MadaboutKitcars

And seeing as i feel guilty for not posting many photos (especially when compared to Paul!) i thought i'd better take a few this evening after i managed to snatch a quick hr in the garage .

The petrol tank is now fitted!



And i've fitted a new sender in it seeing as the end had dropped off of the old one! ohhh err missus!!!

And everything is now nicely plumbed in



And here's the central frame i fabricated to support the new handbrake and the handbrake bracket.



Next i'm fitting the brake and clutch pedals and then it's onto the radiator and finishing off the engine.

For this build i then want to be able to 'drive' it in the moon buggy phase before i fit the body as i didn't do that with the Sammio and as a result there were a few issues that i could have avoided! So as soon as the floor pans are here and fitted, i should hope that by this weekend it'll get it first glimpse of sunlight!!

Dave your build is taking shape and looking good and the chrome handbrake will looks cool, great choice. I had hoped to have my car on the road this year but i seem to be taking two steps forward then three back so good luck with your deadline and i look forward to seeing the guards red colour.

looking good David , second time around has gotta be a lot easier. I guess a better quality package that isn't quite so tape measure defiant makes a difference , but having been there before has to make things flow a bit better as well.
She seems to be coming together very quickly .

Beautiful! Good work!

Dave - Great handbrake.

Looks like you will have another nice car when it is finished.

Good luck getting to the moon buggy stage, Paul.

Hummm.... an interesting few days.

I have picked up my seats and this time I've opted for Cobra Cubs rather than the Cobra Classics as the Cubs are smaller overall and also have lower sides. The reason i wanted these is that with the Classics in my old Sammio the seat belt never quite sat right for me.

So i plonked a bit of board over the chassis so that i could do some seat, wheel and pedal setup and i immediately spotted something that i had completely missed until now.

See if you can spot it from this photo:




See if this helps:





Give up?

Basically the plate to attach the pedals to has been welded far too close to the center tunnel and also on the wrong side of that cross member

Obviously this isn't the end of the world and for us Miglia/Sammio types we take this kind of thing in our stride, so i simply cut it off with some 1mm discs and then with the aid of that above pic and also by plonking the seat roughly in place i figured out where it "should " go.

(to the right a bit and in front of the crossmember)

While i was doing this i also 'fettled' the steering wheel location and many thanks to SWMBO for helping my lift the shell on and off a few times until i was happy


Also as my donor was an _old_ Vitesse it had a solid rod linkage for the throttle pedal and i always suspected i'd need to convert that to cable, but while having a rummage over various forums i found that the later Spitfires had a bulkhead mounted throttle pedal rather than a floor-mounted one.
So courtesy of those very nice people at Spitfire Graveyard i now have this to tinker with



oh... and i've also fabricated and welded in place the brackets for the Humber handbrake

I feel for you with the pedals, I too had to reposition my pedals once I put my seat in place. good choice with the throtle pedal I have used the spitfire one, it looks a better option than the floor mounted vitesse one.

Dave - Good to see you taking the "adjustment" in your stride.

I must confess I was gutted when I discovered the pedal mounting plate didn't work properly in my Cordite.

Of course, if this was my second build, I'd also be cutting & welding without batting an eyelid.

Good luck, Paul.

I have just taken delivery of a "shed load" of aluminum sheet and L section as I've decided to bond and rivet everything together in aluminum instead of using wood! (at least that's the plan today!)

I came to this decision after seeing how the builder of my old Countach kit had done things as i was very impressed with how he'd built that and i can't see why i couldn't do the same on the Miglia.


Also after numerous trials over the last week with the Miglia frame in place and after doing a considerable amount of reading i'm ditching the Honda alloy radiator and picking up a new _normal_ Vitesse one!

Reason being....

The Vitesse engine / cooling system was designed to have an always-on fan in the system, so i would really want to keep that in place and then possibly add an electric one "as well".
I really couldn't find a way to fit the Honda rad, with it's central-top inlet, and the longer straight-6 Vitesse engine so that i could keep the metal fan in place and route all of the plumbing and fit an electric fan.

If it had been a 4-pot then no problems, but I'm really snugly for space, so i'm going to run with a standard (albeit new so hopefully therefore effective!) cooling system

If any of you Herald boys want to make me an offer for the Honda rad or any of my electric fan collection (numerous makes and sizes) then please drop me a PM before i list it on flea-bay..

Totally agree with that plan - I love Ally, and will try really hard not to use wood in mine. I am toying with getting some ally mudguards and cutting them up for curves.

I've just put the old radiator back in place and positioned the bodyshell on the frame to see how much i'd need to lower the radiator by for the Miglia, as i had to do that previously for my old Sammio Spyder.

and....

it all seems to just.... fit!
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Panic started to set in that i'd ballsed something up!
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Jiggled shell around just to make sure i'm not being a numpty!
Nope still seems to fit.
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Jiggled shell around again, while starting to grin.
Still seems to just fit in the std location.
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Quick txt to young Mike and he's just confirmed that i can leave the radiator in the normal position and it all should fit just fine!!!!





<stands back and waits for the "have you read the extensive build instructions" comments!>

It fits? Where's the fun in that?

That is definitely the impression I had got, that the Miglia had that extra bit of development in it so that things fitted and worked. So well done.

But to be honest, with all your experience of radiators what did you expect :-)

The new radiator is here and mounted and i notice that the newer style "traditional" Vitesse rad that i have gone for has offset cooling tubes rather in-line like my original one and the one on my Sammio. So i'm expecting good things from this!

But ignore the bolt-together bits, this weekend has been about the bulkhead!

After much pondering and looking at the big pile-o-aluminium i ordered from metals4you.co.uk i first extended the sides of the supporting frame forwards with 25x25x3mm steel box section.

Then I welded a horizontal 4mm thick steel plate from the drivers side upright and spaning across the back of the brake and clutch cylinders to bolt them to (making a nice strong pedal box even before the extra alloy L section and panels are in place!!)
This is also what the new throttle pedal is going to be bolted on to. Now from this point onward i'm hoping that everything else is going to be alloy.

You can see that plate and the first of the alloy cross members in this pic




And now for the fun part making all of the panels!

ATM it feels very much like "Insert tab A into Slot B" And I've already learnt the hard way not to fasten anything in place until I've got _all_ the parts ready!!

I've already got a load done but i've also found that i really need the front floors in place before i go too far!
So I've had to bite the bullet and start fabricating two of those out of alloy so that i could get the measurements for the rest of the parts. But i'll be using the main dropped floorpans from Mike when they turn up.

And the lowered floorpans have been fabricated and I've started on the rest of the bulkhead!

Lots of bonding (with Tiger Seal) and also riveting together have made them very strong and given me much needed foot room!



I've also now altered and welded on the changed steering column mounts so that i can finish fitting the steering and cutting the front bulkhead panel on the drivers side.



Along with finishing the steering i'm also going to fabricate into the bulkhead a battery box. As if i didn't have enough drilling and pop-riveting to do as it stands!!

Very nice work Dave.

I must confess I'd never used rivets before my build and they are great little things.

Good luck, Paul.

looks great coming along fine now I like the ally floor pans. did your pedals fall in place for your seating position o.k. or did you have to alter them. mind you if you look at my frame and then yours, although they are for the same base vehicle, they are fabricated quite differently (intresting)

Cheers guys!

I did pick up on the frame differences and mentioned them to Mike as my pedal plate was simply in the wrong position!
He has said that he is trying to make the frame simpler, but also better and he's now looking at getting it all tigg'd together in order to offer a better quality product.

Personally it didn't bother me nowadays, but i know that "me pre-Sammio" may have been a bit more cautious placing an order if i knew i'd _have_ to make the alterations i now have.

On the topic of alterations, i took a load of pics at the Mark Moor International Vehicle festival the other week as a part of my "mood board" and i'll post some of those up here shortly in case they can also inspire others.

Plus there were some REALLY nice cars!!

Mark Moor International Vehicle Festival 2014

350+ cars, vans, tractors & bikes from all generations turned up to what was an amazing show!!



My favourite car of the show. "The Duchess"



Nice interior!



The Tri-King parked next to it was also amazing inside and something for me to aim for!!

I was on the scrounge for ideas for my interior, and this _really_ old one showed what can be achieved with a load of alloy a lot of patience (well... some) and some pop rivets!



The Cobra that turned up looked lovely inside, but was a bit "leather fetishist" for my tastes!



Although it did have one feature that Towed may want to consider in case of future cooling issues!!



I can't for the life of me remember what this was, but i really like this interior and especially the door handles



And i know i need to change the gear lever on the Miglia and this has given me a cunning idea! More to come on that one next week...

There were also more than a few pretty, pretty engine bays on show! The Mini boys really know how to make the most of a small package (fannaaarr)



And for the nerds amongst you, there were 2 of these at the show!!!



While i like a shiny engine bay, i do think the hot-rod boys win!!



An alternative idea for a fuel supply for the ocd amongst you

like the Viking trike dash very clean and neat.

Tr3 maybe?

My guess is that is a Vincent MPH.

http://www.vincent-mph.co.uk/index.htm

humm.... Vincent does sound familiar.. it was V.nice whatever it was and i do like the Door Handles as a possible for the Miglia!

Lots of build progress this weekend, but not many photos to show for it.

The lowered floor pans turned up!
I've decided to use the alloy ones at the front (to look a bit posher!) at least for the moment and those along with the new glass fibre rear ones from Mike have now been trimmed, and bonded and bolted in place!



This means that the frame is now finally all bolted down and the fun can really begin.

(Note: pic above taken before these next "adjustments")
I then realized that i'd mounted the seat belt mount points on the wrong side of the frame so i cut them off and re-welded them on the front instead...

I've also re-adjusted the steering mounting so that I've got space to fit the dash gauges.


The front of the bulkhead also got bonded and riveted in place and I've mounted the starter solenoid as the first point of starting wiring everything up:



The plan from here is:

1) Trial fit body so that i can adjust the exhaust length and fit new exhaust bracket. fyi, i'm reusing the original one, at least for now, as it's very nice!

2) Finish fabricating the bulkhead, as that will allow me to..

3) Re-fit all of the wiring.

4) Run the last leg of the clutch and brake lines to the servos, that means that i can stop it once I've started it (always useful!!)

5) Adjust the steering column.


By doing all of that i will then have a running and driving moon-buggy and once i'm at that stage i will consider fitting the body! As i'm not making the same mistake as with the Sammio and doing that inside the garage!


How long to do all of this?? Fingers crossed, by next weekend?