160 replies to this topic

[tommobot]

I'm absolutley loving the coupe conversions knocking around at the moment, so I thought, why not, I'll try my own.

 

 

By no means finished, but the bulk of it is done I think, just tidying it up and fitting a few bits of mesh etc..

 

The basic idea is very similar to the Badster VX rear end, and the white coupe VX, the engine cover is / will be held on with aerocatches and the bootlid is using the existing fitting.

 

The rear cover was a S1 roof and a original roll bar cover, and the roof is a S2 roof with a S1 scoop bonded on,  fixed to a JB inner skin.

 

I was going to try and form some leuvres as such on the rear section, but a freind suggested using the existing bootlid sections and cut them to shape, so, it was a ball ache but its worked. Again, all needs tidying up but thats comparatively easy!

 

May, not sure yet, try and angle the cover and roof as per VX, but i'll see how it looks once its all finished.

 

Plan is to cut along the top of the roll bar cover so that the hardtop / softtop fixings can be retained and the engine cover removed.

 

Rear clam was a second hand Ebay bargain with very little damage tbh, so had no hard feelings about butchering it up

 

Anyway, onto photos...

 

 

 

 

 

I'll probably put a turbo spoiler on it tommorow, as it looks a bit like a pickup truck at the moment in my mind, but long term thinking either big gay wing, or Exige 2012 spoiler...

Thoughts...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rickwoo118]

Looking good so far. Good effort.

[leevx2.2]

Good work there takes allot of balls to cut things about well done ;-)

[Bumblebee]

Looking good, look forward to seethe finish product

[FLD]

AWESOME!  Top work there.

[tommobot]

Sort of nearly there, got a finish on the roof, looks alright. Its looks a hell of a lot better with proper colour, plus used some correct hardtop brackets to replace my original NA brackets that were far to small and its pulled the top down massively, getting it much more in line, tighter internally and stopping any squeaking which is fantastic!

 

Aiming to get rear sections done at weekend and then will be nearly sorted!

 

 

I'll try and get a few more photos as the above one is a bit crap!

[Graeme Lambert]

Looks good, looking fwd to seeing the finished results in more detail.

 

G

[tommobot]

Made pretty good progress over the weekend and some small changes...

Cut the rear section, and retained a small section of the roll bar (can be seen with the different colour) and now bonded that to the rear clam and aesthetically hoping it will look better

 

 

Bootlid is now sorted aswell, but was dark when done so no photo of it all in place.

 

Generally, its all fitting reasonably alright, but justs need a bit of tweeking and adjusting to be finished...

 

Oh, and the rear clam made good and then vinyl'd 

 

 

 

Edited by tommobot, 27 October 2013 - 06:40 PM.

[Rickwoo118]

Looking good. Making good progress. Look forward to see the finished pics.

[tommobot]

So, made some more progress, but no photos atm unfortunatley.

 

Taken the Turbo spoiler off, replaced with Exige 2010 spoiler, looks much nicer!

Apart from that, just made progress in getting everything to fit properly / better which was a bit of a pain, but getting there..

 

However, having second thoughts about the vents in the rear clam, thinking of just cutting out the entire area and applying mesh over...

 

Rear diffuser is fixed to frame mounted to subframe so its not necessary to be there anymore (section of rear clam)
 

Anyway, to make my imagination a bit more clear, knocked up these on Sketchup...
 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts...Personally thinking it could look quite good...

[Graeme Lambert]

If you remove that much of the lower clam (in the middle below exhaust) won't it flex quite a bit? Not sure how strong it'll be if you do that.

 

Aesthetically it looks ok, thanks to the diffuser balancing it out.

 

G

[tommobot]

Hmmm didn't really consider flex issues tbh but would have thought it would have been ok... The boot section is rock solid and the corners would have helped to give the lower sections strength.. In my mind atleast..

[Graeme Lambert]

Hmmm didn't really consider flex issues tbh but would have thought it would have been ok... The boot section is rock solid and the corners would have helped to give the lower sections strength.. In my mind atleast..

 

Just thought it might have made your bottom a bit flappy (in the wind and at speed etc)

 

I'm definitely no clam expert, but worth seeing what all those people who have cut their clams apart for heat escape have found?

 

G

[fezzasus]

As long as you keep the corners you don't lose much strength.

[tommobot]

My mates got Joes old black rear clam with the very large cut outs in filled with mesh and its actually suprisingly rigid! Granted, not an oem clam but same principle imo

[Mike (Cliffie)]

My mates got Joes old black rear clam with the very large cut outs in filled with mesh and its actually suprisingly rigid! Granted, not an oem clam but same principle imo

But Joe's old clam is not OE and I believe was a stronger unit to start with.

 

Mind you, I have possibly the least rear clam left of everybody and that is still OK.

[FLD]

Its something I keep considering but I never find a way that looks right in my eyes.  Having said that the rear clam will be fine as long as you glass a lip on to add some rigidity.  That'd be the least of my worries, getting it looking right is the toughest bit of that mod IMO.

[JG]

regardless, the sketches are great!

[Graeme Lambert]

Its something I keep considering but I never find a way that looks right in my eyes.  Having said that the rear clam will be fine as long as you glass a lip on to add some rigidity.  That'd be the least of my worries, getting it looking right is the toughest bit of that mod IMO.

 

What you need is someone who studied car design to come up with a treatment that gels correctly with the rest of the clam

[tommobot]

Its something I keep considering but I never find a way that looks right in my eyes.  Having said that the rear clam will be fine as long as you glass a lip on to add some rigidity.  That'd be the least of my worries, getting it looking right is the toughest bit of that mod IMO.

 

Was thinking of rounding back in around the edges, to almost form a recess of about 20-30mm perhaps. Should help with rigidity & hopefully tidy it up visually.

 

I'll probably give it a go tbh, worst comes to worst as long as I neatly cut bits out I can always fibreglass back on..