I am thinking of turning something like this:

into something like this:

The mechanicals will remain fairly standard but just in a pretty frock. It won’t be a replica, more of an homage to cars of that era. I was wondering how difficult it would be to do in sheet aluminium of glass fibre. Which is easier/cheaper for a one off?

Not done it but a mate does it for a living HERE not an easy thing to do as you need to allow for the stretching of the metal as you shape it.
This place also does some stunning work but are very £££

The track on the caterham/lotus what ever is quite a bit wider, so will end up looking funny.

hex – Agreed. that is why I am not going try to replicate it exactly but get something ‘in the style of’ . it will be a 2 seater rather than a single seater as well.

Just trying some ideas out at the moment

sanps – I shouldn’t have clicked on that link . I NEEEEED one of these now :

these chaps
http://www.saturnsportscars.co.uk/
it wouldnt take much to shorten the track width but you would have to soften the springs as shorter the track it will firm the ride up a lot

I have produced one repair panel for an out of sight area near the filler neck on my MK2 Golf. Lots of odd double curvatures etc. It took forever to make something that would just fit, with looking pretty being way down the list. I’ve also done a bit of painting.

From that experience, I’d say that if you don’t bash bits of metal for a living, attempting anything beyond the very basics is extremely ambitious. Most of the body panels for something like a Caterham would be within the realms of an enthusiastic DIYer, as long as you have a framework / wooden former. That’s because they’re mainly flat sheets with a couple of bends.

The sort of stuff you’re thinking of is serious craftsman made stuff, and they’re not easy for craftsmen to make. There are double curvatures all over those bodies, and they’ll be made of several parts welded together, with the welds then planished or ground down. I reckon it would be an extremely frustrating process, particularly when you get it painted or polished up and notice all the flaws that you couldn’t see in the metal.

If you want an idea of how much work goes into those kinds of bodies, I believe there’s a Polish firm manufacturing Aluminium replica Cobra bodies with prices online. Consider what Polish labour rates are likely to be and there are serious hours in those bodies. And that’s people who know what they’re doing, not someone learning on the job.

Not quite the road you’re taking, but thought you might find this interesting.

http://images.gizmag.com/hero/5921_28070695245.jpg

People, please don’t encourage him. He’s not called ‘WorldClassAccident’ for nothing you know. 🙁

Why can’t you just get something like this?

what you really NEED is one of these, there are some awesome replica’s out there that use mentalist donor cars

or build a ronart

I was looking at the Ronart but they have sold out to Vanwall who don’t have a working website at the moment. It is very much the type of thing i was thinking of but using a cheaper base rather than the Jag V12.

Also look at sticking a V6 Alfa behind the drivers seat for more authentic mid/rear engine. Maybe get this guy to knock up a chassis

how about a kougar?

Yes thats handmade leaded alloy bodies in the pics, they make some stunning cars at their workshop, couple of years ago a Dutch guy walked in & wanted them to build him a Jag XK120 replica racer but using all modern technology so they made a space frame chassis out of oval alloy tubes to suit an XK body they’d made & he got them to stick a highly tuned 3.4 litre straight six engine in it – the power to weight ratio was mental (as I’d imagine the bill was)

As for the DIY, with the metal if you don’t pick it up quickly, you’ll end up with a lot of expensive scrap!
Fibreglass might be a goer, you can use any rigid curved surface as a pattern or former & failures will be much cheaper but the end product might have issues with the mounting points & may distort when driven at speed.

Fibreglass is fairly straightforward- it sounds ridiculous but it reminded me of making paper mache models at school- but big panels are time consuming and very, very messy to do. Also, there’s quite a number of different ways it can go wrong and not all of them are obvious- I did a motorbike panel which I thought I’d get away with building very light, and it was fine for a couple of years before all the paint cracked from the very slight flexing, frinstance. I think there’s a few of the tricks that you only really pick up from doing it but I imagine a good teacher could prove me wrong.

OTOH the first stage is great– get a load of wood and expanded polystyrene and chop lumps off it til it’s the right shape. It’s like sculpting a car