Sidescreens - Paint or Cover?
jambojeef - 23/4/08 at 01:43 PM
Made these (very slowly) over the last couple of months.
They are ally sandwich (alupanel) bonded and rivetted to ally sheet and perspex.
Nice and stiff and not too heavy at about 2kg a side with wing mirror.
Thing is, they dont look very nice up close and the sika is visible through the perspex - there are also some fairly nasty edges on the alupanel and
the rivets look nasty on the inside so the question is - do I paint or cover them with fabric?
Would like to think that if I did it myself it'd look really nice but my sewing machine skills are dire and so Id have to pay - is it worth it or
do I just get some paint and get over the nasty edges or what?
Comments please......thankyou!
geoff
Rescued attachment sidescreens.JPG
speedyxjs - 23/4/08 at 01:44 PM
They may not look very nice up close but they look great from here 
02GF74 - 23/4/08 at 01:46 PM
wots with the squiggles? is that the sikaflex?
Mr Whippy - 23/4/08 at 01:47 PM
Black sticky back vinyl (cut up a sunscreen strip) round the window frame? Panel looks nice in bare metal.
nick205 - 23/4/08 at 01:59 PM
remove the perspex and adhesive then get the whole lot powder coated in satin black before re-bonding the perspex. The black adhesive will then be
hidden by the black powder coating.
If you have rivet heads showing on the inside then make a second skin of thin ally to finish off.
Edit to say...
They look fantastic by BTW
[Edited on 23/4/08 by nick205]
jambojeef - 23/4/08 at 02:08 PM
Hmmmm, that might be a plan Nick...
The squiggles are where the perspex bonds to the Alupanel frame and over laps front and back for a bit of extra rigidity.
Taking off the perspex and powdercoating would mean the perspex will get destroyed but it could be a possibility......
Hmm, nobody apart from whippy would cover them then? Im thinking some nice "mohair" type fabric and get a decent company to do it?!
Geoff
Hammerhead - 23/4/08 at 02:09 PM
mask off and spray a black frame to cover the squiggles with plasticote. Sticks well to acrylic.
jambojeef - 23/4/08 at 02:15 PM
Yeah thats what I think I might do - its cheaper in these cash strapped days and might look ok?!
Hammerhead - 23/4/08 at 02:16 PM
quote:
Originally posted by jambojeef
Yeah thats what I think I might do - its cheaper in these cash strapped days and might look ok?!
Worth a go, will only cost about £6 
I spray quite a lot of acrylic with it, if you spray the inside of the acrylic you wont accidently scratch it. But in my experience it's pretty
tough sprayed on the outside.
[Edited on 23/4/08 by Hammerhead]
Humbug - 23/4/08 at 02:50 PM
Nice-looking from this distance!
If you want to cover in vinyl/mohair, etc. you could glue it on. I went from flyscreen to aeroscreen, so my sidescreens (ali with lexan windows) were
a bit too tall, so I removed the lexan to leave half doors and glued on material cut from an old hood to make it look better (the ali had gone a bit
mucky): a single piece per side. That option may be more difficult as you have stuck the windows on already, but maybe you could make vinyl
"frames" to stick around the edge of the windows as well as cover up the main doors.
If the rivet heads are on the inside, then you could also stick vinyl over the top of them as well...
Re the edges, U trim of some sort?
jlparsons - 23/4/08 at 02:52 PM
They look cracking mate. You going to do a ragtop to go with?
C10CoryM - 23/4/08 at 04:09 PM
Might sound strange but would a texured black paint look good on them?
Wrinkle finish or similar. Will also hide a lot of imperfections too.
Cheers.
Ivan - 23/4/08 at 04:56 PM
Looks good - why did you not carry the rear upright to align with the roll bar?
Then a light canvas roof and screen in roll bar and you would have an all-weather runabout.
piddy - 23/4/08 at 05:05 PM
look great.
I would Paint or powder coat the top frame black. and spray the bottom panel to match the car colour.
I did mine and covered them in Black exterior vinyl. ( see picture)
Rescued attachment First show line up.jpg
jambojeef - 23/4/08 at 05:38 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Ivan
Looks good - why did you not carry the rear upright to align with the roll bar?
Then a light canvas roof and screen in roll bar and you would have an all-weather runabout.
I did try this initially but the screens are very long and having the angle makes it a lot easier to get in - more than you might think anyway...!
Im thinking maybe some mohair or vinyl might be the way.....anyone know of any friendly car trimmers oop north who might be up for the job?
Then again the added weight might be a bit much for the hinges.......
Hmm, its a thinker!
triumphdave - 23/4/08 at 07:15 PM
I find the problem with cloth is keeping it clean,looks nice when new but dont take long to get grubby.
