how much sheet steel ??

[kez_19]

i am in the process of planning my roadster build and i have been looking round the forum now for a while trying to get costs together etc. I have all the prices for the square and round tubes for the chassis but i cant seem to find anywhere in the book or on here that gives me an estimate of the amount of sheet aluminium/steel used to make the side pieces, floor, bulk head, bonnet etc. Is there anyone that has a rough idea of the size of the sheets that they ordered and how many sheets ordered.

thanks in advance michael

[alga]

The cost of steel stock works out at less than 5% of the build cost. Why bother going into detail with that?

If yo do, the only correct answer is "it depends". Do you intend to cut all your 3 mm plate parts, or get some things laser cut? Will you use steel or aluminium for the floor? Will you use a full GRP body kit, or just the nose, bonnet, scuttle, and wings, or will you do an ali bonnet?

But roughly, you will need 3 2500x1250 sheets of alunimium if you're doing the rear tub and the bonnet in aluminium. I'd say you'll need about 1 m^2 of 3 mm plate, about 0.25 m^2 of 5 mm plate if you're doing your own. 10 mm and 1 mm plate steel parts are so few that you can work it out for youself.

[ayjay]

I needed 3 x 2400 x 1200 sheets of ali for my build .If you do an ali floor you'll need 4.Hope that helps a bit

[kez_19]

yeah that helps alot i am actually looking to make the floor out of ali and the side panels, rear and bonnet out of stainless. I was looking to buy the GBS zero until i saw the haynes book and i like the challenge of being able to say i made it all my self, so i want to combine the 2 cars by building the chassis my self and the using stainless as the outer skin as i don't think polished ali looks as nice as stainless.

With my choice to use stainless the amount of sheet metal became more important than other builds as it costs more that's why i want to know how much to buy.

thanks for the reply's

michael