How well do the K3's stand up to crashing? Daughter managed to loose control of the wifes car last night and ripped the rear clam off the car.
As it was late last night/this morning I haven't had time to investigate other than what I saw when I picked it up.
The rear clam looks repairable. The "boot" will need rebuilding. The rear subframe that bolts to the metro subframe that holds the "boot" and the rear clam mounting is squashed. The exhaust is broken. Gear selection is limited, managed to find reverse and second but not much else. Inner wheel arches are suspect but may bouce back when the rear frame is removed. One of the wheels has a chunk out of it. There was something creating sparkes when the engine was running (probably one of the pulley's hitting some of the frame work.
I'm more worried about wether the rear subframe mounting points can take a bit of a whack or not. If they can take a bang then the rest is probably down to a new subframe and various bits and bobs.
She hit a small lamp post with the nearside rear of the car by the looks of it.
Anyone had any crash experience in one?

As an aside what year metro front subframe do the K3's use (may as well start to think about getting it sorted rather than giving up on it).

From my understanding of fibreglass cars, they either crack, or have no damage, they aren't like tin tops that can bend a bit all the way through the car. They either fracture, or maintain all their rigidity. When you have got all the rear off, then have a check over the tub. If it doesn't have any signs of damage, then you should be fine.

Something is probably fouling on the gear selector, to stop all the gears being chosen, maybe the bars are a bit bent too.

Hope you don't find too much damage.

Good luck

Somebody once said about kit cars/production cars:

Would you rather be in a plastic bucket held together by rsj's or a tin bucket held together by an advertising campain?

It's exactly as Tim said, GRP takes force until it gives up completely - then bang, grp snow.
If it's cracked or snapped it needs repair. If you twist it and it crunches, it needs repair. Otherwise, it's fine and has the same strength as it always did

There's no crumple zones - grp is much too rigid for them.

Note that lately the production car boys have changed their philosophy with crumple zones - front ends don't squash any more, they are actually quite rigid and pass most of the force around a cage around the passenger cell. Much as GRP cars have always done.

Thanks for that, I understand what happens with glassfibre as she rolled her Quantum earlier in the year, unfortunately the quantum has kevlar reinforcement in the rear pillars and roof area and if that gets wrecked then it is a new shell job, which is what I have had to do (I had booked it in for it's mot this week after a complete rebuild, just didn't expect to be doing another rebuild so quickly). The Quantum is a superb kit if you are ever in the unfortunate position of having a crash in a kit car it stood up well, even the doors still opened as they should and that was after a double roll over starting with actually going up an embankment and a tree, a standard car would probably have stopped dead with the tree and she would have sustained injuries.
The main issue I was looking at with the K3 is the four mounting points on the tub, I wouldn't particularly like to repair them so am hoping that they have survived the shunt, was just wondering if anyone had had a similar incident and knew if the mounting points well enough to give me some hope and encouragement. I will look over it when I get home but will probably not start to work on it till the weekend as I am feeling a bit hacked off at the moment.

What you may find is that after a period of time stress cracks will appear in the gel coat in areas which at first appeared undamaged. It is not structural damage and is perfectly safe but can get a bit unsightly. It is due to the GRP flexing slightly on impact but springing back into shape immediately afterwards.

not a k3 but a gtm http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=seiOjnZ8xlU

Well after a fair time I finally got some spare and have started back on the road of repairing the K3. The body mounting points have stood up well, the subframe was completely written off, the rear clam is well and truely broken up with torn glassfibre and a lot of stress cracks as well but nothing that can't be fixed.
I have just completely broken up an MGF so started to look at it for anything that could be used and the front subframe is identical to the metro one apart from extra brackets and some extra strengthening bits, it even has the captive nuts under the extra brackets so I assume that MG modified the metro front end to suit the MGF by adding bits and saved themselves the trouble of completely retooling. Anyway I removed the extra bits and have fitted the frame back and all lines up well. I had to remake the "boot" subframe that also has the rear clam brackets on it but that wasn't too problematic.
I have also fitted the MGF front disks and calipers to the front, and I am now looking at putting the rear calipers and cables on the back if I can route everything around the engine bay with enough ease. The MGF caliper mounting holes are about 4mm wider than the ones on the metro so I will file 2mm on each hole so that the calipers fit, this plus using the MGF disks means all will fit nicely and as I intend to fit the 15" MGF wheels everything should clear as well.
I do have one issue that bugged me BEFORE the accident and that is the amount of flex that the car has. When jacked up the doors close nicely and the door gaps look good, however when the car is on it's wheels the gaps close up and the doors, although open ok, are not the best, is this normal?
I know that Talon were doing a K3 with a complete cage to add strength, was this for the same reason or just because they were going trackdaying?
Sorry for the long post but it has been a while, oh lastly, the gears all work ok and the alternator pulley isn't touching the framework anymore so no more sparks from the engine.

I have 2 secondhand rear clamshells if you're interested.
They're not brillant but probably a lot better than yours.
I also have the mould to make a new one - but that's
the expensive route.
Maybe I'll see you at Stoneleigh.

I had a K3 and they are well known for flexing I have heard stories of having two people in them and not been able to get the door open the windscreen does also start to vibrate at speed.Fitting a hard top made it alot stiffer.The MGF rear subframe is basicly a front metro one with some different brackets this would also give you a proper handbrake.Bit the bullet and fit a complete MGF rear subframe complete with 1.8vvc engine and box and convet to cable change.If I had of kept my K3 this is what I would of done.

Rossabits, I will bear you in mind but as I am fitting larger wheels I will have to widen the arches and mess with the clam a bit more so I will see how it all goes, if everything goes tu then I will give you a call.

MattyH I'm sort of pleased that this flexing would appear to be a "standard" for the car. I do have a hard top and was very close to fitting it permanently (glassing top of screen and lower area to body) however I am now building this back up for my son who would like a convertible and for insurance and peace of mind I have decided to keep with the 1400 engine.
I very nearly stripped the engine and box out this very day as I realised the rear MGF subframe will definately fit and therefore would have given me the handbrake without messing around BUT then I thought that if the boy doesn't crash the thing in the first year we could build the 1800 engine up and slot the whole lot in at a later date, that would also be the time I would suggest to the lad he has a hardtop and we glass it all up for added stiffness.