47 Bodied Project Starts - Slightly Delayed. Big pile of bits to sort out.

[JR73]

Hi, just read through from the start and its looking good!

I am 99% certain that your shell is a Banks 47 shell, there are a number of reasons why i say this (colour of the shell when you got it, inner rear arches being 'twin cam' style, A pillars etc etc...) - i can see various openings/holes that haven't been cut out and it would have been supplied solid underneath where the tanks fit so that the builder can choose how to fit/mount them etc... Personally i'd use the extra depth of the wells to mount the tanks lower and give yourself a little more capacity - i can remove my tank from the top by removing the Roll cage rear stay that runs over the top (mine might be easier to remove than yours though?) - i did make a cardboard pattern, like you have, and had the tank made to suit with this in mind (just incase i was ever at a track and it needed to come out - the car has to lift a long way up before there's enough room to remove the tank from underneath!!)

Your pedal box looks like a 47 copy, Banks did supply those but it doesn't look like one Richard has made. Generally Richard sold his own pedal box that has a removable lid and four sides (His own design met with modern Blue Book rules that prevents fluids etc being able to make it into the cockpit) - There is a pic of one on my car thread with the lid removed.

A Naca duct mounted towards the rear of the front bonnet works very effectively at feeding fresh air into the front plenum/interior ducting. My rad is ducted out through the bonnet like yours and the Naca duct catches some of the warmed air that has passed through the rad and i can use it to prevent my windscreen from misting up whilst also circulating fresh air (no heater in mine).

Sounds like you've escaped Windsor just in time!!

[StrawberryCheesecake]

I thought it was a Banks shell too, but it’s not. It’s a very light racing shell built by Pat Thomas - who ran Kelsport before he retired and sold the business. The shell itself weighs about 100 lbs at a guess. It’s a very easy two man lift. The doors are about 1.5 kg including the Perspex.

I think the shell is from a mix of factory moulds to create a twin cam body with a 47 replica look . I spoke to Pat at Silverstone a couple of years ago but didn’t get to all the details. I had a broken racing car to fix. The owner of the golf I spanner bought the car from Pat. Pat also rebuilt his 23b when he bought it.

Having seen the banks shells, they’re a good bit thicker than this one.

Bits of the pedal box might be Banks but I’m not sure. I eyed to do some work to stiffen it a bit, but there may be a brace with it. There’s a mystery metal frame in the pile of bits.

The bonnet duct is an outlet for the rad, rather than an inlet I think. Big ally rad mounted horizontally with closing plates around it to force the air through. No spare wheel room.

[JR73]

Yeah, Pat Thomas used to buy a fair bit of stuff off Richard (Richard used to buy any Elan 26r stuff off Pat) mainly because there is a very limited market for that kind of thing and body moulds are expensive and time consuming to make, especially if someone else has already made one.
From Banks you could specify if you wanted a lightweight shell, round arches, extra depth to the rear valance area (shape of this was taken from an Alfa Romeo!), clip off rear clam etc etc and Richard would have it made accordingly. He even has moulds of a genuine 47 along with chassis and suspension jigs....  - i know the company that makes all his fibreglass stuff.

In regards to the bonnet - see picture!

[JR73]

For reference, below pic is of a Banks pedal box.

Before fitting, the base of the front plenum and up the sides was reinforced with extra fibreglass to prevent any flexing (original shells are very thin).

[StrawberryCheesecake]

Thanks. That box looks like a good option for mine. One of many jobs still to do!

[StrawberryCheesecake]

Yeah, Pat Thomas used to buy a fair bit of stuff off Richard (Richard used to buy any Elan 26r stuff off Pat) mainly because there is a very limited market for that kind of thing and body moulds are expensive and time consuming to make, especially if someone else has already made one.
From Banks you could specify if you wanted a lightweight shell, round arches, extra depth to the rear valance area (shape of this was taken from an Alfa Romeo!), clip off rear clam etc etc and Richard would have it made accordingly. He even has moulds of a genuine 47 along with chassis and suspension jigs....  - i know the company that makes all his fibreglass stuff.

In regards to the bonnet - see picture!

Thanks for the info... need to get the CSI team on the case . Would the banks shells have reinforcing plates at the bottom of the tank wells, or captive nuts into the sidewalls of the tank wells to fit metal plates? There are a lot of little non standard touches on the body which look like someone put a lot of thought into how the car was going to be built. It's possible that some of them were after the first moulding of the body, but it strikes me that it would be a lot harder to do it that way, by cutting out and replacing the first moulded fibreglass. It definitely looks like the ducts in the rear quarters were added after the first mould.

I think the bonnet is a Pat Thomas item, as he offered to sell me the mould for it when I met him at Silverstone Classic. It's in carbon/kevlar weave, rather than that heavy fibreglass stuff

[StrawberryCheesecake]

Re the bonnet, the shape of the duct is quite different to yours - more curved at the front, closer to the edge of the bonnet, and with the nostril effect of the reinforcing piece in the centre.

Back pic shows the carbon/kevlar weave - Chapman tartan!

I included a couple of pics which show the radiator installation - there's are a couple of support bars that it's mounted on as well.







Also the tank wells - the captive fixings for these plates have been pre moulded into the body. Doesn't look like a cut and shut either.

[JR73]

Front bonnet is definitely nothing to do with Banks, could well be something that Pat Thomas had something to do with as the shape of the duct looks to be identical to the front bonnet off a Mk1 Lotus Elise/Exige/Motorsport Elise - which Kelvedon offered a range of parts for so Pat would have likely had a mould to hand to produce a section to graft in.
That would also explain why your radiator is positioned the way it is (looks to be horizontally mounted? - just like an Elise) as the underside of the duct in the Elise bonnet is shaped to meet up with the radiator.

The duct in the Banks bonnet starts from much deeper inside the front, the radiators where generally positioned at about 30 to 45 degrees and sat on an aluminum ducting that held the radiator in place whilst also channeling all of the air that entered through the front grill (number plate aperture) through the radiator (no air could bypass around the sides of the rad due to this ducting). Once the radiator was mounted the lower edge of the bonnet duct was trimmed to seal against the rear face of the radiator which controlled where the exiting air from the radiator could flow (up and out over the top surface of the front bonnet etc).

Fibreglass is a wonderful medium, properly done you shouldn’t be able to tell where any modification has taken place - I have grafted whole sections into shells that once finished, even the person that crashed it couldn’t find where it had been joined!
If somebody was methodically going about constructing the various aspects of your car then there is no reason why they couldn’t have added all sorts of different fixings/reinforcements etc that made sense to them and installed to a high standard that makes them look ‘factory’ - it’s the sign of a good job if it’s hard/impossible to see the join!!

[StrawberryCheesecake]

I agree that you can disguise a join in fibreglass, but I can see some of the mods that were done after the initial mould - e.g. the rear ducts and the front of the bonnet landing panel

There are a number of aluminium 'closing panels' that came with the car, which will force the air under the rad, and then up through it. I think it should work fairly well

Interesting point on the bonnet. It may well be a mould from an Elise grafted into a Europa mould, or possibly just inspired by it.

Thanks for all the input.

[Chuck Nukem]

Cheesecake, how is this project going?