23 replies to this topic

[blue blood]

road car is all fibreglass!!! ha ha

Regards Blue

[Ethel]

They used to put fibreglass bumpers on steel cars. It has about twice strength of mild steel weight for weight and you can mould more complex shapes in one piece, making them stronger. The issues are how you attach it, it's softer & more elastic so fasteners need more contact area to spread out loads, and how it fails: it'll absorb more more energy elastically, but when it fails it dissipates that energy by flying into pieces. Steel, aluminium etc. will dent where grp would just bounce back into shape, but does tend to stay in one piece so it can absorb a second impact.

[kieranjt]

road car is all fibreglass!!! ha ha

Regards Blue

Same... opps!

[Artstu]

All GRP is better than a mix of GRP and steel in my opinion as long as the GRP is thick enough.

[SA MINI]

Anyone crashed a minus on here?

Also Everyone's seemed to have forgotten about the Reliant Robin
My mum had one of those & roled it once or twice lol

Edited by minikidx14, 13 January 2013 - 02:01 AM.

[Noah]

Anyone crashed a minus on here?

Also Everyone's seemed to have forgotten about the Reliant robin
My mum had one of those & roled it once or twice lol

I didn't think you could drive a Robin without rolling.

[SA MINI]

^ ha ha that is true.

[Tamworthbay]

They used to put fibreglass bumpers on steel cars. It has about twice strength of mild steel weight for weight and you can mould more complex shapes in one piece, making them stronger. The issues are how you attach it, it's softer & more elastic so fasteners need more contact area to spread out loads, and how it fails: it'll absorb more more energy elastically, but when it fails it dissipates that energy by flying into pieces. Steel, aluminium etc. will dent where grp would just bounce back into shape, but does tend to stay in one piece so it can absorb a second impact.

This is the crux of the problem really, composites are fundamentally different in their properties to metals. It is possible to make a structure out of composites that far exceeds the safety and strength of a minis front end. HOWEVER the flip fronts are made to save weight not add safety. The reason fibre glass has a poor reputation is because it has been used for decades by bodgers. If you see a properly put together composite monocoque you will see how strong they can be. We have built amazingly light composite cars that we race in an electric series. One rolled at highish speed at Goodwood in 2011 after it it hit bodywork debris from another car. Despite a double barrel roll and sliding for 200yds upside down it ( and more importantly the driver) were unharmed. We could have continued racing but the rules don't allow a rolled car to carry on. But it was designed to be made carbon from day one. A steel one made in the way ours was would probably have caused significant damage to the driver. It's all in the construction.

Would I fit a fibreglass front end to a road mini? Probably not.

[mab01uk]

The other problem with some fibreglass resins.......
http://www.cambstime..._fire_1_1347303

http://www.wisbechstandard.co.uk/news/firefighters_called_to_whittlesey_after_reliant_robin_is_heavily_damaged_by_fire_1_1416317

The car had just been filled with petrol at the Texaco garage and was around 10 metres from the nearest pump when the engine block began to smoulder.
Incident commander Simon Gent, of the fire service, said the three-wheeled vehicle was "completely written off".
He added: "They are made of fibre glass and they just melt and make a bit of a mess.
http://www.thisisdev...tail/story.html

Edited by mab01uk, 13 January 2013 - 11:25 AM.