shell prep

[Lionel]

hi all,

This is just a little post really iv been looking for pic of the inside of the roof in the R with OUT a sunroof. if anyone out there has a pic of a R with no roof lineing and no sunroof plz post it up as im in to minds with my R as i was going to start stripping the shell for seem welding a Acid dipping 2 day

As most of you no when the sunroof is cut out of the shell you lose a far amount of stiffness in the shell now my plan is to just weld a plate over the hole where the sunroof is but im worryed that the roof may rippel under the heat of the welder:noidea: if anyone can tell me diffrent do so plz.

Lionel.

 

[pulsarboby]

done this before lionel, on an astra race car i prepped!
weld the plate 1/8 inch under the outer roof line, then apply heat and roll to stretch metal to just under contour of roof!
once you have the shape there, weld 2 cross braces to underside of panel, 'tac weld' and to outer sunroof lip.
then get a large spreader and fill outer lip with pudding to match contour of roof.
job done, its a days work though to do a good job

use the sunroof as a template for panel!

 

[Lionel]

cheers bob that what i needed to no , i was going to just have a carbon roof made but this seem a stronger option

 

[Odin]

I was speaking to a chap that had his wide arched R5 rally car acid dipped, And he was saying that he was having to get another shell after about 6/7 years for it because the acid hadn't stopped working altogether, And had mad the metal to thin and weak.

So make sure you get it all washed out properly and neutralized afterwards, Personally I'd look at getting it hot galvanized dipped after you've done all your seam welding and other mods such as the weld in cage.

But that's probably a very expensive option lol.



Rob

 

[Pascal]

Here's what I have, hope this helps.

 

[Jon Olds]

To me its more important to have strength where the suspension loads go into.
The NME rally car build manual shows where to seam weld.

 

[CruiseGTi-R]

Get the shell media blasted rather than acid dipped, avoids the need to wash all the acid out and worries about acid getting into closed spaces and continuing to work.

 

[CruiseGTi-R]

To me its more important to have strength where the suspension loads go into.
The NME rally car build manual shows where to seam weld.

Where do you get the manual from, specific to the R? - anything else interesting in the manual?