Body Panel Molds & Fabrication

[scottjk]

I'm looking for someone to make a mold of my current body panels on a Formula Ford and produce a new set. There are also 2 potential buyers in Europe. Also need plexi windscreen production.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[DanW]

Aircraft Windshield can make you a new windscreen. They can probably cut one for you from a cardboard pattern.

Russel/Alexis is not listed, but worthy of a try with them. https://www.aircraftwindshield.com/automotive/

[Roland V. Johnson]

It is almost certainly a Lotus 51 Windscreen. They have a pattern for that.

[Roland V. Johnson]

It is almost certainly a Lotus 51 Windscreen. They have a pattern for that.

[scottjk]

That is exactly what I'm thinking. I'm wondering if the nose/cockpit cowl is the same as my early Russell Alexis. Might be much easier finding a 51 body panel.

It is almost certainly a Lotus 51 Windscreen. They have a pattern for that.

[Rick Iverson]

Aircraft Windshield can make you a new windscreen. They can probably cut one for you from a cardboard pattern.

Russel/Alexis is not listed, but worthy of a try with them. https://www.aircraftwindshield.com/automotive/

Aircraft Windshields made one for me. And it was PERFECT.

Further, while I was in Iraq 2008/09, I commissioned and underwrote a project by a gent in the Pacific NW to make RF-01 type coachwork for the midyear cars. I believe his moniker was RSF Fiberglass, and his work was exceptional. I have all the paperwork somewhere, info to follow.

At any rate, Peter Denty in England can make them. Spendy though.

[S Lathrop]

One issue I see in the picture is the roll bar height. I doubt that the roll bar height is high enough to have 3 inches above the driver's head or that a line between the top of the roll bar and the dash hoop passes over the driver's head. helmet included. In short what has changed about this car that the driver sits so high?

One problem, cars equipped with the 5 gallon wedge fuel cells that I have seen in the Zink designs is that the fuel cells force the driver into a much more vertical seating position than the cars were designed for. This leads to 3 problems. One is the drivers are not sitting much higher than the roll bar structure was designed for. Raising the roll bar compromises the mounting structure and reduces the structural strength of the roll bar compared to the original structure. Also, with the driver sitting higher in the car, the CG of of the car is higher and this reduces the cornering potential of the car. Just as bad is the increase in the frontal area of the car so the potential top speed is reduced.

Recently Chuck Brewer and I have been rebuilding the Zink Z12 FV the George Fizell won back to back runoff with. In that car the original roll bar was even with the top of the fan housing. This made for a very low/reclining seating position. But we were able to come up with the roll bar structure that meets the current rules and allows the driver to sit in the car as it was designed originally. The cowl is the original for the car and the roll bars meet the current GCR. Both Chuck and I are senior citizens but we are comfortable in the car. The fuel cell is a custom cell that wraps around the driver so that the driver's shoulders are against the fire wall The cell is the same as I used for the 84 Citation FV. For a car almost 50 years old, I think this might be a surprise on the track.

It will be fun to see what this car can do today.

[DanW]

Aircraft Windshields made one for me. And they were PERFECT.

Further, while I was in Iraq 2008/09, I commissioned and underwrote a project by a gent in the Pacific NW to make RF-01 type coachwork for the midyear cars. I believe his moniker was RSF Fiberglass, and his work was exceptional. I have all the paperwork somewhere, info to follow.

At any rate, Peter Denty in England can make them. Spendy though.

Rick Fitzgerald is Aerocraft Fiberglass
(541) 301-5135 rdee400@hotmail.com




Rick's work is absolutely first class.

[scottjk]

Roll bar height is being addressed. I'm 5'11". We are moving the pedals forward and pouring a bead seat. This should drop me low enough to clear 3". If I slink down in the seat and jam my knees in the dash I'm at 3".

One issue I see in the picture is the roll bar height. I doubt that the roll bar height is high enough to have 3 inches above the driver's head or that a line between the top of the roll bar and the dash hoop passes over the driver's head. helmet included. In short what has changed about this car that the driver sits so high?

One problem, cars equipped with the 5 gallon wedge fuel cells that I have seen in the Zink designs is that the fuel cells force the driver into a much more vertical seating position than the cars were designed for. This leads to 3 problems. One is the drivers are not sitting much higher than the roll bar structure was designed for. Raising the roll bar compromises the mounting structure and reduces the structural strength of the roll bar compared to the original structure. Also, with the driver sitting higher in the car, the CG of of the car is higher and this reduces the cornering potential of the car. Just as bad is the increase in the frontal area of the car so the potential top speed is reduced.

Recently Chuck Brewer and I have been rebuilding the Zink Z12 FV the George Fizell won back to back runoff with. In that car the original roll bar was even with the top of the fan housing. This made for a very low/reclining seating position. But we were able to come up with the roll bar structure that meets the current rules and allows the driver to sit in the car as it was designed originally. The cowl is the original for the car and the roll bars meet the current GCR. Both Chuck and I are senior citizens but we are comfortable in the car. The fuel cell is a custom cell that wraps around the driver so that the driver's shoulders are against the fire wall The cell is the same as I used for the 84 Citation FV. For a car almost 50 years old, I think this might be a surprise on the track.

It will be fun to see what this car can do today.

[S Lathrop]

I have some real world experience with roll bar height. I still have a helmet from one of the upside down trips I made, that has a skid mark on the top from the track. Just before the car went over, I remember thinking that the car I was driving was the first one I had built and the roll bar was 1 inch shorter than the cars that followed.

The current roll cage rules were based on an air cooled Super Vee that I designed and built in the middle 1970"s. That design was inspired by the crash that cost B J Swanson his life at Mid Ohio. B J was a friend and had driven one of my cars.

[E1pix]

While I hesitate going off-topic, a couple notes about BJ… I was a big fan and try to keep his memory alive.

You may like knowing a good friend in Ft. Wayne has been voluntarily tending BJ’s grave for years. Another friend in Mansfield bought Swanson’s blue T342 in ‘77 or ‘78, and in 2017 I saw a bent dash panel in his shop and asked about it. Turns out that panel was bent when a third friend’s T342 was hit by BJ on the outside of 14 at end of the ‘75 Sprints, which I witnessed. Little did I know as a 14 year-old reporter that a month later I’d watch BJ take a 4th at the F5000 race in Elkhart Lake.

I bought the dash panel and gave it to the first friend for his efforts, and it’s now on his shop wall surrounded by a lifetime collection of racing memorabilia around and above their Al, Jr. Silver Bullet Indy car.

I remember Tuck Thomas also adding a roll cage after Mid-Ohio. Many people were very impressed with BJ Swanson, he had signed to drive for Dan Gurney at Indy in 1976 as you know, and for me at 15 his was a terrible loss of a guy clearly destined for greatness — and possibly even beyond Indy.

Thanks for mentioning him.