Has anyone ever build a fabric covered car body in the way old airplanes were built? I was thinking that a metal framework could be built in any shape you wanted, and the fabric would cover it all up. I think it would look awesome, especially done in a military war type plane theme.
The early Bi Planes used cotton and cellulose dope as covering,,very flammable. I believe today they use Ceconite,,which is very expensive. HRP
Not hamb friendly of course, but personally I think still very cool. Just goes to show, even creative new ideas, can have very old and traditional origins. http://www.wired.com/autopia/2008/06/bmw-builds-a-ca/
It was common on speedsters. There are several at http://www.nwvs.org/index.shtml Check out some of the speedster threads, and the speedster group.
You can use the same construction techniques with cloth. I've seen flannel blankets, sheets and nylon material used for this type of work, (please research what type of cloth will be most durable) and then fiberglass over it to make it durable enough to withstand all the touching, tapping and knocking it will experience from inconsiderate morons that can't keep their hands off your vehicle. Good luck and please post pics!!!
In the early 60s ,there was a roadster pickup that the body panels were covered with a brown/white cowhide pattern ,It was at Indiana, Ohio, Michigan rod/kustom shows. I'm assuming it was a Naugahiyde material.
I seem to remember a story about a lakes racer back in the day with a canvas belly pan. It caught on fire and burned to the ground. Also.... I think one of Mickey Thompson's early slingshots had a paper mache' body over chicken wire and tubing.
Rustbox said it all... you don't have to use expensive ceconite.You could use old bed sheets if you wanted.Or even new ones and cover them with some sort of coating to make it more durable.There has to be some youtubey videos out there describing how to stitch the fabric to the frame work.
I think it's great idea and something different for a new build. In the early part of the 20th century many vehicles used fabric covered bodies, even leather in some instances. Aircraft covering with cotton used "dope" that, when drying, tightened the fabric. With Ceconite, running a warm iron over the fabric shrinks and tightens the fabric. Following an aircraft refinish process can result in a very nice outcome. But I fail to understand how that is considered any more expensive than current automotive finish materials. I encourage you to follow through........sounds like a cool project. Ray
I think I'd look into the way people build skin over frame boats. Heat shrunk nylon is one of the more common methods, canvas and paint is a traditional method. Make google work for you and you should find some ideas to get the hamster wheel spinning.
If i wasnt on my hand crank phone, id give you a link to my thread on hop up mods for 28 hudson. Lots of talk there about this, as im looking at diffrent ideas for a speedster body.
Don,t need to smoke funny stuff to see that it is traditional and can look good. Was done a lot by the fancy & sporty auto body builders in the 1920s & 1930s.
Saw a car a few years ago, made his roadster top bows, and covered it like a wing, fabric and dope. Looked great. Also, Bentleys in the 20s had leather covered bodies. Light weight for these period race cars.
Fabric bodies were pretty popular in Europe (Vanden Plas Bentleys, Hispanio-Suiza, etc.) Some of the plans and several period advertisements I've come across specify DuPont Fabrikoid - which was a pyroxylin cloth. Pyroxylin is a cellulose resin - similar to nitrocellulose lacquer. These days it is most commonly seen in the form of book binding. There is a company out of the UK that specializes in Fabrikoid, with colors and embossed texture to match DuPont's old line...pm me if you'd like info.
i saw on the power block tv a few weekends back where they took some fabric and put fiberglass resin on it. might be an option tk
Duhh...why didn't I think of this? Seems like a good way to make a form for fibergass parts, like a FED body or at least a nosepiece.
I made a fan shroud by stretching some stretchy cloth over a form then coating it with resin. Later laid up another layer of cloth and resin, works pretty slick.
I have had some limited success using house painters dropcloths (canvas) and fiberglass to prototype "rough" body parts. You have to stretch it tight with clamps, weights, nails or whatever works and avoid real complex shapes or trim similar to how you would trim a stiff paper template but it holds it shape pretty well compared to thinner cloths and it is cheap enough. Downside is it takes a lot of resin to soak it to 100% penetration so it's hard to work a large area.
You know, Tom, back before you and I met, maybe only a year or so, I had sketched up plans for a low slung T frame, banger powered car with a narrowed model A cowl and hood that used small round tubing to form a speedster boat-tail.(ring roller?) I went so far as visiting some WWI aircraft restoration folks to find out what was involved. Turns out it's pretty straight foward, but definitely a practice for the patient. Give me a shout if you wanna compare notes.
Stumbled on a surprising claimed benefit of fabric bodies, at least on low speed "people's cars" of the 20s / 30s. "The DKW segment of the Union went in for two-cylinder, two-stroke engines and front wheel drive cars which featured panelled bodies in a soft and flexible fabric in an effort to reduce passenger compartment noise." A few paragraphs down here. http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/heritage_auto_union.htm
I was thinking the same thing as I read down this thread. There might be a way to spray on some sort of catalytic resin if it would soak in and, hopefully, eliminate the need to finish the surface like hand-laid resin would probably require. One of the advantages of cloth / dope is that it shrinks and dries tightly. But don't poke it with your finger! Gary
Precisely. Coachbuilt.com's page on Weymann: http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/w/weymann/weymann.htm On that page: ... and many, many more construction details.
I'd been thinking of a wooden frame panelled in 1mm "Triplex" white laminated card. That assembly gets a few coats of rattle-can enamel to waterproof the card. Then it gets clothed in selected unbleached linen that had earlier been cut and sewn as required. The linen is steeped in diluted white wood glue. When that has set and thoroughly dried it receives a coat of polyester resin and final paint. Unlike the Weymann system this would not have the flexibility to deal with frame flex, indeed it would produce quite a delicate brittle body; so it's a good thing I'm going for that eccentric interconnected suspension.
TOP MATERIAL, like the stuff on a Model A Ford is what Bugatti and others used back in the day. There was a 1/4 inch or so padding stretched over the wood framework then the top material was stretched. I just sold a 1930's issue of Popular Mechanics that had a feature on building a Speedster body this way. Bob
And, as I posted on this thread: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7721808&postcount=98 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7732632&postcount=100
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