fiberglass car body

i was talking to a freind about shelby gt500s and he said you could make the whole car body out of fiberglass and it would be safe to drive it on the road :eek7: i think he is talking a load of shit

If your question is, Is it possible to have a car body completely made of fiberglass, then your friend is right. And it is perfectly safe . Many newer cars have fiberglass bodies. Saturn's dent proof doors are made of fiberglass.:smokin:

If your question is, Is it possible to have a car body completely made of fiberglass, then your friend is right. And it is perfectly safe . Many newer cars have fiberglass bodies. Saturn's dent proof doors are made of fiberglass.:smokin:

Ummm.... Saturn's panels were made of a plastic without glass fiber reinforcement. Now, Corvettes have had fiberglass bodies since, oh, 1953.

Ummm.... Saturn's panels were made of a plastic without glass fiber reinforcement. Now, Corvettes have had fiberglass bodies since, oh, 1953.

True. But the Corvettes all have separate chassis for the structure. The body is mostly along for the ride and provides very limited structural rigidity.

However, all Mustangs, since the beginning in 1964 have been unit-body, where the body panels, floor panels, rocker panels etc are all welded together. So all panels, except for hood, hatch/trunk, doors and front fenders are vital structural pieces.
These vital pieces are designed to be made of metal. Fibreglass panels would simply react differently and would not hold up.

Theoretically, one could re-engineer the Mustang structure to be all - fibreglass, but it would be different and probably heavier than the stock version.

Actually, converting to fiberglass is usually lighter than stock sheet metal(depending on how thick the glass was). Typically when this is done, a tubular roll cage is built to support the body, as well as provide the structural integrity of the vehicle. Unit-body refers to a type of construction where a vehicle's outer body and inner structure combine to create the strength to support the vehicle(Source of definition: http://http://trucks.about.com/od/trucksglossary/g/unit_body.htm). In the old days trucks were considered unibody since the bed and cab were connected, but the frame was separate. Nowadays, cars considered unibody still have large areas that are completely removable, such as the front clips.

So yes, to answer your question, you can have a safe, completely fiberglass body as long as its supported in some form.

EDIT>> Forgot to mention, unibody autos can be rebodied. Usually the "Body" is cut away from the pan, leaving the pan intact to be used as a base to work from.

True. But the Corvettes all have separate chassis for the structure. The body is mostly along for the ride and provides very limited structural rigidity.
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OK. Porsche 904. Lotus Europa. In both cases a unit body made up of a combination of steel backbone and grp-over-foam. In both cases the grp provided significant chassis strength. There are any number of further examples in limited production street cars.
Marcos (Fiberglass and PLYWOOD) is certainly the most interesting of examples.

OK. Porsche 904. Lotus Europa. In both cases a unit body made up of a combination of steel backbone and grp-over-foam. In both cases the grp provided significant chassis strength. There are any number of further examples in limited production street cars.
Marcos (Fiberglass and PLYWOOD) is certainly the most interesting of examples.
Sure, those cars are good examples of structural fiberglass.

Another good example? About a billion boats. Most pleasure boats and smaller utility boats built in the past 60 years use a combination of structural fiberglass combined with wood and (less often) other composites like plastic. Some of these boats are pretty big, 50, 60 ft or more, withing many tons.

The difference here is the boats, the Lotus etc were designed from scratch with fiberglass in mind, and were not a fiberglass conversion of a steel structure. :)

In the case of boats, fibrerglass often is a preferred material, because it gives different, beneficial performance, noise and vibration characteristics, compared to all- wood or metal.

We have made our Shell Eco Marathon hybrid vehicle's body totally of fibreglass. It's a bit expensive 1st time as you need to have mould built for it which actually makes up almost 60% of the cost of the body. If your fibreglass worker uses the right resins, body is definitely going to be a good one

Anyone on this forum made replacement fibreglass bonnet or boot lid?
What is an estimated weight saving switching from steel bonnet to fibreglass?