Davrian Mk3 1968

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plasticfantastic
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:51 pm

Davrian Mk3 1968

Post by plasticfantastic »

Hi all,

It's long overdue that i start a build diary here for my davrian, i have been meaning to for a couple of years now, but it's not until recently that i have actually started on her properly. I will copy and paste my build thread here from another forum and will keep it upto date in future.

Around 4 years ago a hear of a Davrian that was for sale locally, so i jumped straight in the car needing to hear nothing else! The car in question was stripped in the mid 80's and has been sat in a loft until it was decided it was in the way, when i pulled up in the car this is what i found.....

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A deal was done and a few weeks later i went back and collected her....

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Even though it had been totally dry in the loft, the cage had condensated inside resulting in this.....

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I think a new cage may be needed! She then went into storage for about a year until i could make enough space for her in the workshop. A few months ago that finally happened......

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There is a long road ahead involving remaking pretty much all bodywork. The final plan for the car is for it to be a road car, but as it has a race history i plan to keep it in that style. The front of the car is standard Mk3 but at some stage in it's life the rear has been adapted to a later style, because its wider and as a race car it probably had 8 or 10 inch wide rear wheels. I plan to run 13x10 inch rears and 13x8 inch fronts.

So far i have done a quick bit of cutting and shutting to see how i want the body to finally look. Main changes are to the wheels arches as i wasn't happy with the shape of the lips. Heres how the mods went....

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Pretty happy with the front arch, this is only temporary, until i get all the running gear and wheels on then i can line them up properly.

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The rear wheel arch will be filled so it is less of a bubble arch and more of a rolled lip. The i decided to see how a vent similar to the 250gto would look....

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This bring us upto today, this morning i decided to try some mod sport style corner spoilers and some very over the top front dive plaines, not sure if they will be for road use though?!..

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Pretty close, not quite happy with the indicator....

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I cut the nose appart so it lines up with the bonnet better, once its bonded up I can then attack the shut lines around the bonnet. I also dropped in a pair of 7 inch headlights I had lying around. To me they look too big and always do on Davrians as they are tiny cars, But withought the surrounds they look much better. I'm also going to make clear covers to go over the headlights with custom chrome surrounds to hopefully really finish the front end off.

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I'm also designing up a set of badges to go on the car, just waiting to hear back on a few quotes for having them waterjet cut in alloy. I then want to get them chromed. The first one will be done in 2 sizes, small to go into the wings behind the front wheels and a larger one to go into the front grill. The second badges is to go onto the rear. I will recess it into the fibreglass aswell as the ones in the front wings.

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I've also taken the big stepof removing the rear arches as the shutline of my rear end isnt the same as other davrians. Now I just have to bond the wings to the rear and do the returns so it all bolts to the body. In the shed I have a standard mk4 road rear end so I'm using this to make the returns on the car then i'll fit my back to it. It will be useful to have the narrow rear so I don't always have to run the 10 inch wide tires!

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Bit more progess on the Davrian today, i have been sanding off all the paint and filler on the rear of the cab so i can sort the returns for th rear end.

The passenger side had lots of layers of paint and a fair thickness of filler. I plan to remover all filler from the car so i can do all the repairs properly, then i will probably etch prime the shell so i can see how it looks, then i'll start with the filler work.

I now have the standard road rear end attatched and ligned up as square as you can on a Davrian. I used a piece of inch bar through both trailing arms so i could get both wheel arches lined up. I then taped up the joins and painted some gel on, hoping to get the retunrs layed up later. You cant see the returns in the picsture so it will make more sense once i take the back back off! but you can see it is all better aligned than in the previous pictures......

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I finally got round to laying up the returns on the rear of the cab, but i havent yet taken the back off as i thought i would have a go at finishing up the wheel arches while it was in place. I have also started removing the old paint with a chisel and started to give it a bit of a rub down. I have also fitted some running gear so i can check that everything lines up properly.

As an experiment i layed up a small quick mould off of the rear of the passenger side rear ach. Once it was dry i removed it trimmed it up, then i put it on the front of the drivers rear arch to see how it looked. It looked close enough so i glued the mould in place then gel'd and layed it up from the back. A bit of cooking with the hair dryer and i was able to take the mould off to see how it looked..........

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Popped the back off this morning so i could see what the returns are like, even though i havent yet finished the front of the passenger side rear arch. Next i want to refit my original rear end to make sure its all going to work before i finish up the cab. Hoping to have the original rear back on after lunch.

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A few pictures of the original back end on the car again, only dropped on for now as i just wanted to see how all the shut lines and returns looked before i finish them on the cab. I now have the road back end on the car so i can finish up the passenger side arch. Im also going to take some moulds off both the rear arch lips so i can transfer the shape to the original rear as it has no returns on them.

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Sorry it got a bit pic heavy, but we all like pictures dont we?!

Comments good or bad always appreciated

Cheers
Last edited by plasticfantastic on Tue Jan 28, 2014 7:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
plasticfantastic
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:51 pm

Re: Davrian Mk3 1968

Post by plasticfantastic »

I found myself with a few spare hours today and before i knew it i was standing in

a pile of fiberglass, airsaw and chisel in hand, itching all over and wondering

what had i just done?! I had to keep telling myself that sometimes you have to go

backward to go forwards. The old front came off in around 4 main pieces, lots and

lots of repairs and extra fiberglass in the front end from its old racing days.

The front was pretty much beyond repair, atleast while it was still on the car,

but being a Mk3 its a fixed front design. A few months ago i picked up a never

used Mk5 front with flip up lights, the Mk5 is a removable front design and it

makes working on the front end much easier. My plan is to fit this front to my

car, updating it to mk5 removable design, eventually i wil then rebuild the

original front end onto the car making it look like a Mk3 again but being

removable.

After hours of hacking and stabbing at foam i finally managed to get the drivers

side fuel tank out and for an almost 50 year old tank it doesnt look too bad, but

I'm pretty sure it leaks because the foam under the tank was wet and smelt of

really stale fuel.

Then decided i had enough of stabbing foam for one day and chose to rip off some

old repairs on the front from an old accident instead, and took the high speed

sander to the drivers front corner to get 40+ years of grime off.


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Got a bit further with the Davrian today. The passenger side fuel tank is now out and all supporting foam removed. I finished removing the extra bonding and crashrepairs from the front of the chassis, the front corner is now sepeate but its not a big problem, i still have to remover the battery tray as it hasnt been done very well. I have been thinning down the thickness of all the front chassis with the die grinder and a carbide burr, im doing this because i will relay the whole area with fiberglass/kevlar and dont want it to add excessive weight or thickness to the chassis. I have also started to clean up the peadal tray, inner arches and rear end with the da sander.

Hopefully the pics will explain more....

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Heres another picture dump of what i got done yesterday, i spent most of the day with the da sander inside the cab trying to tidy everythin up a little, im also removing the last screws/bolts/brackets etc getting her back to a bare shell. Now most of the extra bonding is removed from the front it means that the new front now fits a little closer, its still only dropped ontop for pics.

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Comments appreciated

Cheers
Last edited by plasticfantastic on Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
plasticfantastic
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:51 pm

Re: Davrian Mk3 1968

Post by plasticfantastic »

There is now no metal work left on the front of the car, the fiberglass on the front of the chassis is now almost finished being thinned down ready for repair (it took an entire day to do the front of the tub with the die grinder!) I also started to clean up the pedal tray, and used the die grinder the clean up and thin down inside where the fuel tanks go. I also spent a few hours with the da and finished removing most of the left over paint on the outside of the shell taking it back to gel coat.

This morning i started on the are behind the seats, and the rear chassis. I removed the rest of the cage, and lots more excess bonding. I have started to clean upand thin down the rear chassis, and i have cut out the rear corners as i plan to update it to a later style.


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I only managed a couple of hours today, so decided to have a bit of a clean up around the Davrian to make working on it a little easier. After filling 4 heavy duty sacks to bursting, with all the excess bonding and grinding dust, i weighed them at over 35kg's. That isnt including the roll cage or any bodywork, just the rubbish.

With little time left i dragged the old front end back out and decided to have a go at the jigsaw. After draping it over the car for a few pictures it doesnt look like it will be too hard to put back together. After taking the pics i started to attatck all the pieces inside and out with the die grinder to removes excess bonding/filler/paint to get it ready to bond back together.

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I have been sanding areas by hand where the da cant get too, mostly around the side and rear windows, getting everything back to gelcoat. I have sanded the roof down with the da and 40 grit, it looks good in the picture but has bad star crack, i will leave it for now untill i flip the shell and add some bonding to the inside of the roof as its very thin.

I have cut out and cleaned up witht the die grinder the little shelves inside the rear side windows, these are there because the car started life as a convertable and the roof was added afer. With these gone i can re-bond everthing much more neatly later.

I also cut the front of the pedal tray away as it makes the front end much neater. To add the strength back i will build a steel tube frame that will triangulate the front suspension top mounts with eachother and with the lower wishbone steering rack mount.


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I started this morning by deciding to dive right into the drivers side sill, i cut the top open to remove the foam and spent the next couple of hours hacking away at wet foam again.

With that job over and another couple of kg's of wet foam removed, i decided the get busy with the airsaw to rectify some of the problems around the door shut. Luckily a few years ago i managed to pic up a pair of sides cut from a later model mk6. The door surround is much neater on this molding,along with the door being much easier to hang. Fitting this molding also means i now have a return around the door opening that i can fit a door seal too, being a race car before it didnt have these. I'll let the pictures do the talking....

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Last edited by plasticfantastic on Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
plasticfantastic
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:51 pm

Re: Davrian Mk3 1968

Post by plasticfantastic »

That brings us upto date as it was yesterday that i cut the side off the car. Im hoping to get a few more hours in today so i can get it fitting a little better.

Im loooking forward to meeting you all in time and hopefully hearing what you think of my project?

Cheers

Nathan
SBS
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 7:29 pm

Re: Davrian Mk3 1968

Post by SBS »

Fantastic article!
You're very brave taking on such an extensive project.
plasticfantastic
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:51 pm

Re: Davrian Mk3 1968

Post by plasticfantastic »

I'm really after some brutally honest opinions from you all now. With the hope of an aircooled engine going in the back of the Davrian i know i will need more air flow through the backend. So with a little cutting and shutting today something started to emerge. The cover was a last minute addition as my hands started to turn blue, it got alittle cold in the workshop.

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What do you all think?!

Cheers
davrian6140
Posts: 181
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:32 pm
Location: Stedham,west sussex

Re: Davrian Mk3 1968

Post by davrian6140 »

What a superb job you are going, this is what a davrian is for
Making something very special. I look at what you have done
from an engineers point of view, you are very brave and
very skillful. I take my hat of to you.
Dave
Dave Cooper
davrian6140

Mk6a DAV 373H
plasticfantastic
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:51 pm

Re: Davrian Mk3 1968

Post by plasticfantastic »

Thank you very much for your kind words Dave,

All i can say is i have a lot of love for this little car.

Cheers

Nathan
SBS
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 7:29 pm

Re: Davrian Mk3 1968

Post by SBS »

..............I agree!
It's a kit car, a self build - but that's an understatement in this case! You have incredible vision not to mention undoubted skills. Go for it - create that dream! It'll be a fantastic machine when it's done. It's great to see what you have already done and I look forward to seeing the project continue. The pictures are great, not only to see how your efforts are progressing but also showing how the car was originally constructed. Keep up the good work!
User avatar
Dave6091
Posts: 147
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 4:01 pm
Location: Hornchurch Essex

Re: Davrian Mk3 1968

Post by Dave6091 »

I've been watching Nathan disassemble his car on the Mad mechanics forum and found it so interesting to be able to veiw inside all the sections to see how they were put together. My Mk1 is very similar but has more plywood used in the rear bulkheads, i doubt that any two early cars were the same with mods made as they went along.
As to the mods on this car if it looks right then go for it!, it will still be recognised as a Davrian. There were i think 14 Davrians in a line at the Mallory Park meeting and no two were the same which is why they take so bloody long to finish and put back on the road!!. I daren't think of the hours its taken me to to get my new Mk6 front and rear ends to fit perfectly.
Keep up the good work Nathan and carry on posting the pics!.

Dave.
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