The body will be in 7 or 8 parts at the most (hopefully) and it needs to be fastened from the inside (needs to look good)
What is the best way to attach a GRP shell to a chassi?
The body will be in 7 or 8 parts at the most (hopefully) and it needs to be fastened from the inside (needs to look good)
If I understand you properly - most of the Indy boys use PU Adhesive - examples are Texflex, sikaflex, Tigerseal. 3M also do a very good one which is
better than any other we have used... we also used PU Adhesive to attach the cycle wings to the stays... and they have stayed! 
I'm trying to find out the best way to attach bodypanels to the steel chassi, but I don't know if gluing it to the chassi is the best way as
it'll be hard to remove the panels for maintenance ...
You see, if I'll need hinges and brackets inside the bodypanel, I need to sort that out now, before the plug is finished.
Use Big heads laminated into the grp in key positions saves on through bolting the body work, the larger ones take good loading, available in a
variety of heads and threads.
Shug.
My suggestion is to design the body in many separate pieces. Maybe about 8 bits. Many small pieces are much cheaper than on big plug, and need less
room to build in. Also much easier to change them later when you want to fine tune the look of the car (and you will). To start with, fasten each
piece of bodywork to the chassis with several (say 4) SS M8 screws. Make up chassis brackets (3mm x 20mm MS) that you can adjust by bending to screw
the bits to. Strengthen them after you have got the location right. Put a 25mm packer between the ‘glass panels and the brackets. When you have
finished the car, and strengthened up the chassis brackets, you can then hide the fixing points by reversing the screws so that they screw from the
inside out. Or, you can recess the screws into the body (using up the 25mm packing space), put removable plugs over them and captive nuts behind the
brackets. Done.
Brian
Removeable panels can be held by Dzus fasteners (both 1/4 turn and latch) which offer quick removal.
For blind semi-permanent mounting, I would also recommend Big Heads (or homemade versions).
I zapped some squares of expanded metal onto the ends of male and female threads. The female threads give fuller threads when installed, and the OD
can be used as dowels too for locating the panel. If you turn the female threads with a shoulder and add a washer, they become standoffs which can be
very useful.
quote:
Originally posted by Rorty
Removeable panels can be held by Dzus fasteners (both 1/4 turn and latch) which offer quick removal.
For blind semi-permanent mounting, I would also recommend Big Heads (or homemade versions).
I zapped some squares of expanded metal onto the ends of male and female threads. The female threads give fuller threads when installed, and the OD can be used as dowels too for locating the panel. If you turn the female threads with a shoulder and add a washer, they become standoffs which can be very useful.
quote:
Originally posted by sgraber
quote:
Originally posted by Rorty
Removeable panels can be held by Dzus fasteners (both 1/4 turn and latch) which offer quick removal.
For blind semi-permanent mounting, I would also recommend Big Heads (or homemade versions).
I zapped some squares of expanded metal onto the ends of male and female threads. The female threads give fuller threads when installed, and the OD can be used as dowels too for locating the panel. If you turn the female threads with a shoulder and add a washer, they become standoffs which can be very useful.
Photos please.