MadaboutKitcars

At least it only failed on brakes and seat belts, nothing dangerous

:-)

Kit owners know all about remedial though.

Spanners Ahoy


The corrosion is about 29.999cm from the lower mounting points in the rear wheel arches. I'd tailored a length of 1.5" steel angle between them to which the shoulder straps are fixed. In a collision that tore this free I think my eyeballs being fired from their sockets would be my main concern!

I should definitely have re-fettled the brakes before the test, but it sailed through last time and has done hardly any miles since, ho hum.

Pitched in today and made some progress: back brakes dismantled, drums and shoes cleaned with emery paper, rear off-side wheel bearing greased, which I was sure I'd done, but clearly not, as it took a good few strokes of the gun before some thin and very black old grease was expelled, followed by the new.

The primary handbrake cable needs adjusting, as there's quite a bit of travel. I had to drill out the rivets on my access panel to get to it, glad I bought 500 as I still have a few left for re-fitting!

I have to get the Mini MIG back from my mate who co-owns it before plating the dodgy areas. Access is a problem, if push comes to shove I'll have to remove the swinging arms, tie bars and shocks to get in there.

Regards, Mick

Displacement Activity

To alleviate the trauma of my miserable MOT failure, I decided to indulge in a little of the above .

First I re-fitted my reproduction D-Type steering wheel. I had the smaller one on for the test as the former makes access tricky for anyone with a pie-focussed diet, not realising that it'd be me sitting in.

Then I tackled fitting my Europa Spares convex aluminium racing mirror. After a bit of trial positioning with it fixed to stout card folded over the side perspex, I cautiously drilled the two 6mm mounting holes and bolted it on with the ugly hex-headed M6s supplied. I'll replace these with slot heads at a later date.

Due to the confines of the cockpit it was difficult to get a picture of the driver's view - I've added the best one which has only half an elbow in it! I have to say I'm pleased with the field of vision it provides.

Until the MIG returns and my new brake bits arrive I'll just have to keep watching and listening to this. As it sold for £3.5 million I calculate that mine owes me 0.157% of that. Three cheers for Chris & Dan!

Regards, Mick

Mick - Sorry to hear about the MOT fail, but it sounds like you have a plan to get a pass.

The dash looks great.



Good luck, Paul.

Thanks Paul

I interpreted 'the shortest practicable route' to the test well beyond legality and was pleased with the way she drove. The authentically angled and sited gear lever took a bit of getting used to on the open road, the vertical centre of the seat back needs a little more padding, and the throttle pedal needs its own return spring as it feels a little too soft.

I'm hoping for a crisp dry start to 2017 so she can stretch her legs. We're blessed with lots of great roads here in Gloucestershire!

Regards, Mick

Modern cars are now almost all fast, quiet, comfortable, economical and safe, but they distance the driver from the experience of fully interacting with the major controls: the steering, the gearbox, the pedals and, well, the seat of your pants.

There's nothing like piloting a simple, lightweight car on skinny tyres down a twisty B road to reconnect you with the pure joy of driving, and if that car happens to look like a classic racing car worth millions, which yours absolutely does, then all the better.

You might well be able to cover the same route faster in a mid-spec diesel repmobile, but the experience would be about as exciting as loading dirty socks into a really good washing machine. Dull as ditch-water.

Enjoy your car, it looks fantastic.

Would agree with the Towed Mick! He summed it up perfectly.

The car looks fantastic, and having personally seen it several times, warts and all in primer, the finished result is stunning!

I know its a bit of a bummer failing and all that, but I also know it will get its Mot, and next year you will really reap the benefits!

The towed missed one important fact on describing the whanging around country lanes bit -- THE NOISE of the engine!!!
That's what really does it for me.

I hope to come and see the car in person in the near future, Mot or not, won't make any difference to that pleasure!

Scottie

Looking fantastic a real credit to you.

Dash does look very nice, wouldn't like to hit it hard in an accident, seems to have every sharp edge and pointy thing known to man! I think if you had to take it in for an IVA you might give the examiner a heart attack.

Many thanks everyone for the kind comments . I think the real credit goes to Chris and Dan for producing a kit of this motoring icon within the financial reach of the bloke in the street. A guy at the MOT station who took an interest asked me about cost - when I told him it only owed me about £5k he was stunned.


Agreed. I wouldn't like to even hit it softly! Fortunately my full harness belts should prevent this eventuality. The main danger is if I manage to roll it negotiating Mulsanne corner in the dawn fog....................

Regards, Mick

I've just read Wednesday's edition of 'Classic Car Weekly' where I learnt that another ex Ecurie Ecosse D-Type was auctioned in Monterey in August for £16.6 million!!! Mine therefore now only owes me 0.0301% of the real thing. Result!

Regards, Mick

I've just read Wednesday's edition of 'Classic Car Weekly' where I learnt that another ex Ecurie Ecosse D-Type was auctioned in Monterey in August for £16.6 million!!! Mine therefore now only owes me 0.0301% of the real thing.

I was at a car show and a bloke was mocking my car said "Yeah but it is only half the fun of the real thing" I wish I had your % to reply - 50% of the fun for 0.0301% of the price

How the hell would he know that without driving yours? You should have asked him if you could have a go in his real one so you could see what he meant.

I also suspect that the new owner of the £16.6 million genuine article may well put it straight into climate controlled deep storage and forget about it until it's worth £33.2 million, which by then will be almost enough for a deposit on a pokey flat in Knightsbridge with nowhere to park it anyway.

Where's the fun in that?

why this new shiny exhaust is mostly covered in overspray? also the wheels look like they have a light coat of bluemetallic on the insides. what a botch from the spray-shop. i would claim some money back as you have now the trouble to get rid of the overspray because they had been too lazy masking the parts correctly.

welcome back RochdaleGT .............

I've missed Rochdale's Miss Havisham view of life.

Reminded me a bit of someone on here who drove old Peugeots (I think) but tried a Z3 to see if it was worth converting. He concluded that he could live with a machine that tried to do everything for him and flashed warnings an sirens the whole time he drove it. Everything that was wrong with modern cars was his conclusion.

I checked my car for drivers aids and warnings.
Seat belt light goes out after 30 seconds
Traction control light when wheels try to spin but can be switched off
Low fuel warning
Head light buzzer if you remove the keys

I can only conclude that his test drive was less than 30 secondswith no fuel while not wearing a seat belt with his headlights on but the ignition off and he was spinning the wheels at the time...

I think some people say things because they think it is what they should say either to fit in or to belittle someone. Knobs.

So much for the season of goodwill.

RochdaleGT - What exactly is the point of your post?

Mick has stated that he thinks the paint job is "absolutely stunning".

As it is his car and he has seen the car in the flesh (whilst the rest of us have only seen photos) why do you doubt him?

What you see as overspray could just as easily be a reflection, so why not check your 'facts' first?

Instead, you are confidently stating the painter has been lazy, which simply adds to the impression that you are one of these...



Alternatively...

[Football Chant]

"Are you Micha in disguise?"

[/Football Chant]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Mick O'Malley - Personally, I just see an outstanding build.



So please carry on as you were, cheers, Paul.

[rochdaleGT]
Gravel on the drive not even sizes and needs weeding
[/ rochdaleGT]

Interestingly, Octane magazine focuses on the range of coach-built Ferrari 250's this month (I can absolutely recommend it as a riveting read). This includes a quote from a letter written by American racing driver and businessman, George Arents, who was U.S. Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti's business partner at the time, regarding the quality control at Scaglieti who built all 104 California Spyders for Ferrari -

'The only proper jig they had was a bronze effort to lock in the windscreen with the firewall. Otherwise, bodies were built by attaching lengths of welding rod to the frame and then bending them up so as to approximate such as fenders. From there an older artisan would beat hell out of a hunk of metal held in place by an apprentice, try it out, shake his head and resort to more beating until everybody agreed that "Ah! It was right," weld it into place and start off with the next piece.'


Funnily enough, you don't hear many people nit-picking about the fit and finish on original California Spyders now, do you.

Truth be told, even production cars from the 50's weren't built that well and anything from an Italian coach-builder was likely to look fantastic at ten paces but not stand up to close scrutiny, while the cars developed by racing departments were 100% function over form so fripperies like paint finish were very low down the list of priorities. That gives us amateur builders a lot of scope to do things 'just about well enough' and still end up with a car that looks like it was built six decades ago.

It's all too easy to criticise other people's home built cars when you haven't got the talent to do it yourself, now isn't it.

It is an outstanding build IMO.
Don't forget that the only one the build has to please is the owner.
Nonetheless, it is an excellent job!

I'VE BEEN SAYING IT FOR YEARS ...I love the raw and 'no frills' look of genuine cars .....

One jig ? , love it ...we have gone over the top then ....we've got about 8 slice templates on the go at the moment ...

I agree with WCA..........

Gravel and weeds are shocking

nice