450v

[dvallis]

Nose, fenders and main frame on the rolling chassis. It's starting to come together.

[2mAn]

How hard was it to design and cut the buck? Is the plan after the frame is prepped to use an English wheel for the panels? Aluminum?

[dvallis]

Designing the buck was HAAARRDDDD. See early posts. Requires working with mesh friendly tools for the body (Blender, etc.), converting that to a CAD friendly format, pulling into CAD, then creating the buck based on surface intersections. And then you're only getting started. Need to space & scale buck parts then create cut-outs at ALL the intersections. (Oh joy) Then map the buck pieces on to 4x8 sheets and have those water jet cut.

Body panels will be cut from 0.60 aluminum, formed on a Pullmax (see previous posts), finished with English wheel.

[LateFan]

Just discovered this project, fantastic idea!

Questions -
1. How did you get a scan of a 450S? There aren't many.

2. How is the aluminum sheet connected to the tube framework?

3. What about electrolysis between the steel and aluminum? How did Touring handle that?

Thanks!

[dvallis]

I bought the base model online and modified it for my project. Shoot me a DM and I'll send you the link.

Aluminum body and steel tube frame will both be powder coated. This eliminates dissimilar metal corrosion. Attachment will be via 2 sided aerospace grade tape. We call it "Jesus tape" because "Holy frigging Jesus the metal rips before the adhesive fails!" They build planes with it.

Unitized tube frame sections with panels get bolted to the rolling chassis via internal tabs

[LateFan]

Jesus tape, wow. Good thing the old coachbuilders didn't know about that!

I'm wondering how those old Touring superlight frames were detailed. The skins are always smooth in photos, no fasteners. Maybe there were tabs on the tubes against the underside of the skin...?

[LateFan]

Did you think about copying the chassis and building a full replica, but with a modern LS or Maserati V8?

[dvallis]

Did you think about copying the chassis and building a full replica, but with a modern LS or Maserati V8?

The rolling chassis is a C5 Corvette. We will be running a stock 400 HP / 400 FT-LB LS crate engine with 6-speed Tremec manual transmission. There are pictures earlier in the thread.

[LateFan]

Yep, saw that, good idea. Just wondered if you considered building a replica from scratch with a modern motor.

I love the tube bending and shaping you're doing. Similar to laying out a classic wooden boat hull with station points and lines. Cool.

[LateFan]

I have pictures...I have lots of pictures.




I think the rear yellow blinkers in the vents were added to this one to be legal on big tours.

[dvallis]

I see what you mean. Im planning on custom retro valve covers for the LS and bolting on an 8-pack ITB. Will probably go side exhaust as well.

[dvallis]

One thing about that body is there are no quarter panel seams. They welded the whole thing together. That would suck to fix any damage. Cut out the entire bent part, fab and weld in a new one. Maybe I'll go that way but, ugh! So hard to work on.

[varg]

I'm not sure how authentic looking your goal is, but a fender seam would be pretty well placed if the lower seam was just aft of the lower front radius of the door, then the upper line wrapped around the windshield line to the hood line up top. Quarter panels usually involve welding anyway, don't they? Usually up on the pillar?

[dvallis]

Hey Varg, that's pretty much the way I'm leaning. A front quarter seam and another where the rear of the door would be. I'm not going for 100% clone. Unitizing both front quarters and the nose gets problematic for support if I have to remove it, but does look really good. The rear will be one piece also.

[dvallis]

Added a new piece of shop equipment today. Combo brake shear. We'll need it for fabbing tabs, plates etc. It's only rated to 20 gauge over 30 inches but will do smaller 16 gauge parts. For $600 it's OK for now.



Also, I decided to unitize the front end. Nose, front quarters and an 8" section just in front of the dash will be a single unit.