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Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....

plasticfantastic Part of things Posts: 294	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....plasticfantastic @plasticfantastic
	Dec 26, 2011 14:40:01 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Hi all, I thought it was finally time to share my projects with the wider community as I have been looking through all your projects for years now. I hope this thread is ok with the mods, as I hope to have multiple cars in the same thread as it will be easier for me to keep it upto date. I'll give you a rough idea of what they are and if you want more I will start moving some info over from other forums. This is the first one..... This is a custom F40 body my father and myself have been building for around 9 years now. its now sitting on an s3 Lotus Esprit chassis and the next step is to start on the floor pan and mounting to the chassis. Project 2........... This is my 1968 mk3 Davrian ex race car from scotland. she needs alot of work but I was looking for one for around 10 years before this turned up down the road! Project 3...... This is a 1976 Image FF2b 1600 forula ford, its a joint project between my father and myself. Its not quite in classic ff spec as it was used for hill climbs. Comments good and bad always appreciated Cheers
	Last Edit: Apr 10, 2015 20:23:07 GMT by plasticfantastic

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recarouk Yorkshire and The Humber Posts: 435	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....recarouk @recarouk
	Dec 26, 2011 15:13:47 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	your either extremely clever or clincally insane either way, i love them all. good luck to you chap


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les509 Part of things Compulsive collector Posts: 526	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....les509 @les509
	Dec 26, 2011 15:38:53 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	All 3 float my boat. Pity I wouldn't fit in any of them!
	61 Jaguar Mk 10 67 Austin A60 Countryman 69 Morris 1300GT 77 Triumph 2500S 84 Mk2 Granada Ghia Est 86 BMW 635 CSi 87 BMW 635 CSi

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plasticfantastic Part of things Posts: 294	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....plasticfantastic @plasticfantastic
	Dec 26, 2011 16:16:38 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Cheers guy's, i guess that means i should put some history up then! sorry if some of it doesnt make sense as its pasted from another forum....... This project was originally started by someone else, with an alunimiumn 308 shell and modified from there. The project was then abandoned after several years and lay dormant in a shed until i got wind of it. Once aquired i set about making a set of mouldings from the moulds i now had filling my shed, this is what i had..... Close but still a long way to go! So what we had was a shell with 308 windscreen and door glass fitment, and a nice front end but all 4 wheel arches needed a lot of work along with remaking the rear end, spoiler and uprights, sills, and all the vents!, but still a good start!. The rear end was the first thing to attack. First i re-attatched it to the body then set about lengthening it, changed the rear curve, fitted rear screen, made and fitted all 16 vents, then the uprights and aerofoil were made.... Which left me with something looking like this... Then it was back into the shed to work on the wheel arches, sills and the uprights on the front of the sill that meet the front end.... The some primer to see how it was looking This is about how far it got upto last year, next step is to remove the rear from the body and make all the returns and rear cab window. Also have to finish the interior tub that is about half way through the plug stage... Almost all work done to the rear end was done from guess work and measuments from pictures, so the actual shell is 2 inches wider, 1 1/2 inches longer and an inch lower than the original 8) Plus with the body and interior being only 2 pieces panel alignment and fitment should be much easier later on. Very late on into this project the opportunity came up to buy an original rear end along with a set of LM molds, which i did! So far has been very useful for internal ducting, inner arches, dash+pod etc... Also currently laying up an LM front end to see how far it is from fitting my body. Some of you may have seen these moulds on ebay a year or so ago when my father thought of selling them?! When i was able to put the original rear next to my own, i was shocked to see how poor the quality of the original was, wavy and not symetrical! but it is 20 years old. comments appreciated Cheers I managed to get a couple more hours into the LM front today, now have most of it layed up and fitted an inner arch lip on one side....(sorry for the wide angle pics, hope they make sense?) Also started to make some vents off my rear bumper to fit to the wing tops on the LM front, although still unsure if i will fit them, not all had them. Hopefully sould be done laying it up tomorrow and will be able to pop it out of the mold on thursday! Also starting to make plans to drag the body+rear plug out of storage and start working towards starting the molds, you have all re-ignited my enthusiasm for this long project! I'll sort through my older pics and put a few up shortly. Cheers Few more pics for you of how the front is progressing, popped the inner arch lip mold off the left side of the LM front today and cleaned up the join ready to be bonded over. Also had a little plat with the inner arch to see what the fit was like, then bonded in the inner arch lip on the right side. Cheers With the interior of my car being one piece that is fitted all around the inside of my bodyshell, which is 1 piece with screen surround, roof, cab windows, sides and sill's all attatched, i don't have much room for adjustment. Although that isnt to say that the shell alone couldn't be used over any chassis/fiero. I will be producing a full set of moulds so all panels will be available later this year. The wheel base of my shell is around 98.25" The RH arch lip is all in now and finished laying up the front skirt and vents today so hopefully will be finished laying it up tomorrow once the carbon is on. Sorry no pics today but i'll get some tomorrow. But heres a few other random pics of other part ready for this build... These are the uprights ill be using, not machined yet. My father has also used the fronts on his 4age Morris Minor van 8) And a few of the body plug (buck) through the build process. (Some of these are pretty ol with alot of changes since, but thought you might like the see the progress?!)... I always appreciate comments and criticisms Cheers Well she's out of the mold, pretty happy with it. Didnt really know what to expect as the mold is far from perfect so it has a few big flash lines but nothing a quick bit of sanding wont fix. I think i will fit the vents on top of the wings, the shark gill style not the NACA duct. Probably will have 5 per side, i may also look at making a front splitter. Comments always appreciated. Cheers Pics as promised.... (sorry the picture quality isn't great, it was still dusty in the workshop, i'll take some pictures outside when the sun eventually comes out!) The sun was out for a while today so i thought it ideal opportunity to take some better picture of the LM front end. Also had a chance to weigh it, it comes in just under 20kg's. Here are a few pictures of the latest progress. The LM front is a pretty good fit on our shell, but i will need to make a few mods to get it perfect. The front is back in storage now and will be finished later down the line. Finishing the body plug is now the main objective, there are a few bits left to fill/sand, then seperating the rear end from the body and putting in the panel returns. I'm also thinking of moulding in the rear wheel wells (tub's?!) into the body. I have also had a quick go at a mock-up LM rear bi-wing. This is only in grp for now but the final one will all be carbon. It's also only held together with hot glue at the moment so sorry if it looks a little squint in the pics! So it goes from this..... To this... Cheers Lately i have been working on the inner rear wheel tubs as i decided its easier to do them now rather than after the body has been moulded. These will now be moulded into the floor pan that will be attatched to the main body tub, this in turn is dropped over the Lotus Esprit (s3 or s4) chassis and attatched with 10 bolts as per the Esprit, hopefully making kit assembly very easy. I'll update a little later with more pictures but here is a little teaser for now..... Uploaded with ImageShack.us That is a stock F40 tire, 335/35/17. At this height there is still 10mm between the tire and inner arch and about 15 mm between the floor and the ground, so she could drop even lower and still roll without rubbing. I made the inner wheel tubs as big as possible so race slicks can be fitted for LM versions, Which are 19inch rims, but i would guess that there is enough room in there for 22inch rims but thats not really my stile! Also if height adjustable suspension was fitted it would be able to drop the car to this height for show use. Comments always appreciated.... Cheers Here are some progress picture of the rear wheel tubs.............. They will still need a lot of modifying, at the back where the bumper sits and on the inner face where the suspension goes through to the wheel but this will wait till its on the Lotus chassis. I will also cut the top of the tub away when i seperate the backend from the main body section, so you see the rear tires when you lift the rear end as per the original. Bumper pictures to follow.... Comments good or bad always appreciated. Cheers Here are some pictures of how the rear bumper has changed...... Sorry the pictures arent very clear, but what i have done is to put an extra return all the way waound the top, this acts as the black recess around the body. Whereas on an original the black recess hangs from the backend and sits on the bumper and rubs away at the paint. I hope this explains it if not ill finr some pictures of an original?! Cheers This morning i decided to drag the door inner and outer mouldings out of long term storage to see how they looked. A bit of time cutting, sanding and adjusting and i had both parts fitting inside the door frame. Once fixed to the body, to ensure good alignment, I bonded the inner and outer skins together. I had to cut the centre out of the inner shell so i could get inside to bond it, i plan to make this into just a frame to hold the window/winder, door hinge and latch. Then there will be an inner door skin to cover everything, this will probably be a combination of styles mainly like the stock F40 with wind up windows but it will also have the vents from the sliding window version. I'll let the pictures do the talking............ Comments good or bad always appreciated... Cheers Well after a busy couple of days i now think i have the door hinge set up sorted. Alot of altering, trimming, swearing and altering again and its now just needing a little refinement. I started with a door hinge off a Vauxhall VX220 (Opel Speedster), It's a very well designed hinge that is all alloy extruded section, it also connects the door catch to the hinge via an alloy extursion that crosses the whole door and acts as a crash bar. It also has a door stop built in. Initially i hoped to use the entire hinge but it soon became obvious that it needed considerable modification to fit my purposes. I have had to remove that crash bar but I'm hoping i will be able to refit it once i have the window frames installed. This was a tricky job and one i havent really looked forward to, but it turned out not to be as bad as i expected. I really didnt want to have any moving parts inside the A post as you have to have holes to clear everything, i also wanted to see as little of the hinge as possible. I now have the hinge inside the door which helps with assembly as its easy to get too. With the hinge in this location the front of the door closes into the A post when the door is opened, so i had to put a recess in the A post to allow this. This actually helps the strenght of the A post massively which in turn helps to door from dropping. Overall I'm really happy that it is strong and will be long lasting. Next job is to start cutting and shutting the inner door that bolts to the hinge, and then the door catch. Sorry there is a little shortage with the pictures, i'll take some of the process when i do the other side. But here they are so I'm sure they will explain my progress better than i can.............. Comments good or bad appreciated as always Cheers Now that i have the hinge attatched to the car it was time to work out how to attatch it to the inner door. I started by cutting out most of what was there as it was in my way, and my final design will be alot more complex so the door is stiff when finished. Once the door was cut i attatched a thick flat piece of fibreglass to the hinge and fitted the door in its closed position, then i just had to make the two meet. This has now been bonded together which was pretty tight to do. Next step is to refit then work on the area where the hinge pokes out of the door and start fitting the door latch. Here's the pictures................. All comments appreciated Cheers Well i managed a few hours today, so i had a quick go at getting the catch attatched to the door. I had to do a fair amount of cutting to the door but its now pretty close. Once i have bonded it in from the back i will be able to refine the fitment a little more and try it properly, its only attatched with hot glue at the mo so still a bit fragile but it opens and closes well. Once i have the catch and hinge finalised i will be able to start on the outer skin of the door, it looks good but it's not quite upto the quality of the body so its need flatting down. The panel gaps can also be done at this time. Once both door plugs are upto that stage i will put them aside and they will be finished once i have the window frames. Heres a few pictures........... Sorry its not the most exciting update, but all these boring, never to be seen jobs have to be done! Comments always appreciated Cheers We are slowly progressing with the project, and this week we finally got the body over the Esprit chassis. Separating the Esprit body form the chassis wasn't a massive massive job, and my chassis seems to be in pretty good condition. Except for the added engine mounts, but the grinder soon sorted them out. Heres the pictures.... Next i have to line up the chassis with the body then i can fix them both down in position and start to do the floor pans and the tunnel. Comments always appreciated Cheers Not much of an update for you as we havent had much time for the project as of late, but hopefully that will change over winter and we will get a few hours in the workshop. I didnt put up these pictures from when we put the body over the chassis, so thought some might like to see. I cut up the old interior plug as we are no longer going with the 1 piece design because we wont be able to get it into the shell now that we are building the floor pan onto the shell. This will mean that the carbon interior pieces will be much easier to make seperately, i always feard that the huge 1 piece interior would give us problems to make. I also threw in a seat shell i had lying around and the dash board to see how much rrom there is and how everything lines up, and it all seems good, plenty of room. brooki, i will be making moulds off all panels but i wont be able to produce panels until they are done. bangsters, xisco_mallorca, cheers for the comments, TVR, I hope the duck didnt suffer?! biggerbigben, Cheers for the comments. As for the registration i havent fully lookied into it but i think the chassis and the front steering/axles will count for 2 points, i think you only have to use new components if you want a new registration?! As i say i havent fully lookend into it yet. Also that is quite a coincidence with the esprit being your friends old car, was it him i bought it from in Marlborough? Funnily enough i sold the shell to a gent from Scotland, when he came to collect it he noticed my Davrian in the shed, a week later he had put me intouch with a friend of his who happened to be the original owner of the davrian who built and raced it during the 70's, small world sometimes! Comments always appreciated Cheers We also popped the door back on and got the front out of storage and fitted it up. Please remember i havent squared the chassis up in the body yet, this was just to give us a rought idea of how it would look. There is also no damper this side so i could see the full bump and droop that the chassis is capable of. One of the last pictures is of the wheel art full bump and lock. Thats all for now folks!


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plasticfantastic Part of things Posts: 294	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....plasticfantastic @plasticfantastic
	Dec 26, 2011 16:29:19 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	A little on the Davrian....... I had wanted a Davrian for around 10 years and one never turned up at the right time, they don't turn up often as there was only around 300 produced in total across all the model range, Mk1 thru Mk8 (1965-1983). This is probably one of around 10 Mk3's left. Davrians are a complete GRP monocoque, the only steel in it is the roll cage. It uses Hillman Imp running gear including all suspension, brakes, steering etc.. All in all a very light package that usually comes in at less than 600ks for a road car and race cars have been known to go down to around 420kgs. Around a year ago a hear of a Davrian that was for sale locally, so i jumped straight in the car needing to hear nothing else! The car in question was stripped in the mid 80's and has been sat in a loft until it was decided it was in the way, when i pulled up in the car this is what i found..... A deal was done and a few weeks later i went back and collected her.... Even though it had been totally dry in the loft, the cage had condensated inside resulting in this..... I think a new cage may be needed! She then went into storage for about a year until i could make enough space for her in the workshop. A few months ago that finally happened...... There is a long road ahead involving remaking pretty much all bodywork. The final plan for the car is for it to be a road car, but as it has a race history i plan to keep it in that style. The front of the car is standard Mk3 but at some stage in it's life the rear has been adapted to a later style, because its wider and as a race car it probably had 8 or 10 inch wide rear wheels. I plan to run 13x10 inch rears and 13x8 inch fronts. So far i have done a quick bit of cutting and shutting to see how i want the body to finally look. Main changes are to the wheels arches as i wasn't happy with the shape of the lips. Heres how the mods went.... Pretty happy with the front arch, this is only temporary, until i get all the running gear and wheels on then i can line them up properly. The rear wheel arch will be filled so it is less of a bubble arch and more of a rolled lip. The i decided to see how a vent similar to the 250gto would look.... This bring us upto today, this morning i decided to try some mod sport style corner spoilers and some very over the top front dive plaines, not sure if they will be for road use though?!.. As always comments good or bad welcome Cheers Today i decided to try and get the light arrangement sorted on the front and back. For the rear i plan to use simple Lucas glass light units, 2 amber, 2 red and 2 clear. For the front I'm using a 7inch sealed beam headlight and Lucas bullet glass indicators. I'm also trying out an exta vent on the front and also trying to decide it it need spots or fogs?!....... Pretty close, not quite happy with the indicator.... Comments always appreciated Cheers Havent made huge progress with the car but I'm still playing with the body work, just deciding how i want things to finally look. I'll mainly let the pics do the talking for this but main changes are I'm playing with a bubble bonnet, this has given me alot more room for the radiator and made dicting air through it alot easier. The original flat bonnet is prone to sagging, but i'll probably make one so i can put the car back to original if i want to. I've also puts some vent in the nose similar to the 20gto again,i like them and think they will be staying! A few months back my father and i bought a 1976 Image ff2b single seater, luckily this came with the exact wheels i wanted for the davrian so i can use them for fit up. they're 4 spoke revolutions, 13 inch x 10 in rears and 13 inch x 8 inch fronts, they really do make this little car look very planted. Sorry it got a bit pic heavy, but we all like pictures don't we?! Comments good or bad always appreciated Cheers


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longman Club Retro Rides Member Posts: 507 Club RR Member Number: 3	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....longman @longman Club Retro Rides Member 3
	Dec 26, 2011 16:38:55 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	wow , great skills ... love the Davrian
	Paul 98 500 SL 86 911 Carrera/sold 23 Octavia Phev

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raymondmarble Part of things Posts: 481	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....raymondmarble @raymondmarble
	Dec 26, 2011 18:16:16 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	When I saw this thread, I saw the first pic and thought, oh great, another moron with an MR2 and a bodykit. By the time I got to the third pic and read S3 chassis, I was interested. By the time I got to the Davrian, I was hooked!! Your skills are outstanding sir, I'll be watching this thread with intrigue. Top stuff!! Graham
	1974 Skoda S100 tarmac car 1998 BMW 750 daily 1994 Mitsubishi Evo2

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Czechered Flag Posted a lot Rear Engined Rebel Posts: 2,387	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....Czechered Flag @havefunskomad
	Dec 26, 2011 18:33:16 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Awesome
	Current Fleet 2006 Skoda Roomster 1.4 16v (Daily) 1990 Autozam Revue 1.5 Auto Canvas Top (Project) 1993 VW Transporter LWB 2.4D (Camper Project) 1994 Skoda Favorit Foreman II Pick Up (Project) 1979 Skoda Estelle 120LS. (Project) 1982 Kip Kompakt 300 Caravan (Project)

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kcchan Part of things Posts: 127	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....kcchan @kcchan
	Dec 26, 2011 19:30:49 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	WOW!!!


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bstardchild Club Retro Rides Member Posts: 14,965 Club RR Member Number: 71	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....bstardchild @bstardchild Club Retro Rides Member 71
	Dec 26, 2011 19:52:53 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Bonkers but great glassing skills


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MaDSeB Part of things Big things in small packages Posts: 574	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....MaDSeB @madseb
	Dec 26, 2011 20:29:56 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	impressive read, love the attention to detail on the f40. great stuff, keep us updated
	camo volvo: www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10203 the arosa: www.retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=readersrides&thread=120458&page=1 volvo#2: www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10213 the kp build: www.retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=readersrides&action=display&thread=113330 the Volvo saloon: www.retrorides.proboards.com/thread/153731/poor-mans-volvo-360glt-sal

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Chris™ Part of things This is clearly filler material. Posts: 519	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....Chris™ @minibuzz
	Dec 26, 2011 20:31:22 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	WOW! Christ on a bike, you have some fantastic skills with fibreglass! Really interesting projects too, by the time i'd read it all I was already wanting more ;D
	1989 Volvo 340 1986 Suzuki SJ413 2000 BMW 318ti 2006 Lexus IS250

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plasticfantastic Part of things Posts: 294	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....plasticfantastic @plasticfantastic
	Dec 26, 2011 21:38:17 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Cheers for all your kind comments guys!


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devilishdesigner Australia Gleaner of possibilities Posts: 2,976	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....devilishdesigner @devilishdesigner
	Dec 26, 2011 22:45:33 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	I'm not a fan of the Ferrari style nostrils on the second car but otherwise I think it could look amazing on the road, looking forward to seeing it progress.
	Remade In Australia thereimaginarium.com.au

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alolympic South East Posts: 1,809	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....alolympic @alolympic
	Dec 26, 2011 23:08:48 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Blimey! Absolutely brilliant, nice to see another GRP monocoque on here. Your vision and ambition is impressive! I love the aero mods you are making to the Davrian. How did you create the archs on the Davrian? from scratch or did you use arches from something else as a start point? I wish I had skills like yours, my Olympic would have been finished many years ago! Bookmarked and wanting more......
	1962 Rochdale Olympic - retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=readersrides&action=display&thread=87630 1972 Triumph Toledo

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gt Part of things Posts: 136	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....gt @gt
	Dec 26, 2011 23:33:28 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	i havn't seen a davrian for years , used to watch them being rallied, fantastic car


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col Part of things wut Posts: 190	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....col @col
	Dec 27, 2011 15:27:00 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	wow


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franko14 Part of things Posts: 47	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....franko14 @franko14
	Dec 27, 2011 16:56:19 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	some top fibreglassing!!! really love the Davrian. Not a car i'm familiar with but what a great looking shape of car. i'll be following this thread with interest good luck and keep up the good work


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teaboy Posted a lot Make tea, not war. Posts: 2,121	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....teaboy @teaboy
	Dec 27, 2011 19:06:42 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Some seriously committed work going on in your shed. I think I would prefer an Esprit that was Esprit shaped but the F40 should be quite special.
	911 Hot Rod build

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MK2VR6 Posted a lot Mk2 Golf GTi 90 Spec Posts: 3,329	Plasticfantastic's project corner, Back on the F40.....MK2VR6 @wafers
	Dec 27, 2011 19:16:15 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	That F40 is something else. They are one of my all time favourite cars, and I will watch the thread with huge interest to see its further development. As for the Davrian, the first time I saw one was about 20ish years ago, being rallied about a mile from my parents house. I remember the sound to this day! Hats off to you sir.


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