MadaboutKitcars

Everything was held together with pressed studs

I had noticed that, as its the same in the XKSS.

I'm not sure about all the fiddley-ness of that though, I was
thinking of Velcro, which would be hidden, but perform the same function. I've not to that stage yet, but we'll see.

Scottie22 you have spoken about colouring your leather seats , is this something you have already tried? if so with what results , thanks Geoff .

Seat colouring

Hi Geoff,

Yes I have done it before a couple of times. I have had excellent results, however, the outcome depends entirely on the preparation you put in.

Offhand, I can't remember where I got the coloring kit from now, but I will try to get it from the same place when I come to do it.

Vaguely remember plasticote or similar.

Anyway, they give you a "cleaning" kit to prepare the leather or vinyl, which I usually don't bother with.

I always use gunwash thinners,

I have upset people before by saying I use it a lot, but for me it always works better than anything else I have ever tried, and I'm no 'king teenager.

You must y clean the material you want to colour really well, and thinners does that to perfection. I apply it with a rag, and use a toothbrush or similar to get deep into the seams.

The thinners works in two ways, it cleans, but also dries out the material leaving it absolutely gagging for something moist, so when you put the colour in, it sucks it up like a bitch in heat.

You then apply a "sealer" which helps in the process.

The last time I did this was to change sky bue vinyl seats to black.

I still have the car (GT6) and the results were amazing.

I drove the car for two or three years with no cracking or rubbing off at all.

You would never believe the seats had ever been light blue.

I also hand painted the blue trim in the car to match, and that was fine as well

I will try to find out what I used as I want it again for the same results

Hope this helps.

seats

Hi Geoff,

I have dug out this recent, (within 6 months) picture of the sky blue GT6 seats I coloured black, they are out of the car as I am/was restoring it.
I cleaned up the seats for the picture but the black is still all there, with no hint that they were any other colour.
they have had two or three years of constant use since I did them.
They do look a bit battered, but the car is 42 years old.

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Thanks for that , when you have a chance could you locate the name of the supplier you used , those seats look spot on , Geoff .

Seatbelts

Today I did some work on the seat belts.
This is work I really enjoy, I have 40 odd years of experience as a parachute rigger, and still have several of my rigging machines, which I will not part with!

I used to work as a test pilot for a paragliding company, and designed
and made my own harnesses, so seat belts are reasonably simple to work with.
Here are some pictures.

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You worked as a test pilot for a paragliding company and lived?

Wow, that makes my former employment as a bomb disposal officer seem a bit of a namby pamby option.

Occupations

Bomb disposal? No thank you Sir!!

Take my hat off to you Mr T! Well done, that takes some beating.

Mind you, I have had some close encounters, my boss designed a canopy, that as soon as I inflated it in the wind, I really doubted that it would fly, but that was my job, so I took off and launched it in good conditions at Hay Bluff, a well know gliding site.

Bloody hell, as soon as I was airborne, I knew I had f**ked up in a big way, it took all my skill to actually keep it inflated enough to fly it in and land!

The designer watched all this, and It was a bit obvious, even to him, that it was no Wright brothers prize winner!

But he still had the gall to ask me what I thought need doing to it to improve it enough to make it actually fly!

My heart was pounding and I was crapping myself, thinking without my skill I would be dead, so I said "you can f**iking sack me if you want,
but I'm NEVER going to fly that again.

He didn't sack me , but the canopy went in the bin.

You must have a tale to tell?

Yep, had a couple of near misses but was as lucky as Old Nick. Really earned the callsign 'Felix' more than once. Saving the anecdotes for the book I'll write when I retire from plodding though...

Test pilot, Bomb Disposal?

P'ah, I once got a really nasty paper cut on my tongue when sealing an envelope.

Ouch, that sounds painful. How can I compete when all I've had is a lump of phosphorous burn through my thumbnail and into the bone?

Lump of Phosphorus? What a luxury!

You were lucky, all we had was a hole in the ground!

Hole in the ground you say? Bloody hell we had to lie on the flat!

Flat huh! we had to lie on rocks...........

And you tell the young folks that today and they won't believe you, no they won't...

Seats

Did some more work towards getting the seats in place today.
Made some brackets and fitted them to the plywood.
The seat bases now bolt in and out using the Spit original seat mounting points.

Tomorrow I plan to try and fit the seat backs in place, then the car will really look like its getting somewhere.

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I'm having a good day, will post pics later!

Seats

Well, my aim today was too complete both alloy seat backs, and I was doing well up until a hospital appointment just after lunch.
It just dragged on and on and on and, completely ruined the day.

I did go back to the build, and managed to do the drivers side.

With he experience gained here, the other side will be quicker when I do it.

The seat foam is only 16 inches wide, and that leaves about a half inch each side. I have not narrowed anything, those are the Spitfire dimensions.

When the inner panelling is fitted, there aint gonna be room for becoming fat!!

I am JUST going to fit into the driving slot!

I have tried to show this in the following pics!

Anyone else building a 352 having the same problems?

Well I suppose they are not problems really, a Spitfire is a Spitfire I

guess.

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Scottie - It looks like it is coming together nicely for you.

Although I have a nasty feeling that my own seats are going to be a pain to fit.

Good luck, Paul.

Thanks Paul, my seats have also been a pain, and I've not made them yet!!
They will come together though.

Looking Good!

No offence Chris, but I may bin your cockpit back and shamelessly copy this masterpiece!

Cockpit

Wow! That's praise indeed Mick.

However, do be aware that you are letting yourself in for one

helluvalotofwork!!

The side panels next to the doors will most likely end up in alloy too.
I have plenty of it, and it is very cheaply obtained from my local scrappie.

But, like you, I personally think its worth it. When its done seats are not really required as "proper" seats, you just kind of pad the areas that have been created, watch this space.


By the way, where did you get that wonderful horn button you have on your dash?

I was quite taken by that and may want one!

This is going to look Mint!!! I love the way the clean lines round the seat backs tops are starting to look like they are molded into the body! at 6'4" I'm not sure I could fit in it though... hence buying a herald

You would have trouble at that height!
Like I said earlier, at 6 feet I just fit in neatly.

It would be possible if you cut two or three inches off the rear of the cockpit BEFORE you put the divider in though,
depending how much you cut out,would give you exactly the legroom you needed!

Interior

Really crappy weather today, rain wind etc.

Didn't bother me one bit, I was out there really early in the tent cracking on with the seat backs/ bulkhead.

To fit the ally seat backs in I've used nickel plated posi drive self tappers, this will allow the backs to be removed if required, and the self tappers actually look like rivets.

Well its done now, not totally finished of course, but the hard work in that area is over.

It was quicker than the other side, it always is if you learn from your previous mistakes!

To me this is quite a significant, step forwards, when I first saw Chris's body shell, I wondered how I would "XKSS" that part of it, well now I know.

It seems a shame to cover all that lovely ally in lovely leather, but there we go.

If Chris starts to make that rear bulkhead in fibre glass, I think I'll have to kill him!

Here are some snaps:

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Scottie - Congratulations.

We both know you made more work for yourself by not building a standard kit.

But I think it is fair to say you are now setting the standard.

Good luck with the windscreen, your problem solving record suggests you will do a good job.

Take care, Paul.

PS



Mick - But how can we shamelessly copy your good ideas if you don't have a build thread for us to read?