Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Martin, in enige so 'n projek is daa4 hierdie frustrerende tydperke waar dit voel asof mens niks vordering maak nie.

Ek dink ek nader nou die einde van een van daai, en hop3lik teen die einde van die naweek sal daar sigbare vordering wees om met julle te deel.

So, what material for the body? Sheet steel is relatively easy to work with, but also fairly heavy. It is relatively difficult to get odd shapes out of unless you spend a lot of money on forming tools, although that's not a big issue here.

Aluminium is much lighter, but even more difficult to work with, and relatively expensive too.

I also considered Alcobond. This fairly new material is a composite made of two thin sheets of Aluminium sandwiching a sheet of LDPE. Light, relatively sturdy and not insanely expensive, it is unfortunately impossible to form except in very long radii. So it can't be bent to form an edge. And it's not terribly strong either.

As a long-time Lotus fan, I have a soft spot for glass fibre. But as a lazy bastard, you won't really see me building moulds too often. A few years (actually decades) ago, I built a light game-viewing vehicle. During the process I "developed" a simple method of working with glass fibre: build a frame of wire mesh and lay fibreglass on both sides. This proved to be simple and easy and incredibly strong.

This time, I went a step further. I found a company in the cape who make flat glass fibre sheetin widths up to 2.5 m and thickness of 2 or 3mm. One side is gel-coated. This is generally used for making semi-trailer bodies.

My idea was to rivet it together using aluminium angle sections at the corners, and then add extra layers of mat and resin on the inside. I also used some steel sections as formwork in specific areas.

However, when the sheet arrived (a piece 2.5m x 5.9m long) rolled into a coil af 400mm in diameter, I started worrying that it was not going to be sturdy enough.

I started by cutting it out using a jigsaw, and that's when the big itch started. This stuff is quite abrasive, and chewed a jigsaw blade up in no time.
I started upside down, as the top would eventually be flat.
I started with narrow strips in the corners:
The formwork was cut to try and get a good bond with the glass fibre.

I then added a wider strip in each corner, followed by an extra layer on most sections of what would eventually be the roof and bulkheads.

With this done, I then added the panels that would becomne the floors of the various boxes. Gladly, during this process the box has become really sturdy.

To do the corners and panels of these sections however, I needed to turn it over, as fibreglass does not stick to overhead surfaces. So I just put it on the trailer...
Luckily, pretty much everything fits and the mounting bolt holes all line up. Unfortunately, due to bad planning I promptly ran out of resin...

Note that the "furry stuff" is a layer of heavy cling wrap applied to the gel coated surface to protect it. I have been peeling it back from the edges before assembly.

Single glass fibre work had perforce stopped for the weekend, I started installing the kitchen unit.
This needs to slide out the side by about a metre, but since drawer sliders that long are insanely expensive (a 600mm slider costs around R250 from a cabinet-fixture-supplier, an 800mm unit R350 but the cheapest 1m slider I could find was R1500), therefore I designed two sub-frames. On the one side, I welded a 10mm round bar to the bottom of the drawer frame, and turned up grooved rollers. These are fitted to ball bearings, and bare ball bearings are mounted above them.
On the other side I just used ball bearings both top and bottom.
The sunken-in side will have a two-burner stove mounted on top, the rest is a working surface. Under the stove there will be two drawers slideing out at right angles to the main slider. The first one is quite shallow and will be used for plates, cutlery and spices, and the one below it for mugs, glasses and a couple of wine glasses for the ladies.
A third drawer fits under the working surface, sliding out in the same direction as the kitchen slider.

These have been made and fitted, but removed again for painting.

These light guards have a double purpose:
A table clips into grooves at the bottom:
This has a hole cut in it to accept a wash basin.
When not fitted, the table will live in a large drawer ander the kitchen cabinet.

Nice
Almost there Peter

Dankie Peter

looking good bud!!!

Thanks Dustin, Martin and Cedric.