I'm going to be making the supports for my new windscreen shortly. And I plan to get the material soon. Trouble is, I can't decide on the material to use!

I could follow the book and use mild steel strip. That would work, but I like the look of aluminium or stainless steel.

Ali would have to be quite thick, for strength, and I can't weld it, so it would have to be cut from sheet. Bending it to the scuttle would be "interesting".

Stainless would be stronger, and I could weld it with my DC TIG, but would also be hard to bend to the scuttle.

Perhaps other builders could describe their own experiences with their screen supports, before I go out and buy the mild steel strip I was going to buy in the first place!

David i have the mild steel lolocost/Robinhood ones on mine that will be changed to some aluminium ones i had laser cut over winter the mild steel ones have bugged me for ages just never go round to changing them.
The paint keeps cracking with the flex of the brackets, have re-painted them a number of times but the same happens again.

If you want Martins details for some laser cut brackets u2u me he can do stainless or aluminium at very reasonable prices.

Cheers Dave..

I have used 6mm ali, not been on the road long though... And it was "Interesting" forming it to fit (ended up using a very large adjustable spanner and vice needed to bounce all my weight on the end of the spanner but it worked..

I used 6mm for SVA purposes (as you can get the correct radius on it) it is also strong enough two.

Dan

[Edited on 18/9/09 by Bluemoon]

I used 3mm steel initially, which rusted pretty quickly. I now have 3mm ali. Ideally this could be a bit thicker, but seems OK.

Mine are 5mm alui, perfectly strong enough, and have enough meet to countersink the mounting holes

Took AGES to carve them out of a large alui sheet though !

^^^ snap about a whole weekend... And then some more time finishing them off!! Still not polished enough but I had had enough!!

Must get a polishing wheel!!

Dan

[Edited on 18/9/09 by Bluemoon]

quote:

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Originally posted by steve m
Mine are 5mm alui, perfectly strong enough, and have enough meet to countersink the mounting holes

Took AGES to carve them out of a large alui sheet though !

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I used 3mm Stainless steel for mine (went on post SVA). I supplied a CAD drawing to my local engineering company and they laser cut it for me. Minimal polishing too. I've used button headed screws to hold the screen in, looks OK IMO.

I've used steel, which bends to the scuttle easily. It does rust fast around here with our humid summers. I've painted it with TremClad (much like Hammerite, I think). Did several coats, wetsanding with 600 and then 1000 grit. Not perfect, but came out nicely, if I do say so!

3mm ally, cut from sheet for me.

Still haven't fitted the glass in yet.

Paul G

As a matter of interest - why do we all copy the Ron Champion design for windscreen supports? Here's a picture of the Westfield one, which uses just 2 M6 bolts.



Maybe all we need is one straight length? My scuttle is covered in steel sheet, which is tougher than the Westfield fibreglass one.

Discuss...

[Edited on 18/9/09 by David Jenkins]

Well, my scuttle is all ally, 20 gauge, so very thin. The triangular design spreads the load a bit.

Mine are triangular but only have two bolts at the base..