Sumo Body Fixing

[pgoodrum]

Hi All

I need to order all the fixings I need to attach my Sumo body to chassis, can somebody give me a complete list of what to order please - nuts, bolts, screws, fibreglass - everything.................Ta

Pete

Pete,
The body is fixed via 2 8mm bolts at the front and two at the back with 4 each side. I would suggest you use M8x25 bolts. You'll need penny washers and nyloc nuts for them of course.
As for pop rivets you need to rivet both the section around the battery holder and along the back of the seats.
You'll only need fiberglass when you fill in the gaps between the sides of the chassis around the door hinges. You may want to glass in the small panels along each side by the seats but I believe they doon't have to be.
I'm going to rivet mine and fill gaps with sealant.

I'm sure somone may have a better idea though.

Make sure you've drilled the seat belt holes and trim off about 10-20mm along the endge from the front wheelarch back to allow the body sides to fit correctly.


Rgds
Adrian

[pgoodrum]

Adrian

seems easy enough, I'll order some bolts, did you use the special fibreglass rivets or ordinary ones? I've seen several web pages where people have made a fibreglass filler panel to go at the back of the front wheel arch, how many people do this? How many have bought the Pilgrim inner front wheel arches?

Pete

[AndyC]

Pete,

Pilgrim front inner wheel arches are allegedly a pain to fit - buy them, cut them in half, fit them and then re-glass them back together...

For fitting the tub around the engine compartment, I used 25mm stainless round head hex drive M6 (Wye Valley Supplies), since the chassis warps when galvanised and doesn't fit tight against the tub. Using the bolts, I could pull the body and chassis together evenly. Looks a bit tidy as well..

Andy

[Paul B]

I can confirm the Pilgrim inner arches are very poor fit and a real pain to fit.

As Andy suggests, get them as a starting point, cut them in half, then fit them. However, I have not fibreglassed them into position as access is very tight.

I have used self tapping screws for the rear sections and made a few brackets mounted off the front nudge bar "ears" to hold the front section. I can now remove the sections as required for easy access ( as recently required for mod's to the exhaust system).

Ultimately, I will try and make some sheet metal inners but this has got me up and running.

[Kevin W]

If you intend fitting the stainless sheet to cover the galvanising over the footwells, you can slice off the front apron in the engine area altogether

I used (I think) 4 M8 bolt along the sills. But DONT BOLT these down until you fived your doors. You need to spend an unhirried morning at least cenbtralising yuor body on the chassis, checking wheel arch positions. Slice off triangles from the under apron area behind the fornt wheels to allow free turning of the wheels both under load and when jacked up. You'll alo need to take off a long triangular slither from the side aprons of about 3/4" I think going down to nothing at the rear. This will allow pivoting of the sides of the bodi to get a flush door fit. You may need to take off a small part behind the front locating point to get a good bonnet fit.

I also braced all my fixings with rubber washers underneath the penny washers where they came into contact with fibreglass as I wanted to spread the load as much as posible. I also used chassis tape along all the sills, as I didnt want any water creeping in there where the sill edge slightly undulates, and to avoid squeeks.

For the cockpit inners, you'll need to do some surgery, as Pilgrim tend to cut them too small. You'll need to glass these in to the body. But for the chassis, I just used a huge wodge of sikaflex - its incredibly strong, but gives a flexible join.

Hope that might help. You;ve just arrived at the hardest part of the sumo build - take your time.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,
You mention slicing off the front apron in the engine area. Do you mean the flange that fits on to the top of the chassis? if so how did you fix the top of the body around here?


Adrian

[Paul B]

I am curious as well because if you slice this section off and do not fix it to the chassis, you will probably find scuttle shake a major problem.

Due to the warping of the top footwell panel during the galvanising process, I used pop rivets with load spreading washers where the apron touches the chassis and packed out the gap between the apron and chassis, and used longer 3 or 4mm bolts, where it doesn't.

Everyone suggests trimming the bottom of the body to get a good door alignment, I didn't hear this advice until after I completed my car !!, but I am concerned that too much stress in the realigned body will cause stress cracks.

Will this happen or am I being too cautious ?

[breskit]

I would imagine that where the screen is fixed into place, this will help hold down the body to the chassis although there may still be some vibration where it is not fixed.

I have fitted a stainless steel sheet across the top of the footwells and used the lip provided round the top of the bulkhead to help fix this sheet in place. A little rubber trim will help to keep the edge tidy.

Now I'm just about to glass in the inner panels to the cockpit and never having played with fibreglass before, this could be fun.
---
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tony.breski

[daxv8man]

Us Dax , GD,& other owners of Cobra Kits are keeping our mouths shut, as someone said you pays your money and takes your choice.

Graham (awaiting some stick)}>