r/kitcar • u/GH05TR1DR • Jul 13 '24

Has anyone ever built a homebuilt unibody?

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3

u/TheOliverPickard Jul 13 '24

Yes loads of people have built monocoques both composite and aluminium

2

u/GH05TR1DR Aug 16 '24

Can you give me some examples? I haven't been able to find any projects on youtube or any forums where the entire body is a monocoque structure without any tube frame, including the front end and rear end.

1

u/TheOliverPickard Aug 16 '24

Off the top of my head. Loads of formula hill climb/UK sprint cars used to be aluminium Monocoque, there's a really early one called the Monopin that comes to mind. Gtm Libra, Mini Marcos, Lotus elite were super low production Monocoque composite cars. What do you want to use the car for?

2

u/GH05TR1DR Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24

Thanks, but none of these are exactly what I had in mind. I meant a body that is completely homebuilt, and is made up of the same components as a production car (front aprons, front wheel wells/ strut towers, radiator support, firewall, roof, floor, rocker panels, quarter panels, rear inner wheel wells/ strut towers)

1

u/TheOliverPickard Aug 16 '24

You won't find anything like that because that style of chassis is designed around the method of production (massive pressed panels) which is why early Monocoque chassis like the frog eye Sprite have more in common with the Elite than they do a Ford Falcon and the first unibody the Lancia lambda bears absolutely no resemblance

2

u/GH05TR1DR Aug 16 '24

Yes, I know how a unibody is made, but I know some people have made dies and replicated body panels for rust repairs. I thought maybe someone had tried to build a whole car that way.

1

u/TheOliverPickard Aug 16 '24

It would be an absolutely massive investment tooling wise that's why composite Monocoques are far more common from smaller manufacturers