Glue for alloy to spaceframe ?

[Billzilla]

Thanks again guys.
Keith - The panels have to be riveted on, they'd fall off in minutes otherwise.

[KGB]

Thanks again guys.
Keith - The panels have to be riveted on, they'd fall off in minutes otherwise.

thats what 50mm masking tape is for holds in place till glue goes off .... engineers get shirty if we drill their frames ....

Keith: Ps lots of strips 100mm apart should do the trick ....

[Billzilla]

thats what 50mm masking tape is for holds in place till glue goes off .... engineers get shirty if we drill their frames ....

Keith: Ps lots of strips 100mm apart should do the trick ....

Nah I meant on the track. The forces going through the chassis would have the panel come off very quickly. They have to be riveted to stay on.

[DigitalPho3nix]

Nah I meant on the track. The forces going through the chassis would have the panel come off very quickly. They have to be riveted to stay on.

I still reckon epoxy and some rivets will do the job very nicely....

[KGB]

Nah I meant on the track. The forces going through the chassis would have the panel come off very quickly. They have to be riveted to stay on.

hmm seems strange .... they have to eyeball rivets ...

if you have some scrap do a test peice done correctly you will destroy the alloy before you get the tube to seperate from it unless you use a knife to help ...

the engineers factor the stiffening factor of the pannel & use a lighter thinnerwall tube .box cause the strenth comes from the panel wich is in a different plane .... pardon the pun hehe

Keith:

[Billzilla]

hmm seems strange .... they have to eyeball rivets ...

if you have some scrap do a test peice done correctly you will destroy the alloy before you get the tube to seperate from it unless you use a knife to help ...

the engineers factor the stiffening factor of the pannel & use a lighter thinnerwall tube .box cause the strenth comes from the panel wich is in a different plane .... pardon the pun hehe

Keith:

The problem is that the chassis tubes 'lozenge'. That means that under some loads, the tubes will move around parallel to the sheet alloy, and so start to break the bonds as the alloy sheet can't move around like that.
They really do have to be riveted on to stay stuck.
I've also heard from a few people that Sikaflex doesn't handle oil contamination too well, and being a home-made sports car mine leaks a bit.

Maybe I need Foolly-Sikaflex?

[KGB]

All i can say is look at the surfside buss,s the new ones & all that is holding the sides on is the weaker white simpson & these flex every wich way u can think off fooooly sick like ..... but their is nothing stoping you useing simpson or sika + rivets for insurance & i have never seen oil petrol or any solvent fook said glue after it has cured ...

Keith: love jousting wit you

[Billzilla]

Bit of a bump.

I bought the best Sikaflex (252?) and tried it, and the test piece came apart very easily indeed. So I tried it again with really clean and flat pieces, it was better but still very easy to pull apart. I'm trying a few other suggestions here as well.

Anyway, some photos of what's been going on with the racer repairs as they might be of interest to some.



We moved the rack forwards as far as we could to reduce anti-Ackerman. It's also a lot stiffer than it was before.





The water system also got a major enema. The pipes now have more joints in them so they're easier to pull apart and also get the engine in & out. I also added a water/oil heat exchanger as I reckon that'll work better than the air/oil cooler it used to have.




We had to angle the return from the back of the engine so the oil line to the scavenge pump was clear of the water pipe. Only a phone camera photo sorry.




I built a carboard mockup of the new footwell panel to see how it all fits together. Pretty much got all that sorted now I think. We should start on the tomorrow.





Today had Pete finishing the pedals and pedal box. It's 95% done, just a couple of minor things to really finish it. The bar going through the pedals at the top is just to hold them in place.

More to come in the next few weeks.

[DigitalPho3nix]

I am curious to know why you have exclusively used square tube instead of a mix of circular and square?

Edit: just noticed you used circular for your main hoops, but question still stands

[Billzilla]

I am curious to know why you have exclusively used square tube instead of a mix of circular and square?

Nah there's round tube in it, mostly down the back though.
I didn't build the car, it was built in 1988 by a mate of mine and I bought it in 1989 and have run it ever since.

[DigitalPho3nix]

Ok fair enough!

Your steering rack looks really small. What car is it sourced from?

[Billzilla]

We're also building a Mallock M31, this better ?



The rack & uprights are Triumph Herald - Remember that more Herald parts were used in racing cars than road cars!

[DigitalPho3nix]

Sorry I didn't scroll across to see the whole picture. That rack looks about right now.

[Starfire]

Apparently much of the chassis of the Lotus Elise is made of glued sections of aluminium. I have no idea what compound they use to glue it, but you chould try sending them an email?

Cheers,
Terry

[Billzilla]

Apparently much of the chassis of the Lotus Elise is made of glued sections of aluminium. I have no idea what compound they use to glue it, but you chould try sending them an email?

Cheers,
Terry

I would, but at some point I'll have to peel the alloy back off the spaceframe.
I'm gonna go all bogan tomorrow and try Selleys No More Nails .... or whatever it's called. I've got a cheap clone of that curing at the moment.