GD427 MK IV

GD427 MK IV
What my car should look like when finished - Stoneleigh 2015

Saturday 31 October 2015

Chassis

After a lot of pondering about which chassis to go for I eventually opted for the EURO chassis.  It is a bit more expensive that the JAG based, but I thought that I would prefer the newness.

I was originally going to go for a JAG based one - I even have an old XJS available (Which is now for sale)

I thought how I would prefer to build the car from scratch and the EURO option seemed only to be available as a rolling chassis which ruled it out, or so I thought.....

I discussed at length with Andy regarding rust prevention since living in Shetland can be quite harsh.  (You may ask why am I building an open topped car?)

I have researched hot dip galvanising, but this isn't a preferred option due to the potential for twisting the chassis, not to mention all the holes that require to be drilled into all the tubes to let zinc in and air out.

The powder coating process is quite good, however if it cracks at all then water finds its way in and the powder coating can peel off.

I then looked into hot metal spraying which coats the bare steel in hot molten metal.  It ends up similar to hot dip galvanising protection, but the insides can't be coated.  This will have to be coated with some cavity wax of some sort to prevent rust from forming on the inside.

I discussed with Andy and let him know my thoughts and he agreed that I could take a EURO chassis unassembled, apart from the wheel bearings pressed in by GD.  This way I can get the best rust protection I can.  GD don't provide this sort of coating yet and so that is the reason of the unassembled chassis.

I'm sure this will take a lot of phone calls to GD to assist since there is no build manual!

I plan to hot metal spray all the bare metal parts, but I will decide once I get them here.


This rolling chassis was on display at the GD stand at Stoneleigh 2015.  I hope mine looks like this someday...

This is what mine looks like today.....




2 comments:

  1. Jonathan, we met at the GD Blyton trackday earlier this year - I'm Mark the baldy bloke who was talking to you about the same black Mk4 Euro.
    I've since taken delivery of a Mk4 in white with black stripes. After seeing Keith Townsend's car at Blyton I decided to go with white.

    Glad to see you're well on the way with your build - looks like Andy's storeroom.

    Hope it all goes well and you can contact me on
    m.thornton10@ntlworld.com if you want any small talk to keep your enthusiasm going. I've also been in touch with Dale as he doesn't live far from me.

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  2. So why have you got an open car in Shetland?

    ReplyDelete