WC car nose – Fiberglass or ABS???

[gosborne]

The one piece I am missing in my rebuild is the nose for the car. In looking at the Panoz registry I see it states for the WC car - “fiberglass body with ABS nose”. Is that correct – the WC cars used an ABS nose? Is that the same nose that the GTS cars use and is it currently available from PAD? Trying to figure out my options at this point. Any help would be appreciated.

[Jim woodruff]

Originally Posted by gosborne

The one piece I am missing in my rebuild is the nose for the car. In looking at the Panoz registry I see it states for the WC car - “fiberglass body with ABS nose”. Is that correct – the WC cars used an ABS nose? Is that the same nose that the GTS cars use and is it currently available from PAD? Trying to figure out my options at this point. Any help would be appreciated.

Gene.Mine is fiberglass on the #14 car. Stop over and see the car it is back from the paint shop. I am going to Roebling Road in Feb.

[Panoz26]

Gene - my nose on my WC is fiberglass as well

[gosborne]

Ok, so where do we find replacement fiberglass noses for these cars?

Oh, and who's Gene?

[Panoz26]

Originally Posted by gosborne

Ok, so where do we find replacement fiberglass noses for these cars?

Oh, and who's Gene?

Gary - Gene is the mystery man..

So, when the body shop damaged my roof, I called around looking for replacements - everything shot me back to Panoz and the costs were steep - $1200.00 for a new roof with a 6 week lead time.

Now, my neighbor claims he has a buddy that does molds - I have not priced, as I assumed the inital pass to have the molds created and then new FRP panels made would be too expensive for just me -- If we can organize a group effort, I would be more than happy to broker a conversation to see what the effort and costs would be.

The assumption would have to be made, that the initial car used for the panel molds would be close to spec of everyone elses car(s) - not sure if fitment would be as easy as plug and go without some effort of final trimming.

Thoughts?

[gosborne]

Devin,

I've learned that Gary Jones has someone working on developing a fiberglass nose. I'm not sure what the timing is to have a final product though.

It seems to me that, over time, this group is going to need certain replacement body panels. I'd imagine the most common to be the nose and both rear quarters. Many may find themselves in a situation where they have panels that are repairable but, I suspect that some will not.

I have no experience with this but, I'd imagine that the best approach would be to provide existing panels to create a mold from - assuming that will reduce time and cost and provide a better end result? If that is true, we have that issue in addition to just the cost to develop molds. Having said that, I have several spare panels (minus the nose) and a shop not far from me that does custom fiberglass work. At least from initial discussions, the owner said that they would be interested in considering this project. I don’t have any idea of the cost as I’ve not taken the conversation any further with this.

BTW - As a potential alternative, I've researched re-skinning the chassis with a Trans-am Mustang body but, find that those bodies (83 to 98) were developed for a 100" wheelbase chassis. Ours are a tick over 107" in wheelbase so, no go there.

Maybe we can get others with the fiberglass cars to weigh in on this?