Body work part 7

A nice fine day and daylight saving allowed me to get a couple hours of work in on the RattyT. I now have to create a base place spacer to lift the body 8mm over the center cross member plates and the strengthening plates used by the z at the rear of the chassis.

First step was to bug my neighbour to help left the body off so I could start on the under plate.

I used the old floor to get the rough shape of the new base plate and jigsawed it out. The base plate is 9mm marine plywood.

First trial fit, pretty good, I clamped it in place and marked where I needed to make way for the cut aways to allow it to sit flat on the chassis.

Left over bits

Ready to cut out the spaces where the cross members protrude above the chassis height.

After numerous fits, heres the plate screwed to the floor for a trial fit back on to the body. After a couple of tries and some readjustment it fit as it should.

Next step will be to tidy up the plate and then glue it to the floor.

Body work part 6

So I got the body back on for the first trail fit. Everything is pretty good, I have to trim the fibreglass body at the rear as it hitting the chassis and its not allowing me to line the body up properly, but apart from that its all good.

All the clearances around the transmission are good, will do some minor alterations, But is a good fit. And the body is so much stronger that it was before, there is very little flex, theres still some but that is due to not having the front where the sub frame is, tied in to the rest of the ribbing and top rails that I have put in. That will change once I have everything finished on the interior.

Shes back from the engineer

So after a 3 weeks away RattyT is back home, with all the work done required to keep working.

Steering box mounts.

Mig welding of the rest of the pedal box and the extra body supports.

the extra cross member under the oil pan

So now I can actually start putting it back together. The only outstanding engineering part that need to be sorted is the steering. But I need the body on and everything finished before that.

Body work part 5

The top rails to the body were glued in on top of the ribs. The super no nails goop sure is strong.

Once the glue had cured for a few days, full strength is after 7days, I started on the steel sub frame for the steering, dashboard and instruments to mount to. Once I cut and bent the upright I made some feet, this is where it will be bolts to the chassis.

Getting the fee in the right place and held ready for welding

The passenger side done.

Both legs done and the top rail all welded in, and test fitted. I will have to wait until the chassis get back to make sure that the feet sill be over the chassis to bolt too. I may have to change the a little once the body is back on the chassis.

Test with the seat, thats how low I am waiting it in the body. it will be 25mm higher and I need to run some steel rails underneath to be able to bolt it to the chassis.

Test sitting in with the new seating height. As usual with Tbuckets not a lot of room.

Finished for the day.

Body work part 4

So after getting some more liquid nails this evenings job was to glue in the plywood ribs. I ran a large bead of glue down the center on the back of the rib then place into position. Then I ran two corking type beads down either side. This should give a really good bond and it gave a nice curve for when I also fiberglass over the ribs.

The next step will be be to glue and screw the top rails in place. I will do that once the glue on the ribs has cured.

Body work part 3

Just a veryquick update. I tried using one og the liquid nails product to glue the plywood, After a test, I decided to use that for all the wood gluing. I also tried it gluing the plywood to the fiberglass. It bonded really well. And since is a lot cheaper I will used that for the rest of the bonding.

Below is the trusty bandsaw with all the off cuts from the make of the ribs

Starting the gluing of the double layered top rail. After the glue dried is was super strong.

Body work Part 2

So after sitting and head scratching and reading on the interweb I finally bit the bullet and got stuck into the body work of the RattyT.  My first task was to create the back plate for the internal wood frame.

This is all been done in 18mm marine plywood for its strength and resistance to water / rot.

Marking out the shape of the back plate.

Cutting out of the back plate with the use of the trusty skill saw.

Next was to cut out the ribs that will be used to creat the inner wood frame, that will be fiber-glassed to the glass body.

I have gone back and forward on the best way to do this, and have tried a few ways, but finally decided to have the ribs stick out perpendicular to the body, not flat as shown above.

Next search was for a good sealent / adhesive to glue the plywood to the glass body, to hold in them in place before fiberglassing and to add much needed extra strength. After a fair amount of research I settled on Silkafix227. Its a polyester adhesive, I did a test shown above to make sure that is was going to do the trick.  After letting it cure for 48 hours I could not pull the plywood off, I had to use a chisel to wedge it off. As you can see it ripped the plywood before the adhesive let  go So was pretty happy.

Next I needed to create the front firewall plate. Once again made out of 18mm marine plywood.

Test fitted and trimmed to be a snug fit, ready to be glued in.

To give the back plate some extra strength I added places where I could screw the fiberglass to the back plate while the glue cured. I think Ill leave them in place once the whole thin is done. not sure yet.

Time to just do it and start gluing things in, So after a good spread of the wonder goop the back plate was place in the body and screwed on to place.

Next the process was repeated for the front plate, I also screwd that in place using the firewall holes already in the body.

now that the front & back plates were firmly hold the floor in place I was able to lift the body and start the gluing of the floor. I ran a large bead in gap on the undersid first and also screwed the floor to the firewall plate.

Once the bottom side was don the process was repeated on the top. Then a seam run around the firewall plate and around all the floor body joint. After that I left it to cure for a day before continuing to work on the internal framing.

This is my jerry rigged level tool, to mark the height of the internal ribs.

After marking the spaces for the ribs on the floor it was time to mark and cut all the ribs, this was a long process as each of the 20 + ribs had to be cut to shape. Since there is not one straight edge or line on the old fiberglass body. The process involved marking the rib with a vivid by running it down the body to draw the curve on the rib, then cuttung the rib on the bandsaw and then fine tuning the fit. 

Progress on the drivers side

The ribs done on the drivers side with the double layer top rail getting test fitted. Now I had to repeat the whole process on the passenger side. Its going to be a long process to get the body all sorted.