MadaboutKitcars

eep: from the over on the dark side!

You make yourselves out as some sort of monsters from star wars!!

It can't be that bad, can it? :-)

Today

I finally got off my haas, and got stuck in to the build.

I am pleased with what I have achieved, but while it does not look much,
it took most of the day to get that far!

At least I have the correct materials, plan, and know what I do next.

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[QUOTE=Scottie22;48634]Mister Towed,
Thank you for such an in depth elegant reply.

When I read the piece by Shadow, I understood then, why your car was silver, He put it really well.

But having read your bit, I am well educated as to where you came from, going to, and ending up!
And do not make apologies for “going on” going on is only unacceptable if its boring!

Your journalistic masterpiece was far from that!

Love the pictures, not to be outdone; I am looking for a pic of me in a mask of some sort.

Now its my turn to ramble! Some years ago I paid a deposit of £2.5 grand on a Jaguar XJ13 body shell.
As usual I squirreled away lots of bits, namely a totally rebuilt 4.2 triple-carb Jaguar engine, 4 bolt on chrome wire wheels, manual gearbox, rebuilt back axle and so on.

The bloke went bust, I lost every penny, and it put me off somewhat. I went off the XJ13 And the dream was replaced by the XKSS.

But I could not, for the same reasons as you, afford one (even self build!)

Then I saw Chris’s A352, and I saw the potential to have what looked like 120 grands Worth for peanuts, and went for it.

Yes it will be British Racing Green.

To me, BRG is the colour that Jaguar painted their race cars in, to race at Le Mans.

It was so dark, it appeared black at first glance, and you had to look again to notice it was actually GREEN!

What is passed off as BRG today, does not do much for me.

I was most impressed by that pic of you in a mask! A hard act to follow, but I’ve done my best with an old mask I used to wear back in my army days!


you kept your respirator?

Of course!
When the revolution comes as it must, I will not die very easily believe me!
:-)

Ha! I did 24 years man and boy myself and I think I flung most my 1157 at them when I left.

I've really enjoyed reading your build and your sense of humour is right up my street, as I knew it would be as soon as I saw your annotations on one of your photos indicating all your built tent luxuries, including "shite"!

I've only just decided and gotten the dragon's approval to start my own kit car project, but while I thought I had settled on a Tribute, yours and Paul's builds have got my head spinning now trying to decide what kit and donor I want to use. The fact that I'm on a really tight budget will be the over riding factor though. Your passion for recycling original Jag stuff on the cheap just shows what is possible.

I've done a canny bit of this type of fabricate and rebuild stuff before when I was into the 4x4 scene and now I've moved into a property with a garage and a long drive the time is right to get started on a kit.

Hi Ringo!

A sense of humour is essential as they used to say in the military!

Mine is a very good guide to me, as when it disapears, it indicates I am incredibly exhausted or very very ill, but it's never absent for long!

like most people I have a garage, but it's full of shite, bikes, weight training kit, freezes, spin driers and tools. I try to keep a small passage way open so I can get from one end to the other!
To think when I first moved in I parked my car in it!

My Spitfire donar cost about 11 or 1200 quid to buy, but having stripped off all the bits I did not need and flogged them on ebay, I eventually got the Spitfire cost down to about 700 quid.

Mr Towed flogged his stuff off and actually made a bloody profit!

Spifires command higher prices I think than Triumph Heralds and Vitesses.
Lot of people like Mr Towed, go for the Vitesses, as some of them come with the 2 litre 6 cylinder engine which is a very nice well balanced lump
I do have a passion for recycling, but a lot of my recycling is done rather that get "ripped off" if you see what I mean.

An XKSS lighting set is £1000. I mean, that's taking the piss.
I used the Spitfire headlights and modded Morris minor rear lights at about £30. Where the f*ck does the other 900- quid come from??

Keep me posted on your build, by the way where are you based?

Scottie

Welcome to the forum Ringo.

I suppose it's not too surprising that a hell of a lot of us on here are ex forces. After all, something's got to distract us away from how downnright 'king boring most civvy jobs turn out to be compared with doing the 'Boys Own' things we did in the military. Ahh, nostalgia isn't what it used to be...

Anyway, good luck finding the right kit for you and your budget. It really is possible to put a 6 cylinder Sammio (Ribble) on the road for under £3,000 as I know Phil J's done that twice, even though I spent about £5k myself. Not too sure about how much a Tribute A352 might end up costing but I wouldn't think it would be dramatically different.

I've thought about it a lot since I left since leaving 10 years ago and I think it's a few things that I miss from the army and now try to substitute with a hobby.

• A sense of teamwork or belonging from clubs/forums like this
• The responsibility of the build
• Having to be well organised
• The danger - my skills always lead to an element of danger
• The uniform - flannelette sheet (groundsheet) and overalls (barrack dress/coveralls)
• Plenty of banter - sarcastic piss taking

I spent donkey's years twisting about the discipline and responsibility when I was in and then craved it as soon as I left. Christ, I even craved Land Rovers for a while!

Hood

I did a lot of work today, it was work I had looked forward to doing as I knew I would enjoy it.

I literally have been tripping over the bulky hood and frame for ages, and decided to strip it down to base components, as I intend to use it to form the main part of my new hood.

here are some pics:

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Today

I did more work on the divider, which proved more troublesome than I had thought, but it's done now, and will take my complete body-weight when I sit on it, so although it is not a lot it''s one more step in the right direction.

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There's a lack of shite annotated on this thread marra.

been in Italy skiing with blind veterans - glad to see you got something productive done while I was away eep:

looks good though

The now famous Billy Baxter wasn't there was he?

nope - we had a Billy Black with us?

Welcome back scimjim, glad you were not dissapointed by the build progress! :-)

Scottie - Looks like lots of forward progress going on here.

Good luck, Paul.

PS
I like your twin small work lights, but does this mean it is dark in your kitchen?

Progress

Well Paul, no it does not mean its dark in my kitchen because I have spotlights in my build tent!

They happen to be a spare set from the scrappie,

BUT, one upside of chucking the other half out, is that one does not just have a "man shed" any more. One has a "MAN HOUSE" also, a "MAN GARDEN" and best of all a "MAN LIFE"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I once said, this does not work for everyone, but it sure as hell works for me!

Think of it, if you want to strip and engine in your sacred lounge, YOU CAN!

If a flower bed is in the place you want to store your body shell, you simply CONCRETE OVER IT!

The possiblities are endless. Enough of that.

Back to the SAGA of the cockpit divider.

They say its never over 'til the fat lady sings, well, as far as cockpit dividers go, that certainly seems to be the case. I am left with a strong impression that aforementioned fat lady has been seriously dragging her arse a bit when it comes to the vocal department. Lazy cow.

So, I have taken the offending divider out again, totally re-enforced it with fibre paste, drilled out around (seems like) 8 million difficult holes,
and bolted the bloody thing back in place at last .
I sat there looking at it with some sort of satisfaction, when I heard the fat cow trilling away in the background and I knew it was over!

The job was done, nailed, finito, endex.

A bit plus factor is that I have avoided welding stuff into the back of the car, it is all bolted in, which will still give good access if the rear spring ever needs to come out again. All I will need is a spanner, not a
cutting disc!

I have just come in from the build tent now and whatever very small faults the divider has, I will live with them, this has taken longer than I could have imagined, and I am so pleased it is over. Amen.

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Think you might have to explain 'endex' to any non squaddies out there Scottie...

I kinda guessed you'd pick up on it Mr T!
You did not disappoint me, you rarely do...... :-)

Fourth hole from the left is not central. Remove all the nuts and bolts, patch or replace the hole, re-drill and refit.

;-)

You are NOT paying attention WCA

I DID say I would live with the end result.........................:-)

Me bath has a cam cream tide mark

Then Ya missus is slacking man!

Best get yourself down the colonel for a few charlies with your oppo while she preps for march out then.