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Having pretty much drawn a line under Barry's car , it meant that today I could get back to Ray's example.
I fitted the frame back on properly , first fit since painting it , bolted everything back as it was ....fitted his wheel adaptors and put his 15'' wires on .
I dropped it off the jacks and put the body in place for it's first trial fit ....
I need to remove the body , fit fuel tank etc and hopefully after a bit of a roll about the rear wheels will level up ...the front wants raising a bit as it's a bit low ...soft springs I suspect as they all get cut a similar amount initially ...
The body was pinned in place at the bulkhead and clamped at the rear to check frame fit / wheel arch centreing etc... and all is good ..little bit of fettling and alignment required on final fit but thats normal at this stage ....
Fuel tank has gone back in and was plumbed up in the process ...fuel line runs along its stock route through the outriggers . The Spitfire fuel tank really is perfect for this type of conversion .
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The steering was hooked up and body re-instated so that I could fit the exhaust system.
The front section was fitted when I shifted the engine back , but the rear section is too long as a result of the shift backwards and less overhang than the stock Vitesse bodyshell.
So approx 57cm was removed and piece of slightly larger exhaust section ( actually a piece I removed from Grahams car ! ) was welded to the end to enable it to sleeve over the front section .
Then I made a rear crossmember....
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and when it was bolted across the two boot outriggers , it gave me two mounting points for the rear tail pipes . The crossmember laps under the outriggers to stop it twisting as well ...
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Ray wanted some subtle peek-a-boo tail pipes , not sticking too far out but just showing themselves subtlely at the rear ....hopefully this is what he asked for !
I went round the bodyshell fixing it in place and moved the rear body mounts outwards a bit
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With the body in place , I turned my attention to the front end ...I trimmed back the inner wing section and started to look at mounting the bonnet
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I made up a framework using my standard bracketry and tube method I have used before ...I also made the little hinge brackets and bolted them to the lower edge of the flip front ....Ray now has a opening bonnet..........
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I will cut the grille opening out fully and the headlamp sections in the morning ....
Managed to get Ray's door frames done and first fitted ...The frames are pinned on at present , I have ordered some 7.9mm aluminium spacers from my engineer mate to mount them properly ..
I used my pattern doorskins that I use to make the frames to ensure the frames are seated properly in the gaps ..
Ray wanted hidden hinges , like Grahams , so I made up another pair of hinges and also made a pair of pivots that are linked together with a bit of strap iron and two corner braces ...
This was then bonded and bolted onto the inner lip area of the boot aperture ...it will also be bonded to the rear deck area to ensure it is nice and strong. I then took another pair of hinge plates , welded 4 countersunk 8mm bolts into each plate and joined them together with a piece of 30x30mm box...these were bolted to the hinges and will form the brace and mounting points for the bootlid.
I trimmed the bootlid right back to virtually a single skin , but the advantage of starting with a deeper panel means you get a gel coated edge rather than the raw edge of a cut out panel ...The the boot brace was supported underneath by an axle stand in the right position to line it up with the boot skin .I then gunned a load of bonding adhesive onto the brace bar , heaping it on nice and generously ...the boot skin was then bedded down into the adhesive and weighted and propped overnight to allow it to dry in position
I have been working on some bespoke bonnet and boot pins , I haven't run them past Ray yet ..so at present , not sure what latch style we are going for ....
4 hours in the workshop this morning got a few jobs done ...I managed to raise the front suspension a bit ...I think it's ok now , but when the rear settles a bit more ..its come down a bit already ..I will be in a stronger position to get the ride height how we'd like it ...
I put some extra fixings through the space frame augmentation and down into the chassis ...these will hopefully double up as mounting points for seat belts too ...
Then I started to fit the aluminium bulkhead ...its been bonded and rivetted every 50mm around its outside edge ...I'll clad the rest a bit further on in the job ..I'm expecting the rear bulkhead on Monday , so would like to get that area finished before I come back to the front ...
Although it doesn't show in the picture very well , both sides of the aluminium panel have swaige lines pressed into them ...
Spent some time yesterday , tying the front footwells into the chassis ...when the bulkhead shifts back , the footwells need to have the back edge removed . This means the rear edge no longer sits on the front outrigger , as it did ...an addition of a 'vertical'Z' shaped piece of folded steel , welded , riveted and bonded into place ties it back together and adds some real strength to this area ...A fibreglass tunnel will cover the edges and centre area ..
Today , I made a steel frame from 20x20 mm box , 25x30mm angle and 25mm flat bar to support the expansion/filler tank. We didn't want to mount it to the bulkhead as the exits weren't working for us ...but spacing it off in a frame that is bolted through the bulkhead shelf area where the heater used to be and back into the upright bulkhead area , is perfect for us ...nice and high to be efficient and really sturdy.
I also marked out most of the dash area and cut the holes for gauges ..
I also managed to get the filler cap fitted ...measurements were taken from front and rear of filler neck on the tank , transferred to the rear deck and then an investigative pilot hole drilled just large enough to get a thin screwdriver through ...this is to check the hole centre is in the right place ...it's easier to deal with an extra pilot hole in the bodyshell , if its wrong , than a 50mm hole saw opening cut in the middle of the rear deck !! I was bang on -exactly in the centre of the tank filler ...so I proceeded to open up the hole to accept the cap fitting ring ...
An extra gauge on main dash, larger gauge above the Speedo/Rev counter now ( a clock ) and an early VW dash handle , a nice tie in to the Porsche styled dash ...
not shown here , but I wrapped an aluminium sleeve around the steering column to hide the original switch gear mounts and rivetted it in place ..
I also marked out the rear lights ..nice early flat lens Lucas units ..
I also templated and cut out the rear inner arches ..I had the templates from Graham's car but we are moving the inner arches in a bit on Rays , just inside the frame at the rear ...Grahams are quite close to his wheels and we are taking the opportunity to move them in slightly on this one ...so a bit of trimming of the original templates gave me a pattern that fitted inboard about 2'' from Graham's ..I cleaned them up but need to go and get some materials first thing in the morning , so will glass them in tomorrow towards the end of the day so I can work on the car without disturbing them whilst curing ...
The rear bulkhead panel arrived yesterday afternoon (!) so I fitted it today by rivetting and bonding it in place and the lower edge was rivetted and bonded to a piece of aluminium box section to brace it ...
I then cut the hatch hole to enable access to the fuel tank and fitted the hatch cover plate using self tappers ...
I also started to dress the front bulkhead area with aluminium panels as well ...this tidies up the area where old joins new and also helps in tying it all together structurally too...
The two rear arch panels I cut yesterday were then propped into place and wedged so they couldn't move ...the top edge was then glassed in place to hold them in and I ran a few strips along under the frame rail to tidy up the slots cut to fit them ... I took the opportunity to bond the rear of the bulkhead in using stixall along the outside edges and bottom edge inside and out ...Tomorrow morning when this has all cured nicely , I can fit a smaller panel at the front of the inner arch to tie it to the rear of the bulkhead ..this will tidy up this part , isolate it from a mud and rain point of view and also add some great strength as a result of creating boxed area's ..
the photo isn't great ..I was losing light ..but you can just make out the rear frame tubing running diagonally from approx. 10 o'clock to 4 o'clock across the arch ...tucking the panel inside this is a bit more work but ensures we have no clearance issues ...
Just over 4 hours at the workshop today of which 3 were spent on Ray's car ...
I tied in the inner arches to the rear of the bulkhead and bonded them to the rear outrigger / frame area as well .. I used aluminium as its a nicer join if ally meets ally ..
I also made a little body tie bracket that was bonded and tecscrewed to the end of the outrigger and bonded to the inside of the body holding the end of the cill in place , blanking off that open end and also another fixing point for the rear bulkhead ..
This whole area will be finished in a black underbody coating like schutz or similar , so will all blend together nicely ...
I finished off by making a start on cladding the centre console between stick and dash ....the area all the switch gear is going to live ..this is rivetted in place ...
tomorrow I will clad the tunnel sides and start mapping out the top surface as well ....
As planned , this afternoon I clad the tunnel sides on the inside of the framework , two little exterior panels had to be fitted at the rear due to handbrake linkage etc.. and a small removable panel is in place at the rear that exposes the handbrake pivot when removed ...
I also made the hardboard templates for cladding the top of the tunnel , these were delivered to my aluminium man on the way home so he can make them asap ......they are getting some swaiging put into them and I will brace the back of the front one with aluminium box section to stiffen it up ..both panels will be screwed , not rivetted ...so access to prop , rear of gearbox and handbrake is still achievable ....
Aluminium tunnel panels fitted in place today , I braced the backs with 20mm aluminium box to stiffen then up ...
Ray popped down and we ran through the gearshift gate plans and lower dash layout ...I braced the rear of the lower dash panel and fitted up the dash after he left and made a template for the shift gate ..dropped it to my engineer mate on the way home ..
Waiting for a few bits to finish the cockpit area ..so thought I would tackle the door work required ...
I welded a piece of flat strip to the edge of the door hinges to stiffen them up and painted the door frames with POR 15 , rehung them using the aluminium bushes and new hinge pin bolts secured with nylocs . I then braced the front corners of the door jamb onto the space frame with 2 home made brackets . This really made the body rigid and took the flex out of it ...a small bracing bracket on the top of the hinge pivot attached to the body reduced the flex there as well ... finally , I tied the top hinge to the bottom hinge using 8mm button head bolts inside some aluminium tube to stiffen them up too .....
I had a real fight with Grahams doors in his build , trying to make a good solution ... the modified door skins , lighter frames and extra bracing ensures these are now much easier to deal with ...
I cut down the dovetails to fit between latch and door skin and fitted them using a steel 3mm spacer plate ...
finally the door skins were sanded to fit .. a few mm off the back edge to get the frame snug , trial fitted , marked along the frames , removed , sanded where the frame touches and then bonded into place with several clamps to ensure they don't move ....
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