Thread: Stirlsilver's Disco Ute Project

looking good

Originally Posted by stirlsilver

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. And thanks for your comment turbo, I appreciate it.

Below are two concepts, one with Straigh edges the other with parabolic, what are the thoughts? When considering the concepts, ignore the straight outside edge of the red panel, it is just an arbritrary straight line. I haven't done the profile between the rear wall to the side panel yet!

The parabolic curves break up the boxiness a lot. I think that looks better.

I would even go further and look at putting a convex curve in at the top edge and a concave curve along the bottom. It serves to soften the whole thing, which will be important because the tray will be pretty square. It is one thing to look agricultural and functional, and quite another to look elegant while still being functional.

Alan

I'm leaning toward straight, no reason other than aesthetics and it's in line with the rest of the disco styling. More of a "factory" look.

Either way it's going to look great.

I think you should try and keep a similar styling relationship as is present in the rear door of the D2. Without going and looking at it I'd expect straight lines with rounded corners, with the straight lines parallel to the outer silhouette (constant width of panel). I hope that makes sense.

Thanks for all the input everyone. I've actually gone with the curved window profile. I've realised that regardless of which shape of window I choose, the shape of the opening is going to drive how I profile the corner. So I chose the curved window since in my opinion it would look a little bit less like a home job.

Where things are going to get interesting is in the rear quarter windows... They are going to need to be custom made - curved laminated glass! I was hoping that I could simply find a way to cut the original rear door windows (since they already have the curvature I need). But as far as I can tell, it is impossible to cut toughened glass. Actually, is the glass toughened? I never checked, just assumed.

Looking good mate need to see more pics....

Originally Posted by stirlsilver

But as far as I can tell, it is impossible to cut toughened glass. Actually, is the glass toughened? I never checked, just assumed.

No, you can't cut toughened glass, it will end up in a thousand pieces if you try. I don't know if what you have is laminated or toughened, but you can tell if it is by looking at the edge of the glass. You can see the lamination layers - 2 bits of glass with the plastic membrane in between them, where as toughened will just look like one piece - which it is.

You can cut laminated glass, but it takes a bit of practice, skill and knowhow to do properly. Cutting a curved piece of laminated glass would be tricky, but not impossible. You have to score both sides of the glass in exactly the same place with the glass cutter, then carefully fracture both pieces along the score lines. Then you need to squirt a bit of metho on the crack, and with a bit of careful working back and forth, the metho will dissolve the membrane. Lighting the metho helps things along the way, but watch the hairs on the back of your hand. - don't ask me how I know this...

Series glass doesn't have the right curvature then?

I can only think that have custom made glass that is curved and then toughened will be damned expensive

It will be interesting to see what you decide.