RCR Bodywork tips

[Roger Allen]

Hi,

I’m making progress on my RCR 40 and want to reciprocate for all the advice I’ve gleaned from you guys on the forum. Time is especially tight this time of year for me so apologies in advance if I cannot respond promptly to any questions that may arise. Also apologies to all those professional replica builders but hopefully this may help a few newbies like myself. So, here are a few bodywork tips that have worked well for me so far over the past few months since delivery of my car.

1) Sit the car on wheel dollies.
2) Box up the parts in separate boxes for each area of the car
3) By all means line up the body panels first but don’t dwell too long on fits at this stage. Don’t remove any fibreglass material. I spent far too long on this at the start and would now do it later when I’ve got a better feel for the car. (I’m still pondering on how to align the front clip square side to side with the spider exactly square on the chassis. But now with some confidence and looking at others it seems that the important thing is to get the shut lines and wheel arch clearances accurate and accept that its 60s car. If you have any lingering doubts over your own efforts have a look at the body build quality on an ‘original’ original car!)
4) Fit up the hardware to the body panels and doors (lights, handles, windows etc) with the panels off the car
5) Cut a 1” dia hole on the inside door panel around the hinge hardware (thanks RCR!). Plug it with a solid grommet later
6) Move the door hinge brackets out by ¼ inch with an aluminium plate between hinge and chassis – it worked for me in roughing out the door fit
7) Fit the door handles using right angle aluminium sections as per RCR recommendation, then to hold them temporarily in position with small diameter long screws through the door panel. Bond them in later after you have fitted the latch and interior release and then fill the small holes
8) Tape the lamp covers and windows in position before cutting anything
9) Use a hot air gun to bend the Perspex to get an accurate fit in a couple odf areas. Practice on scrap first and you’ll see that it starts to move with gentle pressure well before getting very pliable and out of control! Gently heat the whole panel first on both sides before getting serious on the area in question.
10) Rough out the Perspex with a thin disc cutter air tool, get nearer with a Dremel disc cutter, finish off dimensionally with a belt sander, smooth and chamfer the edges. A DIY belt sander mounted firmly on its side at the edge of the bench works just fine but, although it’s a pain, use a mask and goggles. Keep offering the panel up to check.
11) Don’t be frightened of the RCR supplied Perspex, it’s a lot stronger than I was led to believe. Just try bending it and cutting holes on a piece of scrap!
12) Mount a narrow point marker pen in a wooden block with an edge stop to run around the windows and covers to mark out the fixing screw distance from the edge
13) Use special Perspex drills for the initial holes but, if you to need to enlarge the holes, regular sharp drills work fine on the RCR Perspex. Back up with a wood supporting block.
14) If you want to fit 5.75” circular lamps into the lower lamp bays try Vehicle Wiring Products in the UK – they have them, with mountings and suitable indicators in stock. Vehicle Wiring Products
15) To hold the windows and lamp covers. I’m cutting very coarse pitch threads in the fiberglass for black nylon screws then fitting them with a touch of silicon grease to ease them in and seal the hole. I’ve cleaned out the supplier, but hopefully we can source some more and I’ll give full details. Great thread type and diameter with an integral small washer the only problem is that it’s a cheese/dome crosshead that’s not the correct look………hopefully OK when I’ve blacked out the window edges and they blend in.
16) Buy a £20 vacuum cleaner on Ebay and keep sucking up all the mess and tidy the tools each night – the only time I didn’t do this it was a depressing sight next day! But why do I need about 20 tools for even the simplest marking out and drilling op???

Finally, thanks to Fran and his team at RCR for providing the basis for all the fun – good stuff indeed.

I’ll try and update this from time to time and must get to grips with the photo thing – many thanks to all you regular posters for the help

kind regards

Roger Allen

[Chris Melia]

Hi Roger

Its good to hear from you and in such a positive mood, I am pleased that you are obviously getting on so well with your RCR 40 build.

I am pleased that you pursued your dream along with quite a few others after RF went bust and transferred to an RCR.

Regards

Chris Melia.

[Big-Foot]

Thanks for the tips!!! I'm a few months or so out from picking it up, but I'll keep track of this thread. We appreciate your taking the time to put all this together!

[Dutton]

Roger,

First rate comments!

Yours are the experienced observations that do nothing but inspire and build confidence for those who'd like to give it a go but just haven't put down the hard earned cash or sufficiently free'd themselves up from demands at work. For myself, I know one of the categories far too well.

What a fortunate world this is for GT40 builders in the days to come. With quality input from you and so many others in the last few years... all you guys are top shelf!

Best,

T.

[Mark Clapp]

The RCR-supplied clear parts are shatter-proof. In fact you can fold the plastic flat back onto itself and while it will crease, it will not crack. Thus rocks and/or track debris are no problem for these pieces. I would suggest to keep the pieces covered as much as possible while trimming and fitting. Saran wrap works well for this to minimize scratches.

[Roger Allen]

One other point on the perspex I forgot to mention is to be careful if you use a regular cellulose aerosol black on the edges. I found out the hard way when some crept under the edge masking and dissolved a neat little channel in the perspex which was too deep to polish out. It's on the lower lamp covers so not too disastrous. What paint to try next - any thoughts??

[Big-Foot]

Roger - What I've used before to edge the lexan in black is to mask and paint from the backside with Krylon 1613 Semi-Flat Black. Of course since it's painted on the backside it does come out looking glossy but it works well and has not come loose on me.
I hope this helps..

[Chris_K]

Originally Posted by Roger Allen

Hi...

14) If you want to fit 5.75” circular lamps into the lower lamp bays try Vehicle Wiring Products in the UK – they have them, with mountings and suitable indicators in stock. Vehicle Wiring Products

...kind regards

Roger Allen

Roger-

#14 is me. I emailed them Monday or so and haven't heard from them yet. Did you get hardware to mount the lamps? It looks like they sell the lamps but it's not clear if there is a headlamp bucket or adjustable platform in which to mount them. Do you have a list of part numbers? I have a solution currently but it's not working out as well as I want. That's my roadblock right now- I can only find bumper-mount lamps.

Feel free to PM me

THanks in advance,

[Roger Allen]

Hi Chris,

These are the parts I ordered - all 2 off:
5538 Nest set 5.75" (aka buckets)
LA 1017 Halogen 5.75"Lamp Unit w/o Pilot (aka side lamp) - it might have been an idea to get one with a side/pilot lamp however
R872 Xenon Bulb
RLFK200 Lamp fitting kit (aka wiring/relay) - not absolutely necessary if you already have electrical stuff to hand
33634 Side repeater lamp - small square indicator lamp that just fits in the top outside corner in the recess (I've used the RCR supplied one as a side repeater - although it's looking slightly large and I might change)
233 Bulb (for side repeater)
Total Cost £97 plus VAT delivered UK.

The bucket bolts in using some 5mm screws from the front. they are tight up to the edge of the lamp and look fine. You can adjust the lamp angle from the front by cutting a couple of slots for a screwdriver.

Have you, or any other readers, got some good tips on how to fit the RCR supplied headlamps. It's really puzzling me on how to do it and be able to adjust the lamps. I can bolt them in no problem but how to devise a decent method of adjustment as well is puzzling me. All advice would be really appreciated. I know Fran's on the case but the busy boy has got a million other things to handle as well.

best regards

Roger

[Chris_K]

Roger-

Awesome! Thanks.

For your question, check out the attached pics. I too had the biggest mental gap looking at the brackets and hearing the concept. A call to Fran and a perusal of JayPSC's thread got me on the right track. Long story short is you fab a bracket out of alu or flat stock (super easy), fit some bolts into it as bracket studs, and glass it into place. Unfortunately I didn't take many pics in process but the attached show the end result (albeit from a little bit afar).

PM me your email address and I can send you a few hi-res pics of what I did. Honestly it is pretty simple once you get through it mentally. Unfortunately it's rather tough to type up a description though.

Edit: first one shows the flat bracket I made with the small bolts held in like studs and prior to fiberglassing them in. The second shows the lamp held into the bracket and the bracket mounted over the studs with springs and thumbwheels. Not completely easy to see but I do have higher res of these and can take others if you need.

Cheers,

[Chris_K]

Jay's pics (hopefully he won't mind):







The springs go on the studs, the bracket with the lamp body goes on, and the thumbwheels (w/lock nuts) hold the bracket against the spring to give you the ability to align the lamp. Just remember to leave enough clearance around the lamp body and the opening you cut.

[Chris_K]

Roger-

Looking through Rob's thread, he has also posted a great pic which shows the final product prior to glassing in. Way better than any pic I could take now.

[Roger Allen]

Hi Chris,

Just the job - that's very clear now. Many thanks for your response.

At the risk of stating the obvious, perhaps we had better point out for those about to start that the headlamp in the pic above is upside down (note the arrow on the glass)! Is it me...............???

best regards

Roger

[Chris_K]

Yep - there isn't enough space above the lamp body for the fabbed bracket to fit across the top. It's U-shaped and spans across the bottom only. It'll be obvious when you start the fab but make sure you do keep the lamps correctly oriented...

CK

[Jeff Hamilton]

Chris K
where did you get the studs, springs, and thumb wheels for the headlights?
Jeff Hamilton

[Chris_K]

Hey Jeff,

They were fairly easy to find at a local hardware store, a little mom and pop place close to me had the stuff. I'd bet any of the giant chains would have them too but it was easy to ask and chat with the local little guy.

Let me know if you can't find them.

[Rob]

Hey Jeff,
The pic above is my assembly, so thought I'd chime in. Chris may have done similar, but I am not aware. The studs and thumb screws were left over pieces from a gauge install from a previous build. The spings are "push" syle from my "spring jar". I just hunted through until I found eight the same in the desired strength. I would imagine a good hardware store would have all these pieces.