More bodywork notes

 Since the weather has been absolutely shocking here, it's forced me to do some more theory instead of practical. Here's a few notes.

For outriggers, the main bar will be bonded to the bodywork, in general the view is that it's more than strong enough as long as it's done according to the instructions. I could use rivets or screws as well, but the way the bodywork works I think they would be visible. 

The outriggers will need some sort of bolt mechanism for easy removal. I did think about this initially, but it does seem to be a good idea for lots of reasons. A quick discussion on LCB suggests 6mm bolts will be fine. The plan will be to weld the triangulated sections on to the chassis, then bolt the beam/bodywork on the end. I've still not decided on the best option, I suspect something in double shear will be the most sensible. 

Behind the seats there will be a filler panel. I did think about wood for this one, and it turns out the Tiger GTA also uses a wood panel. The only thing will be water absorption, so if I do go for wood it'll need a fair bit of sealing. But I also need it to be securely fixed to the chassis, so at the very least it'll need to be skinned with metal to provide a solid fixing. 

The boot is looking quite promising, this should also be skinned to make a usable area. More aluminium, rivets and bolts as required (I'll make the entire boot removable). 

For the sides, the initial thought was to 'sweep' up from the edges of the chassis up to the bodywork. But thinking about it, that makes things very claustrophobic. It would be better to go for a 'side pod' arrangement, basically a shelf from the chassis out to the bodywork. This is a great example from a Sylva Fury;

(I think I've taken photos of this car before, I remember feeling that the aluminium corner trim looks really nice). 

This should be fairly simple to do, although it will need more aluminium. The original panels were from the Metal Store, although I have no idea how expensive it might be now!! I might need to raid my existing stock for leftovers, which will inevitably mean steel rather than aluminium. 

The support for the bulkhead will need to be curved steel, something like an inch wide and maybe 2mm thick. This will be supported from underneath and welded to the car, then I'll figure out some other fixing to attach it to the bodywork. 

In the meantime, I have some runners and some leatherette to fix to my seats.