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Thanks Paul I spent some time looking for a doner. i wanted to limit the build time and I needed a good base to start with due to the construction. This spitfire ticked all the boxes so I think the extra outlay was worth it.
So these photos that follow are the first fitting of the body to the spitfire tub
As you can see from the photos the body is sitting high at the rear and also at the front so a steady aproach with the grinder removing small amounts untill the body sits correct.
First photos show the top of the dashboard.
Working towards the back of the spitfire this was the next area to be trimmed.
finally the back of the car. There was much more trimming and body trying before I got to this point as my lift assistant for the body pointed out to me.
I Now turned my attention to the fuel tank and repostioned and trimmed away the rear top pannel to give better acess for the boot area.
looks so different from the steel subframe build, I will be interested to see how the wheelarches meet the existing steel, are you going on wires, I got my second hand ones powderchromed at cas coatings near you £26 a wheel, cant tel it from chrome and it washes in two minutes. I have a couple of 72 spoke ones spair if you get stuck, keep up with the info, and good luck!
Wharfdale I will take you up on the offer of wheels. As you can see below I have managed to collect a few different styles of wheels over the last year so maybe its a bit early till the cars painted. but I am thinking minilight or 14 mgb wire wheels.
I guess the biggest decider will be when the arches are finished.
Barber Micky1mo Thanks for the reply I welcome your icons of suport
Paul L Yes Paul the build for the main body was much quicker and simpler than the sammio syder. However the next challenge will be the doors and fitting the bonnet.
Thanks for the info on wheel size Mike. I will fit the wires on the car to get the wheel archs gap right.
With last trial of the body. it was time to prepare for bonding.
Which means the grinder was out again.
I then prepared the area and cleaned and got all the drills ready, screws and back up drill as the cure time for bonding was only 20 mins.
The time taken was about 1 hour the front panel where the windscreen use to be was the trickest to grind the longest to grind was down the two sills. To grind the lower sill area that meets the lower bulkhead I had to lift and remove the front wheels to gain acess. I consider I was lucky as removing the paint i found good steel. otherwise it could have involved welding in repairs. However removing the paint will require major touching up once bonding and body work is complete.
I did manage to get the main body bonded to the spitfire shell. It still requires a few tweeks but I have come up with a few ideas which i will try out when home. The Build without the doors I believe on a good doner could be done very quickly much faster than the sammio spyder. However I believe the 30th of July deadline I gave myself is coming up fast and the Alpha wont be ready
Here are some of the photos showing the body bonded.
The last photo shows a little of the hinge arrangement more to follow on that and the bonnet arrangement, I started but not finished before going back to work. As for the rear arches i will wait until i have fitted the bonnet and set the ride height of the car before the grinder comes out for the last time. Hopfully more to follow next month.
That does look good but 14's or 15's definitely fill the arches that little bit better -
The gearing is raised depending on tyre/profile choice, but not by as much as you'd think. Going from a 165/80/13 to a 175/80/14 only increases the speed for a given rpm by 7%, which will usually make the speedo read more accurately as they tend to under read by around 10% as standard. The lighter bodywork means that the car won't struggle on hills either.
Just bear in mind that the 175/80/14 just fits with a little bulkhead alteration (I used a lump hammer) so anything bigger will need more serious modification of the bulkhead to avoid fouling.
Well I am back with some updates on the Alpha hopefully for all of this month now the internet and computer are sorted fingers crossed. I also thankyou Wharfdale for the link for 13inch wheels and Mister Towed for the link for wheels and tires and I must say your sammio build was the inspiration to start my build.
So after a month at work and enjoying a lie in a knock at the door from the postman, brought me a nice suprise from Mike at Sammio cars. With that it was time to get into the garage with coffee in my new mug and a look at where to fit the new style vin plate
So with a sunny morning car was pushed out of garage.
When i left the car I had bonded on the body and decided to leave it for the month to bond. While at work I came up with an idea to bolt the body as an extra security to the spitfire side bumper mountings. this was for two reasons one to hold the body as well as the bonding agent and two to postion the rear arches in the correct postion.
The first photos shows the body and the measurement need to have a uniformed distance on both sides of the car. So with using the countersunk set screws I was able to set this and lock it all in place and add some extra strength but not sure if its over kill or not. With using the countersinks I can blend them into the bodywork at a later date. Also at this time I replace the selftapping screws with poprivets so thats the main body now fitted to the car.
