Lotus 7/Locost Aero Rebody

[Grant-53]

Try searching for paper model instructions for classic sports cars such as the Shelby Cobra coupe or the Ferarri 250 GT/LM. Generally speaking a belly pan angled up front to rear at +8 degrees and a roof angle of -10 degrees. Body sheets can be formed easily into cone sections, see some drafting books on sheet metal development for ductwork. I use such shapes for my bicycle fairings.

[Arragonis]

There is a guy in the UK who runs a Rover SD1 with a Chieftan tank engine in it (24 litre V12). The engine pokes into the cabin so a conventional screen is impossible. He uses acrylic / plexiglass / perspex type of material. Most of the time he doesn't run with wipers as they would scratch the screen. He only fits them when the car goes for the MOT (safety) test or in really bad weather.

Obviously the screen will get marked and scratched over time but he just replaces it every couple of years - he describes it like getting a new set of eyes ;-)

He did the Nurburgring in it lates last year and has a target of 200mph eventually.

[hypermiler01]

Not sure what they would cost, but GT1 race cars are narrow with teardrop rooflines.



One of the race teams might be able to hook you up with a windshield.

[orange4boy]

I actually slump glass all the time. I have a large kiln I made for firing my glass art. Christ was bang on about slumping lam. glass. Not possible.

Laminated windshields are slumped with the two layers separated by a special powder so they don't fuse. That way they will have a uniform gap between them for the plastic layer to be vacuum bonded to. They are not tempered so they could be carefully cut. Abrasive water jet would be a good way but I'm not sure about how they would deal with the curved glass. A fine grit diamond wet saw could do it.

I bet custom laminated windshields would cost a king's ransom outside Cuba. Best bet would be to find a junked MG or something like that.

Acrylic is far easier to deal with and can be polished if scratched. It's a one step bending process. You can also get it with a teflon coating which helps resist scratching.

It's pretty easy to make a hot wire bending tool for acrylic. See Instructables. You would be limited to straight bends though instead of curved. Would still look nice and vintage.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by orange4boy

...

Legality issues not withstanding.

[lunarhighway]

have you looked at the first gen saab 900? it's nicely curved and with the angle changed it'll make one of the more aerodynamic and available windows out there...

also but perhaps more difficult to find, the original opel GT has a nice piece of glass up front

[Christ]

Is there a law against having a split in the front windshield?

That might make your life easier to find "any 'ole" tapered windshield, cut it in half, put a splitter in the middle and then trim the two pieces of glass down to whatever shape they need to be for whatever profile you like.

[Frank Lee]

Microbusses a.k.a. Splitties are fine with a center post.

Another option I didn't notice mentioned is there are some really neat REAR glass shapes available that could be suitable for windshield use. Much wider variety of shapes than windshields.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Microbusses a.k.a. Splitties are fine with a center post.

Another option I didn't notice mentioned is there are some really neat REAR glass shapes available that could be suitable for windshield use. Much wider variety of shapes than windshields.

Again, legality issues. Front windshield, AFAIK, HAS to be laminated. The rest are usually just tempered.

[Frank Lee]

That could be... who's gonna check?