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I commented below but I can give advice easily on those panels glued to the main as far as repair, and may be able to help you figure out the actual damage reasons potentially. Nearly 20 years with fiberglass repair and building. Hit me up if you'd like to, be glad to share the knowledge or help formulate a plan of repair, or mods.
100% you should do a bodge job of turning it into a convertable. i'm sure you can find a bike windscreen that would work, maybe off a bigger motorbike. Anyways just something to do that might be entertaining.
Glad nobody was hurt! Here's an option for what to do with it. Roll into the Mad Max theme! Ditch the glass, weld together a roll cage all around (or at least a forward hoop and some connecting bars) and maybe put plexiglass on for a windshield, or all around. Add an off-road rear tire to complete the look. Make it a Rat Solo. The only Rat Solo. The Solo Rat Solo. Also, watching this video and seeing the construction makes me think the Solo is inherently unsafe in traffic. If there were an impact with a taller vehicle....you would be held by your seatbelt as the obviously-too-weak fiberglass and glass collapsed, meaning that in any impact with a car....death would be really likely. There just isn't enough structure to protect you...look how much damage it took just from its own weight. Far less safe than a motorcycle, would already be just on the edge of acceptability for a lot of people. I ride sportbikes...without a real cage I wouldn't risk suburban US traffic in a Solo except for fun once or twice to just to try it.
Yeah you defnitely need some kind of roll cage now. It's absolutely possible to repair most fibreglass parts, but I don't think the A pillars are ever going to be as strong as they were from the factory without some beams or tubes to reinforce them. And tbf, they probably never were that strong to begin with.
As someone has said replace the windshield with polycarb. The fiberglass can be repaired, check with your local aviation school to see if the instructors want to use it to train the students on the repairs.
TL;DR Talk to a marine tech. If a customer brought me this "boat", I'd fix it. Hey, marine and pleasurecraft technician here. In-place fibreglass epoxy and gelcoat repairs are very common in the marine world. From your video I would consider all of those repairs very do-able, including the structural repairs. (boats are exclusively structural fibreglass, and with new cabin inserts (boat inside a boat) the structural parts can often only be accessed from the outside. As for the windshield, we regularly have to bend custom polycarbonate windshields for powerboats. That generally goes okay as long as the space can be filled with a piece made using mostly a single major direction of curvature. That may mean it will not match the curvature of the original if the original was a compound curve, but you can at least fill the space.
for complex curvature, talk to aquarium makers, like the guys that made the Tanked! show on Discovery. They can make some pretty wild shapes, and of course it needs to be optically clear at the end so you can... ya know... see the fish.
I was also going to comment that it definitely didn't look unfixable. But he did say he hates doing body panel work... But yeah, it does seem recoverable... Lots of work to do, certainly, but not impossible at all.
Forming the polycarbonate windscreen , you make a Buck the shape required or use the vehicle itself then lay sheet onto it and gently heat from above using IR heat lamps.
for non-structural fixes we used to use carbon fiber to paper over the cracks on damaged fenders for race bikes. Wouldn't rely on it structurally but if you just want it to be fixed and have a solid color you want to paint over... it works.
Motorcycle engineer from NZ here- I’ve watched your videos for a long time and this is the first time I’ve commented. I have a fibreglass guy here in NZ which would be able to do most of those repairs for around $2000-I’ve taken him plenty of broken race fairings which you wouldn’t think were salvable and fixed them without issue for very little- that’s the beauty of fibreglass. You must have someone local capable of such repairs- the marine industry would be a good place to look. The hardest part will be finding that windshield but a plexiglass or lexan reproduction could be made to work though far from ideal. Good luck, and sorry to see the damage.
Biggest takeaway from this video - always have a dashcam in the car so you can at least see what happened! Especially if someone new is driving it. I had a minor crash a few years ago (aquaplaned and did a 360 into a barrier on the edge of the highway) and successfully requested footage from nearby traffic cameras from the city, and it's amazing how your memory of the incident can be so different to what actually happened. I don't even remember doing the 360 because I ended up facing forwards at the end of it, but sure enough you can clearly see it on the traffic camera.
Given how cheap functionat, high resolution, easy to use, dash cams and action cams are these days, frankly, anyone who doesn't have a dashcam is an utter fool. There is simply no excuse not to have one anymore.
@@mediocreman2 If you're uninjured and only hit a barrier, it's pretty minor. Just because it's dramatic with the aquaspin kickflip doesn't mean the crash itself is less minor.
I'm glad to hear your friend isn't too banged up, brother. If Low-Buck-Garage and our Broceanic Nugget Messiah Dankpods has taught us anything; an impossible repair is an opportunity for innovation and really getting to play outside of the box. I understand that it hurts immensely as a collector seeing such a unique little guy like this getting damaged like this, but I believe whatever you choose to do with Lucky 38 we support you.
Top is a structural component to any vehicle that wasn't designed as a convertible. Also it rolled over once... do you really want to drive it with zero rollover protection?
That's totally repairable! Fibre glass is fairly easy to repair and the non removable panels could definitely be repaired while on the vehicle, the hardest part to find would be the windows but there's companies that cut custom windshields from other vehicles windshields, all they do is find a standard windshield with the same curvature and cut it to the shape you need. I would love to see you restore this car, maybe you could reach out to other automotive RU-vidrs and make it a collaboration series.
Absolutely. GRP is easier to repair than steel. It's a time consuming, but an easy DIY task, and it's not that expensive to get good results. Me, I'd repair it.
I would repair the car, but not so that it looks like it is new again. Just leave the scratches, repair the mirror, fix any big cracks that cause structural issues and find a cheap-ish windshield. This way it would be the car everyone can try out, while the other one can be driven less and kept in very good shape to show what it looked like when it was new.
I hope Robert can find someone who does fiberglass work to do a collaboration with. I also think the fiberglass is repairable (even with glued-on panels that can't come off), and custom windshields are possible.
Talk to a boat guy about the in-place fibre glass repairs; get an acrylic windshield made up by a windshield shop, they have curved glass they can use as a mould and just heat the acrylic to flop over it then cut the acrylic to size. You'll need to do the fibre glass first, not as hard as it looks, will be stronger than original, I drove my grandfathers toyota corola 1989 and it just slowly became a fibre glass body job until it was more boat than car and you'd never be able to tell without a drill after I finished painting it.
The glass windshield might have contributed a LOT to structural integrity when it was upside down, putting in acrylic could mean sandwiching your head between the pavement and your lap if it rolls over again.
@@squat224 Did you miss the part where he showed that the roll bar is too far back? Without the windshield (and doors) it would land face down. It doesn't help if the roll bar protects the back of the car while your face protects the front, and that is NOT what a helmet protects you against lol
I walked past that ElectroMechanico building every day for a few years on my way to work, so I'm weirdlty used to seeing several Solos parked together. I work in TV in Vancouver and it's funny how many shows use Solos to make it seem like an alternate reality / the future / etc.
@@ChrisBigBad Everything has limitations and makes compromises. Learning to work with and around limitations is what makes things fun. Three wheeled racing is a thing, and people drive or race all sorts of strange vehicles, even full sized trucks. If you want to see extremes, just watch the Isle of Man TT bike and sidecar races. 😁
SuperfastMatt could make that windscreen or at least something good enough. He did it for his landspeed car. I'd love to see the content from the two funniest guys on the internet.
I could easily tell the car went on its side, slid all the way to the curb, hit the curb and that gave it the spin it needed to get onto its roof. He was not taking that turn at normal driving, turning, speeds even for a regular car.
14:10 I had a similar "yes we have the glass wait no we don't" with my first gen Civic, must've been about 2005? Someone threw a 6-pack of vodka coolers through my rear window. The biggest autoglass chain in Canada had ONE left in their inventory system, and it was in a warehouse 3300 km away. I said I need it, transfer it over. They went to the warehouse... and found it had shattered in storage.
@@SvenDansk7 I just wonder how it is with the custom glass creation in your vicinity. Out here there are a lot of places making custom replacements, and junkyard glasses are commonly considered not worth the hussle. Those custom replacements also address that nasty thermal crack problems many makes of cars tend to have in colder climate.
I am glad nobody got seriously hurt. And that you've followed the standard engineering motto; two is one, and one is none. Thank you for filming the dissection, I found it very interesting! Pull the windshield, roof, fully cage it and you've got a permavertible Solo. One of a kind.
Put it in the corner of the garage. Some day you'll either 1. be contacted by someone who is wants to sell you another G1 Solo with a fried EV system; 2. be contacted by someone who wants to buy it; 3. finish your other projects and decide to turn it into an open air Solo (with a full roll cage); 4. decide you really need the space it's taking and send it off to join it's brethren.
I think everyone suggesting removing the roof are missing 2 key problems that: - The are lots of cracks to bonded fibreglass parts all over, including at the lowest points - The "chassis", if you even call it that, will need a lot of reinforcing to remove the roof; most soft-tops are a lot heavier than their full roof counterparts It is doable, but not realistic.
Heads-up, a boat shop can help you with the fiberglass. You've taken on crazier projects, and your Edge is likely to need son similar cosmetic work. If you need encouragement to fix the banged up panels, I am offering it. Oh, and when you are ready to paint the replied panels, you could get Robby Layton to help with that, and you could bring your Trabant to drag race Rory Irish. Please?
The accident - what I think happened based on the pics/diagram is “Dan” was turning left, went wide, the car started to lean over on the rear, with it hitting the island when it leaned (causing the “unexplained damage”), Dan overcorrected to the left, causing it to lean further to the right, and it rolled over the traffic island ending up where it did.
Dan, Dan, Dan (if indeed that is your real name). In Australia we have a thing called "Mates rate". It's a complicated cultural thing involving drop bears and danger noodles but, in essence, it goes...You can use my stuff whenever you want. But if you break, you pay.
Fiberglass parts are way, way easier to repair than metal ones. You can buy everything you need from any hardware store that has boat stuff. gel coat, two-comp epoxy, fiberglass mats, sandpaper and a facemask (I can't reiterate that part enough. You do absolutely NOT want to breathe in particles from that stuff while sanding etc).
@@crackedemerald4930 Shrinking, twisting, incompatible metals, having to crank everything to eleven at one spot and burn through the next ..the machine refusing to work because it's Monday or some other voodoo 😂 Joking aside welding probably is easier once you know it but it's definitely not something you can just pick up and get right without destroying a few things first. With fiberglass you can just grind down and start over. -Maybe try not to glue your shoe to the floor like I managed the first time :D
@@KR-hg8be it's simpler than what you think, a heck of a lot simpler than buying a welder, learning to weld, and learning to bend the metal correctly to remake the part.
This is why I put dashcams in EVERYTHING I own. I care more about _how_ it happened than losing the vehicle itself. I've learned a lot from my own screwups over the years such as spinning out, fishtailing, the several times I dumped my bike in adverse conditions, and so on.
If you ever want to drive your other Solo without worrying about replacing its windshield due to an eventually almost certain routine road hazard or storage cause, now is the time to scan and photograph its still good glass. Molding and trimming a real laminated windshield, that is safer than acrylic or polycarbonate, is neither trivial nor inexpensive, but somewhere on the globe there must be a source for near one-off fabrication (slumped sheet into a single face mold rather than production tooling) that already uses scanned data for this. Not only both your Solos would benefit from this but also any of the few other ones still around, all susceptible to random glass damage. Best of luck.
A Mad Max wasteland Solo would absolutely be amazing. Chop the roof, all terrain tires, make some new panels out of scraps like old license plates, road signs or leftovers from the bus or camper, and you’ll have the coolest solo around. Bonus points if you lift it but make it rollover proof with a wacky roll cage!
Glad no one was hurt. There are companies out there that can make you a windscreen, they use normal windshield glass, and a mouldable form to make a one off windshield that is a perfect fit. They do it a lot for classic cars where the windscreens/shields are no longer available. Someone like curved glass creations. Alternatively turn it into a badass open top car.
totally, but i think this guy is weighing the income from a video vs the price and wont do that. I wish he'd sell it to somebody who would take care of it. Because of the crushing, these are rare cars.
The show Wheeler Dealer (while they were filming in the US), were restoring (I think) a Saab, and they went to a windshield warehouse where the people matched the curve of the windshield with one from another car, and cut it down to fit.
I would be a bit surprised if the original windshields for the Solos weren't made that way. Either way, someone somewhere made a bunch of them 25 years ago and probably still knows how.
Dude, you did it again, made me watch that silly factor ad. You really are the best advertiser I know of, no one else can make me sit through sponsor ads.
Ok so, you saw off the A Pillars and remove the wind shield, you welt a frame to the existing roll cage giving you a working roll cage in case it ever rolls again, you mount some fitting small windshield and you end up with a beach buggy open roof Version of the Solo! The bumps and bruises on the rest of the body would need some sort of fix but you'll figure that out! Keep it alive! :)
Fun idea for you... turn it into a parade float. Strip it down and then turn it into something you can drive in a local parade. It could make people smile :)
You're being very understanding about this whole situation. If it were me and Dan wrecked my $5000 car while on a joyride, Dan just bought my $5000 car and the repairs are his problem, lol. Glad nobody got seriously hurt, in any case.
did Dan ask to borrow it, or did the owner 'encourage' him to give it a try? @0:35 it could be argued Dans safety was put at risk, given the unsafe handling characteristics of this vehicle. but yes, good thing nobody was seriously injured.
I'll add to the voices suggesting a visit from Dr Sawzall. Add some lightness to deal with the thrashed panels, throw on a sand rail style roll cage and you've got a Baja spec Solo!
The only time (touch wood) that I've had a car in a wreck, I distinctly remember my massive frustration that a) I'd just FIXED this stupid thing, and b) i've just WASHED this stupid thing. While a lorry was bearing down upon me. Try not to get disheartened! This is a lesson to always have a spare on hand, thanks to the magic of buying two of them.
Short Lexan windscreen, remove roof, leave hoop,open top roadster! Think 3 wheel cobra! Make a smile out of adversity. Structure is in the floor pan and tub. Red one for rainy days, white for sunny days It still has the power to make you smile
Do you understand what would have happened here with that type of windshield? Especially if the sticker is really the center of gravity in case of a rollover. You would at least need another rollbar.
I would personally replace the windscreen and roof glass with lexan and make it light weight as for the fiberglass it's a fairly easy repair to lay in new glass best option light weight racing solo
That's a bummer man. Rolling my HMV Freeway is what made me sell it. Three wheelers are just not as stable, despite being way more cool. Glad everyone is okay (except the Solo). 😢
What's he supposed to do? It sucks all around. Dan didn't do it on purpose, and probably didn't even drive it unnecessarily aggressively. I doubt a left hand turn in a busy intersection is where you would decide to give it hell...
I remember in a Jay Leno video on the cars he has that they don't make any more, he mentioned for glass, you can get glass from a glass shop, not like a generic Safelite place or something, but there are places that can make whatever kind of windshield you want so it's not impossible. I'd say this is a lot of work to recover, but maybe you can find someone willing to take that on and sell it to them for like $1. Another option is to go all Polaris Slingshot with it, retaining the roll bar and just doing a little lexan windscreen, get some new mirrors, bondo the other panels and have it be your summer Solo. Also would improve stability to remove the top weight. Edit, just wanted to say if at all possible don't part it out, as you say it's a unique 1 of a kind, and mechanically it still seems fairly sound.
I live in New York City and with a dozen billion dollar media companies vying for my viewing I find watching a quirky Midwestern guy talk about quirky cars. I think the script the editing and the personality is more important than the Content. Your duplicates and triple arm overlays are not over done but just enough to really enhance the overall presentation. I happen to love cars and especially unique ones but watch your channel because your presentation is great and you seem like a very nice guy. I think ifyou were my neighbor and I had A car problem you would probably spend an inordinate amount of time helping me to the point I would wanna give you money which you probably wouldn’t accept. So thank you for the videos.
Is it weird that this video makes me really want a Solo? ...Like more so than anything else I've seen about these, this video specifically now makes me want one.
Well number one, I'm glad "Dan" is not hurt, since humans are not so easily replaceable as cars. Still, the damage to the car just hurts my soul and I can just hear the upset in your voice. Well, maybe by some lucky happenstance you can get this thing repaired, or at least in a state it can be driven again in some form. Looking forward to the updates.
Every car has a story, and this super unfortunate event is this car's next chapter. This is not the end of its story. I'm sorry for your loss. You obviously love this car a lot.
It's rare enough that it's certainly worth saving. Fiberglass is easy to repair, paint and scratches can always be fixed. The hardest part is going to be replacing that windshield, custom glass is $$$ He might have to go Nascar style with some kind of bullet proof plastic....
The body is all repairable. If it were me I would cut off the roof, replace the screen with either an aero screen or use a tempered shower screen, a glass company will cut to size and then temper it. Keep it small. Or you could use poly carbonate for a screen. Cut down a motorcycle screen. Easily repaired, how do I know. I used to own a Bond bug, a sports version of your Robin. Nice this about fibre glass is damaged it hasn’t lost any strength. Patching it does not compromise the structure.
@@Sinerwray for many years all car windscreens were tempered glass.laminated glass didn’t exist. When it breaks it shattered into small chunks not sharp shards. Trust me I have owned many cars with such screens and broken a couple. The back and side windows of your car will still be tempered, it’s much cheaper.
Yup, never lend such a rare and unusual car to someone. If you let them drive it, be in the car with them providing them guidance. That's the way it's done. If it's a one seater, too bad.
@@jamesengland7461 my man, your hobbies are what give you passion and fulfillment, thats not mere possessions. This isnt from a place of malicious but from a stance that this item is sacred to the person in question
Strip as much of the body away as possible. Get a half-circle windshield. Add in a second roll bar. Replace the body panels with custom bits to your liking. You now have the ONLY open-topped Solo!
Fill holes with expanding foam, stuff in chicken wire, apply short strand fiberglass, body filler, filler primer, white paint and it'll be good as new maybe even stronger !
@@drunkenhobo8020 Haven't heard of that channel, it's just a cheap and efficient way to boge something "the right way". You don't have to care, just get it good enough.
Prior to "GREED AT ALL COSTS" became the societal norm, back when plastics were something in SciFi Movies, there were shops across the US that could make a custom shape windshield or other car window. Especially in the 50s with so many bubble shaped windshields and rear glass. Car glass was considered to fragile to ship long distances so just about every state had at least one automotive glass works. Looking on line, there are still custom auto glass works out there.
Always have a dashcam. The back probably hit the curb. You can fix it good enough to drive it as long as you aren't worried about the looks or safety. Open top and make a roll cage.
As a dog, I have only witnessed your Factor suggestions and tried them myself, even though you did not recommend them for my use. Glad no one was significantly hurt in the accident though, despite the flimsy, probably-unsafe build for such an incident. Watching you partially disassemble this poor thing had me emotional. Such a rare car in an impossible state to solve. I dont know what I would do with it were I in your position with unlimited funds. It'd figuratively tear me apart to literally tear it apart, but also hurts to see it sit in such a sad state. From an emotional standpoint, might be well to look at it from the flipped perspective- anything you do with it from here can be considered a success in saving the car, no matter what you do with it! Roadster it, make some 3D printed parts to replace the fiberglass, weld in a cage to make it safer than stock. And more- now that it has been flipped, you can push it a little harder without risking ruin of a unique car, since that's already happened outside your control!
Yikes, I'm glad nobody was seriously hurt. I think the nature of this accident makes it kind of a relief that this vehicle never really made it in the marketplace, as it wouldn't have been long before it would have become a huge source of much worse accidents.
I really like the mad max/offroad idea! Throw away most of the body panels, replace structural parts with steel pipes, remove the doors... Then you get a fun small electric thing that you can do whatever you want to without damaging it. Also it's much more fun to tear stuff down than repairing it to the state it used to be in.
I'm sorry about your friend. I felt the mood change at 13:45 , and I can only imagine the sadness you're feeling. Edit: it's okay to be emotional. You know that more than most of us!
Gee, the EXACT same thing happened when the owner of our shop that was supposed to be a Corbin Sparrow dealership was driving our demo Sparrow. One of that cars problem was the weird narrow wheel/tire combination they were originally designed with . The reason the wheels and tires were changed shortly into construction was after a soccer ball styled one rolled a couple times in front of a large crowd. Nice to see no matter who ended up owning and trying to do something with that turd all had the same problem.
I agree with some of the other comments, make a mad max solo. Cut the top off, build some sort of external roll cage. Maybe even a place for a smaller generator on the back. Go do a gambler race or even wasteland weekend. I'll even make you an outfit if you want and send it over to you 💪
I see four options. 1. A mad maxed solo, now DESIGNED to roll over. Pretty much just make a tube steel body and transplant all the parts. 2. EV swap the Robin. The Robin has given you some mechanical grief oflver the years, and now you have EV parts that are almost perfect. 3. Place it among your your inert Codas. Your other Solo may need parts eventually, so mught as well. 4. Don't you have a Go-kart chassis somewhere? I know the kid you were making it for probably isn't in the picture anymore, but you can still make a sick go-kart.
I have pressed the Like button to please The Algorythm, but sad to see such unique vehicle damaged. Sad too, to hear the distress in your voice talking about it. I think you're taking a good approach. It's a door to new possibilities. This must be why the Solos came as a pair: The gods saw fit to grace you with a spare.
14:05 ... saay.. a Mad-Max solo could be interesting! there is a ton you could do with this!! strip the rest of the body off and make it a sand rail.. or, re-work the body that is left and make it your own!! [wish i could work on this.. i'd LOVE to...] now... about that Ford Escape Conversion...
Good thing Dan's okay! And, well you do have another one... And hey how about turning old 38 it into a roofless version! Not sure how the laws are in Missouri but where I am 3 wheeled cars are legally motorcycles and don't need windshields. You just need something to cover your eyes (preferably a full face helmet)
Build an exo cage and harness, so you can freely roll it without hurting anything or anyone, and have fun making awesome content of you rolling your solo. Maybe put training wheels on it?
My two cents is to make it a rat rod convertible! Chop off the roof, add a small plexiglass windscreen, find someone that specializes in fiberglass to collaborate with to make some modest panels for it and make it a build series C: If that's too much I get it. You've got alot on your plate haha. Parting it out is the less stressful thing and will help recoup some costs.
piggybacking on the roll cage ideas: give it a set of canvas panels on the top frame like an early biplane. rainproof and extremley stylish with the right embroidery.
There's a company that will scan your windscreen and cut a new one from an old windscreen with a matching section. They have every old windscreen and there's a good chance one will have matching curves. I saw them do it in one of the car restoration shows.
