

The hinges should line up somewhere near here which means some dremmeling required

 

For the skin from the boot lid, i need to remove the exisiting brackets and make some new ones out of the Alu i have already bought.....this is the point i realised i had lent a friend of mine my angle grinder.....schoolboy error. The brackets would have to wait till next week so i removed the OEM Plates and drilled a couple of holes in the fibreglass to test the theory

 

Again, with the power of Gaffer tape....i tried to put everything into position

 

Now at this point on NOTHING is measured or fixed in correctly. so if it looks wonky, out of place or not right then it probably is. its all just held in place to test. i'll put it all in properly when all the little jobs are completed.

 

 

Cardboard tube is optional......