Motorcycle car – how do I build the body?

Eek, those things look kinda scary. I'd rather do one with a car front end and steering and the motorcycle back end. I remember seeing one a while back that was built to be kind of like an Indycar for the street, used a Hayabusa engine and rear section, with a custom built open-wheel race car style front end and cockpit. Think it'd be hard to control, especially at speed, with only one front wheel. Sounds like an interesting project, sorry I know practically nothing about fiberglass.

Something to check out though would be Experimental-class aircraft. A friend of mine built his 3-seater airplane from scratch, and in order to do so, had to become very proficient in fiberglass work.

 

EAA.org will tell you everything you need to know about experimental aircraft. They have fiberglass and composite workshops from time to time. Not a bad idea Joel. HTH.

 

that is some SWEET engineering there. Reminds me of a really heavy version of the Akira bike. Fibreglass is fairly straitforward. Build a skeleton out of wood then cover the shell in something like grill cloth or urethane foam, then get some resin and glass chop(best place for supplies is boating stores, you'll be going through resin by the gallon so it's best to get it in as large quantities as possible), and start layering. It takes anywhere from 3 to 15 layers to get the desired strength. However due to it's nature the sky's the limit when it comes to design. A word of caution though fibreglass may be strong but does not flex much therefore put too much strain on it and it starts to splinter and crack. fibreglass slivers are nearly invisible but are very painful. Anymore specific questions i'll be delighted to answer. My pals and i have been building fibreglass enclosures for speakers that merge perfectly with the trunk for a while now.

 

Check these out SnoSheriff, they are supposed to be available in the States later on this year. A little pricey right now as they are still handmade, but once they get them on an assembly line and the price comes down, I'm buying one. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: They look so fun.

Carver

 

One way to built a body/shell would be the same process that they used on the Centurian? Is that the right name? It was a car you could buy plans for back in the 80's. Built on a Triumph Spitfire chasis, powered by a 3 cylinder diesel engine, got 60-100 mpg. Anyways, you basically form the body out of foam. Then lay up 2-3 layers of fiberglass on the outside, once the fiberglass cures, you lay up 2-3 layers of glass on the inside. This makes a very strong "foam sandwich". It is very rigid and has built in thermal and noise insulation.

When I worked at a boat factory, we used the same process to construct proto-type hulls. When a design went into production we built molds off of these foam core proto-types. Fast and cheap way to find out what does and doesn't work on boats, why not what you are thinking about?

 

If I remember right, (I've slept since then :lol: ), polyurethane or polyisocyanurate foam can be used. The polyisocyanurate has slightly higher insulative qualities, but it also has a higher price tag on it. They are a closed cell foam (tiny air bubbles). You cannot use polystyrene foam, that's the stuff that they use to make disposable ice-chests and foam cups out of, you know, the little foam beads that are heated and pressed in a mold. Why you ask? The catalysts in the fiberglass will dissolve the foam like sprinking salt on a slug. Gets real messy real fast. 8O

 

Oops, sorry I missed this one. No the Centurian was a car you built on your own. There wasn't a kit sold, they were all built as one-off. If I remember right, the plans were sold by Popular Mechanics magazine. I'll bet if you googled Centurian something would come up on them.

 

here's a site that features a lot of content on the kind of things this topic is talking about includign the plans for the centurion(the spitfire) and one known as the Tri-magnum. Have a look. The appearance of some of the vehicles is extremely dated though.

Robert Riley Plans

 

jawa also makes some nice 500cc buggy's

lemme find the link and i'llshow it to ya!

the only prob is it is czech language

 

hmm i cant find the "edit" button?

ok i found it! here it is:

http://www.jawa-auto.com/modely.html#ROADSTAR

if someone could tell me what it says and the price

in u.s. $ i would apreciate it!

 

You need one of these...

Saving The Environment Twice As Fast As Anyone Else

 

8O 8O That's pretty cool.

 

Sno, have you seen these models?

http://www.ecomobile.com/

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinside ... -73731.htm

 

Looks awesome, but I'm starting to wonder if the car will do anything other than donuts?? :lol:

 

Mmmmm...Donuts 8O

 

Found another one for you SnoSheriff.

Vortex

I think you started something here. It would be nice to put an XJ in one of these things. That way on nice days drive the bike to work. And on bad days drive one of the many cars posted here on this thread. 8)

 

There was a three wheeled design in the 80's called the Trihawk. Harley Davidson bought them out, I think, but never did anything with the design. It had two wheels in the front, and a single wheel in the back. Here are a couple of links about it... Trihawk and Trihawk article. There are some pictures on the Trihawk site, and one with the article.

 

The "scorpion" (based on the vortex) has to be my favorite design wise so far. Now is it just me or are these ridiculously long looking. I think they would handle and look a lot better if shortened by about 2 feet or so.

 

what do u'all think of the jawa's?

i think they make more sense than the rest!

 

Sorry for bringing this one back from the dead, just happened to run across this on ebay, and I thought of this thread:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1974-TRI ... dZViewItem

 

Someone build one and let me know how insurance goes

I have thought it would be cool, good MPG like a MC, but more weather and crash protection.. and the cool factor ;p

Some people have been trying to do 2 front, 1 rear, and tilt the front wheels, this provides even more agressive cornering.. BMW or Mercedes built a proto..

 

I thought that Trivette that Joel07 linked to on ebay had pretty impressive mileage, until I saw that it was powered by a FIAT engine! yikes! The only way it gets so many miles per gallon is that you'll end up pushing or towing after it breaks down.

 

Hey look here , a mini with hayabusa engines , i think i spelt that correct.

if i ever get back there i would think about it...


http://www.zcars.org.uk/montecarlo/index.htm

 

Snosheriff.

I can't find anything about google links anywhere on the page and I'd love to support the site.

Faighaigh.

 

my new favorite so far is vigilante(a variation of the tri-vette). It looks very similar to the 3-D model I was working on for Sno. Eerily similar, in fact. If you follow the link on the page in Joel's eBay post to the vigilante homepage(www.vigilante.com). You can see that there is a version with the Chevy V-8 in it. Billed as an exotic instead of an economy car. It also said that if one was interested in getting good gas mileage, Putting in a Volkswagen diesel engine with the Turbo works well. Although not as fun as the 350 hp V-8. It still would be nice to get around 100+ miles per gallon. So far have found it difficult to come up with a design for an enclosed motorcycle that looks good. however not wanting to copy the design of the vigilante. I guess I have to start over again.

 

Just thought you all might want to know, this TriVette sold for $4,000 on ebay. I didnt think it would go for that much

 

hell, i would pay 4g for that in a heartbeat, that is if i had access to that kind of money. Take the fiat engine out and put something better in.

 

Well, this isn't exactly the same spirit, you know, of a home-brewed monster, but there's the T-Rex. It's a tad pricey, but it certainly works as a "proof of concept" car.

 

http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/05/31/ ... -pavement/ you guys should check out these things. Back in the late eighties, yamaha was messing around with a design much like this one. This is the new rave in europe. I can see why...Yeowsa!