Car body shell

I am not aware of any Mom&Pop shops that manufacture MDF and the last time I checked Georgia Pacific is a pretty big corporation.

 

Well we cannot completly live with big companies but we can do the best we can giving them the least amount of money.

 

I still don't see how your genius plan works.

 

I never said I had a genius plan. I was just musing when I made the first post.

 

Oh, ok, well... keep fightin the man

 

i think the morris minor van has wooden panels. i'm pretty sure that wood has been used in quite a few cars in the past. mdf could be a problem though, its got the tendency to absorb water, it expands up and out starts cracking and then the crack allows more water in. you could use wood to create a wooden car body but for ease you'd have to create flat panels joined by some sort of L shape. you could varnish the mdf but again only a small crack could create a situation where water could get in. in a crash wood may not provide a suitable protection. i've thought about this myself - it would look cool driving down the road. as for trees being cut down, if wood was used to build cars at least the wood would last a bit longer than woods other use for things like paper and construction where its more or less used once and thrown away. the other problem with mdf is that it has resin that bonds it, when its cut it releases the resin in vapour form and clogs your lungs if you don't where a mask, the dust is a problem too. theres no harm thinking about this stuff.

 

yea morris minors have a knack for growing funghi on the wood

 

It was the Morris Traveller that had the bits of wood attached. The Mini Countryman also had bits of wood stuck on. Both cars went out of production decades ago. The Morris factory in Oxford is now owned by BMW where the new Mini is made.

I have seen a dropside tray made from varnished plywood.

 

1920's Ford Model A had wood roofs.

 

i have read that the chinese use a hard wood as the heat shield on their spacecraft for re-entry as it more or less does the same job as something that might have cost millions to research, develop and put into production.

 

Yea, but wood doesn't hold up as well as other technologies

 

What is used on Chinese space craft for the heatshield is oak because it is a dense wood.

 

the chinese simply decided K.I.S.S.
i remember reading years ago about a fellow who was riding around in india
his motorbike decided to breakdown one day
at a mechanics later he was astounded to find that the piston was made from wood
and another wooden piston was put back in
it wasn't perfect (it didn't last well) but its good testimony to what can be made from wood

 

Like I said, wood wouldn't last long, sure, you could make a lot of stuff out of wood, but metal has much better strength, and in a lot of cases, would be cheaper.

 

the US military uses cork as a heat barrier in some rocket engines

 

Alot of the original cars were built with wood bodies They were based off of horse carriages hence the original name Horseless Carriage. You do not need to build it out of ply wood but could build it as the old time ones out of oak. The pieces would be of around 1/2 inch thickness and would be curved through steam and water over frameworks of wood. I will seek links for you.

 

http://www.everettcurrierfarm.com/hc_home.html

http://www.pbs.org/horatio/educators/act05.html

http://www.ezbuildcd.com/car.htm

Well there is a little bit of reference for ya to look at for your ideas. Dont let the others get you down. Would be great to build a car from your own ideas and without just plain buying one.

Another idea is a framework covered with a treated cloth sorta like older aircraft use to be built out of. Very light and water repellent.

Could use sheets of lexan, easy to mold and weld, very strong too.

 

my only worry would be the safety aspect, if you had a crash/headon or t boned the whole thing might disintegrate. you'd have the same protection as a motorbike. i suppose you'd have some massive acceleration though if the car was incredibly light, you might be able to manouver out the danger though.

 

unless you aredriving around in leathers and a helmet, considerably less protection i'd say!!

 

It would be a renewable resource instead of a synthetic resin.