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Stradale-inspired build

12K views 55 replies 15 participants last post by  KREBS Pierre 
#1 ·
I am an experienced builder of one-off racecars and kitcars. My latest project is a Stradale lookalike. After much research I found that there are 2 distinctly different sets of plans/blueprints circulating on the internet.One set is from Style-Auto magazine, and all the other plans you see seem to be derived from a second set of blueprints. What can be seen as a glaring difference between the 2 sets of plans is that the StyleAuto set have the 4 headlights and a MUCH more rounded or eliptical cross-section to the cabin and windscreen. I take the StyleAuto plans(drawn on 100mm squares ) to be the original Franco Scaglione design. I have read that Franco was bitterly dissapointed with the way the Stradale build proceeded, and I have deduced(wheher rightly or wrongly) that the eliptical-windshield drawings were Francos original design , and that he was forced by Chiti into modifying his design to suit the available T33 Daytona windscreens.So what I have decided is that I am building the body shape as Franco would have intended.I may be romanticising this story, but as a car designer myself I have experienced the unwanted input of financial and administrative restrictions and interference so I can imagine the frustration Franco must surely have felt as his design was diluted.Anyway, whether my story has merit or not, the car I am making is taken from the design in the StyleAuto foldout,and if my story is correct, I will be producing the Stradale shape as Franco intended it to be
 

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#8 ·
Fabulous great skills ,wondering what sort of underpinnings you have in mind (ladder frame tube or based on an already available chassis \ sub frame?) engine choice etc .etc. Regards John
 
#10 ·
I like the cut of your jib, sir!...as well as the lines of your car. I completely understand your reasoning in the original post.

Question: How do you fabricate the glass in a situation like this? You can define / describe the shape, but how is it made in a one-off?
 
#12 ·
Very coool, this will be interesting to watch the progress. Like others have asked, what engine , gear box, ect. Are you thinking of installing, in this automotive art?
 
#15 ·
I will be using a cut and chopped Toyota MR2 SW20 chassis( please supress your howls of outrage) lowered rear strut towers and short Subaru struts, at the front I delete the struts and towers and convert to wishbone /coilovers to clear the low bodywork. This is all work I have done before on 2 previous projects so nothing new there. Power is Alfa V6 3 litre 24 valve mated to the Toyota 5 speed. Once again , plenty of people have put V6 engines into MR2s(even the occasional V8) so no biggie.Front screen will be laminated glass made locally by the company that makes the racing car screens using the cutout as a pattern for the mould that the glass will be formed over, this will probably be the most expensive item in the build. side , rear and top windows drape-moulded from polycarbonate at another company that does boat screens.These people are all contacts from my racing car life.The MR2 will have the upper portions chopped off above the top door-hinge, then a tubular roll-cage structure will support the Stradale bodywork
 
#19 ·
looking at your title picture, before I started the Stradale, it was a toss-up between TZ2, Canguro or Stradale. Maybe the Canguro and TZ2 can come later?I am 67 this year...the undertaker will probably have to scrape fibreglass off my hands when he puts me in the coffin
 
#22 · (Edited)
Hull Lines

It is interesting in going from drawings to the buck to the fiber-glass body.
Decades ago I took up White Water kayaking and canoeing. The latter both Solo and Tandem.
Then came across a vintage wood-canvas canoe. it was a Chestnut Leader--an 18-foot canoe designed in 1908 as a down-river racer. High bow and stern with gorgeous lines. The one I had was built in 1968.
And it was fast--Kevlar versions still winning races in wild rapids into the 1990s when such racing in BC fell out of favour.
A friend and I took the hull lines from my boat and he built a copy out of wood strips, that looked fantastic.
:)
 
#24 ·
In previous builds I fitted foam blocks between the formers and then shaped the foam. It was a youtube video on making wood-strip canoes and kayaks that prompted me to try the woodstrip method this time, it has worked out great and I will definitely use this method again on my next build, an Indy roadster
 
#25 · (Edited)
The form is coming together nicely. Is that the mold then, not the finished panels? Is there much interpolation from 2D drawings in shaping? Did they ever build a full size prototype of this particular version?

Process question :
It seems similar to wooden boat building - stations, lines, drawing curves.
When you cut your station or section forms, do you take the final shape you're hoping to achieve, then subtract the thickness of the fiberglass and bondo mold, then the wood strips, to determine the profile dimension? The way in a boat you would go from your hull lines, then subtract the planking to determine the shape of the ribs.

If there is a more drastic curve you want, between section forms, do you add an intermediate form there to hold the wood slats to shape? Or maybe your foam block idea could work there in those cases.
 
#26 ·
these are the actual panels, although moulds could then be taken from them when painted, same as I did on my 38 Alfa 8C lookalike kitcar. But even though I have made a reasonabl living from kit and race cars over the years, I have no plans to reproduce this as a kit .I am retired now and the sole motivation for doing this is happiness and recreation as well as mental and physical fitness(try block-sanding fibreglass for a few weeks!). If I never have to attend a show or do marketing or listen to dickheads tell me how they would have done it better then I will be a happy man.yes, I subtracted the thickness of the woodstrips and f/g from the station drawings.No, this shape has never been produced, they were all "square windscreen"(just this year a company in England has released a kit that is based on moulds thaken off a "square screen" bodyshell.They have done a very nice job) yes I used intermediate stations and foam blocks for the tightest curves at the base of the headlights.The next batch of pictures I post will be after the panels have been cut into 3 pieces(front,middle,rear) and removed from the wooden buck(which will be trashed).Then I will show how I form all the 90degree returns on edges, stiffening ribs, hardpoints for mounting,and rebates for door and window rubbers. The final layer of sprayable polyester filler will be done AFTER all internal stiffening because the process of bonding ribs and rebates etc to the inside of a relatively thin fg shell always results in "print-through" or "sinkback" on the outer surface which then needs to be filled amd smoothed.Sinkback or localised shrinkage is always an issue on fg shells that have regions that are filled to varying degrees,its best to give the shell plenty of time,heat and UV rays(sunlight) before the final pe-paint sanding
 
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