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LoL. My interest stems from my friend getting a Dutton 30 odd years ago, so I know all about shoddy workmanship :-)
When I ever get back in the garage I will make some progress. And a key objective for me is to improve the frame - mine is very basic, and if I am going t add weight I definitely want to add stiffness at the same time - not just for handling, but for my safety.
Totally agree about Safety ...The Sammio puts you inside a fairly rigid inch box 'playpen' ..not perfect but a degree of protection ...The Miglia frames I have seen don't offer that comfort ..They are easily braced and strengthened up ...inch box is very cheap and it doesnt take long to create something a bit more sturdy ...Oxford 13/60's frame is particularly substancial on his build and worth looking at as he has created his own bulkhead framework .
Gentlemen can we please play nicely on my thread? Sammio or miglia when I had to pay $6000 for transport the cost of the original fades. I considered dodgying up a body myself but would surely have stuffed it up badder than any option here. And I'm having fun!
Absolutely Tim ...sorry for diverting away from your thread .
Please continue to post pics and ask for any advice , should you require it ...I had a Miglia body about 2 years ago , so am familiar with them and their peculiarities and have just ordered another one to be received in about 4 weeks time to start another build ...
Thanks Paul.
No the radiator does not fit where it began. I've moved it down a notch on the shrouds and will get a Morris 1100 expansion tank, and a pair of 9" fans.
One problem I did not think I'd face is that the bonnet does not fit the curve of the body. I will have to tension the diagonals and then brace it to keep the new curve. I will post a pic but bucket took 3 hrs for one upload which is this, my first "power bulge" as the front carb (SU hs2) on the mk2 manifold was bumping the bonnet.
Also the whole body seems sloping to the passenger side, so I'll probably just shim it.
My bonnet didn't fit either , I think the route Davecymru took with his was to cut some of the internal structure away to allow it to curve more and then re-glassed it . Mine came without the internal structure and was quite thin in its layup , so I was able to curve it relatively easily and create my own bracing .
I think the early offerings without the inner structure fitted very well , but something happened when Mike started to offer them double skinned and the shape changed slightly in the process ...
I'm guessing my body is an early one as it was a bit dodgy and with cracked gel coat. Single skin bonet too, so thanks for that I will make some cuts in the side lip area and bend it and brace it. I did not know this unit I cut the engine shrouds and tried it on properly.
I don't think yours was an early one Tim ..I think you just got a bonnet without the bracing .If you had an early one the bonnet would have fitted.
As it happens no bracing is possibly to your advantage now !
are your doors in two seperate bits or have they been bonded together ? I prefer the two skins to be left seperate and you can hang and latch the inner skin easier and get it doing what it needs to do and then line up the outer skin easier too...mine came bonded together which makes things a little harder to line up ..
I'd keep them as pockets ...it will mean you can get to hinge and latch fixings easily and if you glue a bit of vinyl in there or similar , actually quite handy to put a few things , phone , sunglasses etc. as there isn't much in the way of storage on these beasts ...
It's odd to hear about the issues you've been having with the frame and radiator as that is one part of the build that i was genuinely surprised at as i had bought a new Vitesse radiator and i was really chuffed to be able to leave it unmolested.
I can't imagine your frame and shell are 'that' much different to mine? So it might be worth having a dig through some of my old pics 'just in case'? I found these 2 that show how my frame ended up with all of my additional mods applied and when all in place and radiator at std location:
As far as the bonnet is concerned, i found that the shape was largely ok, but it was the bracing that fouled fitting it. here is how mine was delivered along with a small mod i made in order to try and get it to fit initially:
But i ended up grinding all of that bracing off in the end, fitting it, and then adding strengthening around the front end in order to keep the shape. In case it's of use/interest, this pic shows how much clearance i ended up with under there.
The doors... Mine came with the 2 halves bonded together and when the shell was all dry-fitted on the drive it all looked good, but from my experience the main tub jiggles slightly (technical term!) during fitting and that contributes to both the bonnet fitting issues and it also threw my doors out.
I did a lot of rework on the doors and they are on and functional, but i will revisit them at some point in the future as they're still not 100%
BTW I'd suggest leaving them hollow, as in addition to the ease of access to fittings they are also the perfect size to transport beer/cider!
Keep the pics coming matey and i can always share my experiences, even if you do end up going in a completely different direction to me. That's all part of the fun
Dave thanks heaps for that. My radiator is much wider, about 20". It is on with side bits "sealing" the sides of the radiator. My body may be sitting lower than yours, it rests on the side of engine rails where I see you've got extra inch square tube as mountings.
I'm leaning towards moving the pedal plate two inches forward. I will still need to adjust the access.
G'night
Just a thought ...might Aussie Heralds have bigger radiators ? certainly gets hotter over there !
If your body is sitting lower thats going to throw lots of things out ...I left little scars on the rear of the Sammio indicating the section that needed cutting out and with the little shelves on my bulkhead sat flat on the stock bulkhead , the cills should just about wrap around the outrigger siderails ....it made it tricky to get it wrong ...but I don't know how Mike did his to aid getting it right ? I would guess that the cill location would be about the same ..
I googled some images and found this one showing a Miglia on a build blog that has had the body fitted and it shows quite clearly the line of the boot outrigger and distance between the top of tyre and wheelarch with a stock rim ...maybe you can get some clues from that ?
Nice work 1 iTim, just read through your thread and see there's been a bit of activity recently which is good to see as the tumble weed was rolling on down the track. lol
Keep posting and adding photos as it's what we like to see on here.
I have been separated from my car for several months now due to moving cities! I'm going to get it ready to roll onto a truck this weekend then it's into a driveway in Brisbane to be finished. I don't know how the change of state jurisdiction will affect the rego.!
Pics to follow when floor, seat, steering brakes and handbrake are in and body on. I have 2.5 days to do that...
