1970 Ginetta G15

[Darkspeed]

After nice hot brew it was back out to get the steering column and the dash out another rust mess to deal with grinding of seized bolts.







I eventually got the dash out, too busy to take photo's but this is the GT6 heater which sits behind it.




A photo of the plate that sits on-top of the upper door hinge and the state of the lower dash rail



Back of the dash



And that was enough of dealing with rust for the day - so I swept up and wrapped it up.

[johnthesparky]

Is there any steelwork bonded into the glass fibre?

Or is it easy enough to see the rot?

[Darkspeed]

Jan 13, 2019 19:07:40 GMT johnthesparky said:

Is there any steelwork bonded into the glass fibre?

Or is it easy enough to see the rot?

There may be reinforcing tubing in the screen pillars - same as the G15's - but this is normally bonded in well enough not to rot out - In the rare occasions that there are problems it cuts out easy enough.

[johnthesparky]

Jan 13, 2019 19:44:19 GMT Darkspeed said:

Jan 13, 2019 19:07:40 GMT johnthesparky said:

Is there any steelwork bonded into the glass fibre?

Or is it easy enough to see the rot?

There may be reinforcing tubing in the screen pillars - same as the G15's - but this is normally bonded in well enough not to rot out - In the rare occasions that there are problems it cuts out easy enough.

It’s one of the things that has worried me a little about old kit cars, but I suppose the steel work is either ok or the rust bulges the fro and it s obvious (?)

[Darkspeed]

I have never had any bad issues with the cars I have had in the past in regard to rotting reinforcement in the glass. There was a little bit of corrosion in the G31 I had on the end of a tube that blistered the glass but it was simple enough to cut out and repair. Working with glass is easy enough if you follow the guides so just about anything can be repaired with a little skill.

Some cars can have serious issues due to the construction methods employed - Gilbern and early TVR being a couple that I am aware of, as well as the G4's with the floors bonded to the chassis.

[horrido]

Wow, it looks like it was stored in a sauna. Nice looking car that. Don´t think i saw one before.

[Implandy]

similar issues with Clan Crusader door beams!!!!

what little metal there is on fibreglass cars does seem to want to destroy itself far quicker than on a whole metal car

[Darkspeed]

Jan 13, 2019 21:19:45 GMT Implandy said:

similar issues with Clan Crusader door beams!!!!

what little metal there is on fibreglass cars does seem to want to destroy itself far quicker than on a whole metal car

It does appear that way at times doesn't it.


Glassfibre cars seem to last "on the road" not much longer than any other car. The big difference is that they last "off the road" almost indefinitely which is where the toll is taken on the ferrous, fabric, foam and natural fibre parts.

[Darkspeed]

Another few hours on the G21 today:-

Passenger door is now stripped of all its rusty hinge winder and lock remnants.
Passenger door side body hinge remnants removed
Dash lower rail removed
Heater unit removed

Various rusty bolts and screws that used to be or hold something in the past ground off and punched through.

The car has been off the road since 1983.

Jan 13, 2019 19:07:40 GMT johnthesparky said:

Is there any steelwork bonded into the glass fibre?
Or is it easy enough to see the rot?

In the image below you can see the screen pillar rod - upper left bonded in - as the bottom has not expanded and split the glass it indicates that it was well encapsulated when laid up.

[Darkspeed]

More playing with laminates today - a couple more G15 bumpers - we will have to find something else to practice with. Thinking about it we have found something else to play with as we have a couple of sets of rear inner wheel arch protectors to make - These were always better on the earlier cars as they had a full length GF sheet trimmed where as later cars the just had a short bit of tin that just rotted away.

Today the test was a laminate of 228g satin cloth 600g CSM and 228g cloth again - The last test of 3 x 228g and the Silver metallic gel went well enough apart from the streaky gel and the laminate was very uniform and only 1mm thick, but the finished part was not as torsionally stiff as we would have liked, which was as we expected due to the bi-directional nature of the cloth. We may try a lay up of cloth in the future with each layer shifted 90 degrees in the weave to increase the directional stiffness. With the 600g CSM this laminate should be very strong in all directions and also very uniform.



Just the usual Grey gel on these ones

[darrenh]

Jan 13, 2019 21:12:17 GMT horrido said:

Wow, it looks like it was stored in a sauna.

it was stored under a tarp.

but the tarp was covering a pond

[Darkspeed]

The 1973 Motor Show G21S that also featured in many road test reports of the period.

If the G21 was rare then the G21S was a rare version of this rare car as it came equipped with the "Holbay" version of the 1725cc Rootes mill.







The G21S was fitted with the 4 speed overdrive as standard whereas it was just an option on the G21 even though it seems that the mojority of the cars were specified with the overdrive.

What happened with our particular G21 is that a fault developed with the overdrive that took it off the road in 1983 and into a leaky tin shed where it stayed for 30 years.

Oh and the last set of bumpers turned out rather well.

[georgeb]

Feb 15, 2019 21:51:45 GMT Darkspeed said:

The 1974 Motor Show G21S that also featured in many road test reports of the period.

If the G21 was rare then the G21S was a rare version of this rare car as it came equipped with the "Holbay" version of the 1725cc Rootes mill.

May I congratulate them on the engine choice?

[Darkspeed]

I have always liked the look of the Holbay 1725 - many a time I have thought about buying an Alpine series 1 and dropping one in.

[georgeb]

Had one in my 1966 Alpine Series 5. Went like the clappers!

[Darkspeed]

This one looks like it has had a dose of the clappers



Has a familiar looking plate though

[peteh1969]

1725 Holbay could be a nice engine again.

[Darkspeed]

Feb 17, 2019 22:19:18 GMT peteh1969 said:

1725 Holbay could be a nice engine again.

It has all of the classic ingredients - just needs a sympathetic hand, a clean rag and can of WD40 and all will be good

[smith4]

You almost can't beat WD40. Even the smell is goood

Good work on the G21 - I don't remember seeing a G21 before. Rare car!

[darrenh]

21S is a really smart looking car