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Old 03-11-2021, 05:31 PM
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galderdi galderdi is offline
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Default Aussie Aluminium Spyder project start

I picked up my chassis last weekend. since then I have been doing a lot of checks and planning. As expected I will need to massage the body design to fit the chassis. But nothing too drastic.

I had already done a mock up of the door jam to check how the hinge would work and the resulting gap. It was only a mock up so I didn't spend time to get a perfect finish. It certainly did the job.

Now I have used the same mock up clamped to the chassis to check how the dimensions line up. I already new I would need to stretch the body slightly. But it turns out I need to shrink the width and height slightly too.

Now that I know what I am working with the next step is to build the buck. Originally I planned a fully plywood buck. But my latest thinking is to do some lengthwise supports in plywood then a small number of cross wise slices. Then I will bolt wire buck pieces to the plywood. This will enable me easily remove sections of buck as I am working. The plywood will ensure the buck shape is at the correct height from the floor and ground.

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Old 03-11-2021, 05:39 PM
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This is what I am trying to achieve. Except mine will need to have pods behind the occupants to pass registration.Name:  Factory-copy.jpg
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Old 03-12-2021, 08:37 AM
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Kerry Pinkerton Kerry Pinkerton is offline
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Neat project Greg. What are pods? Headrests? Perhaps you can make removable headrests that would get you legal?

Your chassis looks like a modified LoCost (Lotus 7). Is it?

My suggestion after 15 years (not full time of course) building my roadster is to not take shortcuts with the hard buck. Much of my time has been because of lack of a hard buck to show symmetry. Because of my rush to get to the shaping, I shot myself in the foot...many times.
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Old 03-12-2021, 05:10 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kerry Pinkerton View Post
Neat project Greg. What are pods? Headrests? Perhaps you can make removable headrests that would get you legal?

Your chassis looks like a modified LoCost (Lotus 7). Is it?

My suggestion after 15 years (not full time of course) building my roadster is to not take shortcuts with the hard buck. Much of my time has been because of lack of a hard buck to show symmetry. Because of my rush to get to the shaping, I shot myself in the foot...many times.
Thanks Kerry,
The pods are just covers for the roll bars. The headrests will be mounted in the front of the roll bars and pods. The head rests are too obvious to make removable. I would get pulled over in an instant without them. I'm not too worried anyway as my car will not be a true replica.

My original plan was to use a locost. But there were a few reasons why I didn't proceed with that option. One, I didn't have access to the engineering test data so it would have cost about $5000 extra. It doesn't have the right dimensions to suit the spider body.

The chassis is from the locally built Sunshine Coast Sports Cars GTZ. It is built under agreement from the original UK Sylvia J15.

Yes I am beginning to realise the buck may require more effort than the rest of the car. When you say solid buck do you mean solid wood with no gaps between stations? That is the holy grail but not really achievable for me. From what I have seen wire offers benefits and tends to give good results. I am using 8mm rod so it will be solid enough for a few slaps with a slapper etc. But I will be making the stations around 100mm apart so it should be sufficient to achieve consistent contours? Does this plan concern you? I am here to learn from the group's experiences.
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Old 03-12-2021, 08:36 PM
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Greg: if you haven't found this thread yet, I'd suggest you check it out: https://www.allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?t=18557

The buck for the car you're building should be much simpler than the Miura buck but I'd still recommend having it cut on CNC machinery. The accuracy and side to side match will be much better than a hand cut buck. After now having a good station buck for Miura project, I'd say it raises the quality and speed of the work greatly. In my opinion, well worth the expense.
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Old 03-13-2021, 03:52 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by heinke View Post
Greg: if you haven't found this thread yet, I'd suggest you check it out: https://www.allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?t=18557

The buck for the car you're building should be much simpler than the Miura buck but I'd still recommend having it cut on CNC machinery. The accuracy and side to side match will be much better than a hand cut buck. After now having a good station buck for Miura project, I'd say it raises the quality and speed of the work greatly. In my opinion, well worth the expense.
Agreed but where can I get the data to drive the cnc? In fact even if I had it I would still struggle as I need to massage the body to fit my chassis. I'm not worried about it being accurate. If I can't see an issue then it isn't an issue. I am a beginner so I am more worried about door gaps and how to achieve the finer details.
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Old 03-13-2021, 03:55 AM
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I finished my wire bender. This will make it much easier to build my buck.
This loop for the headlight panel took about 8 passes and about 15 minutes.

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Old 03-13-2021, 07:21 AM
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Greg, I lost the long reply I had just typed so this one won't be.

Two types of bucks mainly, eggcrate (station bucks) and wireform. Search the site for more info.

There is a guy on Instagram/Facebook that's been around a while.

http://kitcarik.ru/

He gets data for the bodies from hacking into video games like Grand Theft Auto. While the cars look great on the screen, I'm sure they are not 100% accurate. The printer files for FULL SIZE station bucks are $100 us. You can take the file to a larger printing company and have them printed full size. You then glue them to plywood, MDF, OSB, etc, and cut them out using a reciprocating saw.

Buyer Beware!!!!!!

1 - this guy is in Russia and there are lots of hackers in Russia so take necessary precautions. Sorry for sounding like a zenophobe. I'm not but the reality is the reality. I wouldn't walk into a lions den in a meat suit or walking around south Chicago

2 - the data is not going to be 100% correct so be careful as you proceed that you don't end up with an expensive cartoon car.

3- the guy has been around at least a year and I've had email conversations with him. He's not pushy.

4- all that said, for 100 bucks, it might be a start since you're not building a true replica. I probably would if was not 15 years on my own project that needs finishing.
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Old 03-13-2021, 12:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kerry Pinkerton View Post
Greg, I lost the long reply I had just typed so this one won't be.

Two types of bucks mainly, eggcrate (station bucks) and wireform. Search the site for more info.

There is a guy on Instagram/Facebook that's been around a while.

http://kitcarik.ru/

He gets data for the bodies from hacking into video games like Grand Theft Auto. While the cars look great on the screen, I'm sure they are not 100% accurate. The printer files for FULL SIZE station bucks are $100 us. You can take the file to a larger printing company and have them printed full size. You then glue them to plywood, MDF, OSB, etc, and cut them out using a reciprocating saw.

Buyer Beware!!!!!!

1 - this guy is in Russia and there are lots of hackers in Russia so take necessary precautions. Sorry for sounding like a zenophobe. I'm not but the reality is the reality. I wouldn't walk into a lions den in a meat suit or walking around south Chicago

2 - the data is not going to be 100% correct so be careful as you proceed that you don't end up with an expensive cartoon car.

3- the guy has been around at least a year and I've had email conversations with him. He's not pushy.

4- all that said, for 100 bucks, it might be a start since you're not building a true replica. I probably would if was not 15 years on my own project that needs finishing.
Thanks Kerry, it sounds good.

What I have done is a 3d scan of a scale model. Again I don't expect a model to be accurate. But it is good enough for my purpose. I have then sliced that scan into hundreds of slices. Although I'll probably only use about 40. I had planned to have them printed. But I was worried about getting the scale correct to ensure the body will fit the buck. Now I figure I will use my computer and projector to get the image either on to plywood or to match wire contour. The scans include a grid which gives a consistent scale. I just need to make sure the size of the grid is the same every time I create a station. I did a small scale mock up of the buck using paper. It worked well. But I had 50 stations which is too many. I didn't do the doors completely as each station is just a repeat. It looks a little rough, but that's because the paper is flimsy so it doesn't stay in the intended position.
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Old 03-13-2021, 01:26 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by galderdi View Post
Agreed but where can I get the data to drive the cnc? In fact even if I had it I would still struggle as I need to massage the body to fit my chassis. I'm not worried about it being accurate. If I can't see an issue then it isn't an issue. I am a beginner so I am more worried about door gaps and how to achieve the finer details.
Greg: My Miura is 105% of original so I chose to have it 3D modeled in the larger size prior to making the station buck. I outsourced the modeling and station buck design to a guy located in Brazil who does this as a profession. Information about this is in this post: https://www.allmetalshaping.com/show...&postcount=169

After he modeled the station buck in CAD, he provided me the CNC instructions to have the station buck cut. I had a local CNC router place do it with the files Dan provided to me. This all may sound expensive but I found the costs to be reasonable especially now in hindsight where the station buck provides me measurement information and templates for making the inner substructures that will hold the body panels.
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