2B

[Guest Edward Parkinson]

Hi im new to the club, me and my son are re- building a 2B .  We have a 2.0 zetec with a MT75 gearbox.  The car came with a 1.6 Pinto engine and box fitted.  Can anyone advise on the prop shaft we need.  Original is too short and has a splined shaft and new box a completely different set up.  Also we would like  to replace the stainless side panels, rear tub and bonnet with GRP, Side panels, rear tub, scuttle and bonnet.  Any help would be great, Thanks EDD & Jack.

[Kerry]

Welcome to the club Edd

I have previously been to a propshaft company and had it made to the correct size, there are plenty about who can do this.

I am sure there are members rubbing their thumbs at present who will respond regarding the panels, and they will be along shortly, stay safe and keep busy.

 

[nicko]

Welcome, there are no "off the shelf" GRP parts for a 2B and as they are generally larger than say a Locost, generic panels will probably need a lot of modifying. Luego do a larger 7 style car, so that may help.

Vinyl wrap or paint is always an option.

HTH

Nick 

[keith kelly]

Only grp avail for the 2b are the arches and nose . If the panels are a bit battered Gbs may be able to provide a new set all nice and shiny I know Andi got a new rear end from them a while back. Alternative is to wrap as mentioned above. 

[FERRINO]

Hi Ed - As mentioned above the much larger size of the 2B makes it impossible to buy GRP side panels/rear tub/bonnet etc off the shelf.

I managed to fit GRP all round - except the bonnet - but it wasn't easy.

The closest GRP bodied car in terms of size is the Haynes Roadster which plenty of places make bodywork for still. I bought a Roadster rear tub - cut it down the middle - extended it (60-70'ish mm from memory) - reconnected it with small aluminium box section top and bottom and made an infill section to cover the gap.

This gives you proper 'flat' sides to which you can mount GRP rear wings - I used GBS Zero rear wings but my wheels were really wide. You can use normal width locost/roadster rear wings though.

For the side panels - again Haynes Roadster is very close and almost does fit straight off the shelf. The 2B chassis is a little taller though (5-6mm only!), so I ended up having to cut the top and bottom return flanges almost fully off. You then have to use fixings in from the sides into the chassis tubes as obviously you don't have the top/btm to fix with anymore. You could bond them on though if you didn't want to have fixings showing on the sides - but then it's harder to remove them if you ever needed.

For the bonnet - I couldn't get anything even close to fitting and had to resort to aluminium. Even then, there aren't any companies that do one 'off the shelf' and mine was just a lucky Ebay find. If you're handy with fabrication you could always have a go at rolling your own?

Hope that helps anyway - and good luck with the rebuild!

Cheers

Tony

[agent_zed]

Is there a reason for wanting GRP? I know there is the potential for more shaped sides etc but if you are just flat panelling then metal is in many ways better.

I'm not sure how much they have improved the flame retardation of modern grp but it can burn with sufficient heat input. Penetration from impacts is likely to be less with metal also. So for safety i'd go will metal.

If you watch any of the american car shows they are the opposite and want 'steel bodies' on their hotrods and consider GRP to be undesirable. We brits seem to like it though and to be honest i would quite like a full grp shell for mine but for the above reasons i'm sticking with metal.