In the near future i'll be putting some pannels in between sections of roll cage tube to create 'bodywork' on my landy.

What choices of materials do i have ?

Birmabright
Light gauge galv steel
Fiberglass
5 bar treadplate

What else can i use? some sort of poly

Speak to Rogue Vogue - he used some poly sheet to good effect.

How about aluminium sheet? Easy to work with, nice and light, quite a bit cheaper than checker plate (depending on how thick you go).

Ally would be easier to work and once you have bent it, it`s eay to straighten

Road signs are ally of varying thickness!

No I don't suggest nicking them but I have seen them in Scrap?

IIRC a mate made is racer out of some (not the whole thing but some of it)

Roadsigns are usually 3mm... which is actually quite a thick chunk of metal for panels, especially if weight is an issue.
The reflective coating is also an absolute swine to remove - Nitromors doesn't touch it, flames create a lot of smoke as its like burning plastic, scraping doesn't touch it.... etc etc

Good for floors and tubs, bit heavy for the rest? of course it is up to you.

Allegedly

I'd need a lot of road signs to do

front bulkhead
footwells
tunnel
floors
Rear bulkhead
roof
front wings
wing tops
door pannels
rear wings
tray back top



I think i'll use 20 gauge galv steel for the bulkead/footwells and roof for strength and protection, but still got the rest to do. Is ally sheet going to be too soft ? anyone know the price of a few sheets ?

I 'found' some 3mm ali sheet, that used to be a construction hoarding sign, in a skip. It was 4 8'x4' sheets with sticky back plastic on one side. The plastic was easy to remove, with a little heat on the back side of the sheet it pealed away easily. I used direct sunlight on some sheets and then a hot air gun when the sun retired for the night.

If you know of any construction sites that are coming to a close you might be able to 'acquire' some that way.

loads of huge signs on your end of the M4

I used some polycarb on MogLite.

I wanted some clear panels, that were double curvature.
A bit of heat sorted out the curvature.

I think it was about 2mm. I bought a load of 3'x3' sheets from ebay. Its pretty easy to work with, although double curvature needs patience.

I used 6mm polypropylene sheet, light weight, very flexible, hard to dent, available in black white and natural (beige) from my supplier, other colours may be available.

You should use metal for the bulkhead between you and the engine bay, personally I would use 18g galvanised sheet for cost reasons, it is a good compromise for cost versus strength and rigidity.

For roof sections I wish that I had used clear polycarbonate, several times I would have liked to see through the roof.

I bought my sheet from a local company who make plastic chemical tanks and duct work for ventilation, it cost about £30 for an 8x4 sheet as I recall.

A quick Google found Amari plastics who have a branch in Cardiff.

A picture of how I used plastic panels:-

Cheers guys, great help

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Plastic-Online

I have used this lot for window glass, never thought of using the coloured though.