MadaboutKitcars

Headlights and Front Wings (cont’d)

A couple more hours spent on the wing, I removed the plug, sanded back the gel coat rounded the edges and filler primed, it looks much better now and the same shape and size as the other side…









Next I shall tackle the bonnet, I will probably reshape the bonnet I have then make a mould from it then make a complete new one, I am sure that will be more successful than using a patched up one.

What's your plan regarding the front bumper? It might look good cut off on the seam and back at an angle with some fab and mesh grill the entire shape and look could be changed. Ed

I quite like the front as it is, I have a Mazda Rx-7 FD rear spoiler that I want to fit at the front and shape to the under valance, from the seam forward I will be painting it yellow and run the stripes back from there, similar to the old Lotus 7 idea.

In the Cabin

I have done a bit of work over the last couple of evenings and firstly I wanted to sort out the hole for the gearshift. The original shift was for an early mini and required a gaping cut out, first I made an expanded foam plug then covered in cling film, supported the plug from under the car and glassed over the hole, then a coat of gel and recut the new hole to suit the new Honda gearshift.

Now for the bonnet

I have just cut out the original bulge from the bonnet and sanded back the ridge that was left, I will refill the hole flat with glass over the weekend then tackle the areas each side to reform them to the shape of the wings, after that more cuts and shaping for the new bulge to clear the Honda cam cover.

Bonnet continued

Bit of a rush today, out to lunch later so just the morning on here, I have cleaned back the underside of the bonnet, sprayed a sheet of PTFE with release agent and gaffer taped it over the hole, prepped some gel coat and applied to the bonnet…













two sheets of chopped glass mat cut to size and the corners clipped



2 sheets of glass applied and 2 hours later hey, hole filled…..





next the sides…

Bonnet continued..

First I gave the patch a sand over then prepped up the sides, one at a time I cleaned paint from the areas I needed to glass the side patches, sprayed release agent onto the PTFE sheet as used on the hole and clamped into position, applied the gel coat and after about an hour I applied 1 sheet of chopped mat, I will be beefing that up when I have trimmed to shape and formed the flange….

The bonnet continued

I have had other thoughts on how I should approach making a new bonnet, as I had half a sheet of 9mm MDF kicking around I though I would try to shape it into the form of the bonnet. There is a double curve on the existing bonnet and unfortunately it doesn’t correctly follow the curvature of the wings, reason being is from the original light pods forward, the curvature wasn’t in close proximity of the wings so it wasn’t obvious, now that the new bonnet is, I will need it to follow the wing curve precisely. I placed the board over the car covering the engine bay and weighted the corners to encourage the board to deform.



To help along the process I draped a damp sheet over the board



Over night there was some movement in the shape of the board so to encourage it even more I re dampened the cloth and added more weight





Continually dampening the cloth in the morning and evening the spring back has reduced quite well so I have started reducing and re positioning the weights. I will be continuing this until the board stays in the form required without the aid of weights.



The double curvature is also happening so when finished it will not just look like a one dimensional curved board.

Now that is what I call genius....

Robin

Thanks Robin.

That is a great bit of lateral thinking.

Good luck, Paul.

Thanks Paul, its taking its time but I have been working on the car for nearly twelve years so another week is nothing in the scheme of things...

Bonnet continued..

While the board was in place I got under the car and drew round the profile of the bonnet ready for when I needed to cut it.





I have continued soaking the cloth and moving around the weights, reducing the weights until I thought there was manageable spring back.









Then off with the board and ready to cut the profile.



During the night the board had dried and it had lost a lot of its shape so I cut the profile anyway



Then sanded the areas at he touch points to make it fit the hole.







Once done I marked out the cut lines for the bulge cut around the lines and placed some spacers to lift the bulge.







Once cutting out the bulge lines the board has started to reshape itself to the wing profile, I am sure with a little bracing from the underside the required shape can be achieved, I am now toying with the idea of making the bulge vented….. more work there then, what do you guys think?

Bonnet continued..

I have cut out 5 ribs and marled out the curvature across the car and cut the profile on each



Then the plug was marked out for the fixing positions then drilled and assembled




When all attached the whole thing was placed onto the car and using brackets and blocks, it was set so the profile was at an equal height off the car





After that I pulled the plug down onto the brackets and then from the underside I made brackets to lock the whole thing to the car, then a coat of primer to seal the MDF in readiness for shaping the sides and front of the bulge and once done I will put a small radius around the edges in readiness for the gel and glass.

Brilliant work!!!!!!!

Thanks Peter, another weekend gone and so much more to do, I must stop thinking up ideas as I go, it just creates more work, at least when it gets finished it won't be an off the shelf job, must admit it keeps the old mind active, too active sometimes. If all goes well with the bonnet then I can start building up the engine bay....wiring, lights etc then the engine can finally go back in, hopefully with no unforeseen problems..

Bonnet continued..

Now to deal with the gap at the front, first was to cut out a piece of ply to take the shape at the front



Then the leading edge was sanded down to remove most of the step were the ply meets the MDF



Next was to fit the board, it was placed into position and wedged at the rear to maintain the shape at the top then screwed at the front to secure.



Next it was off to the shop to buy some modelling clay, this was applied over the board and around the edges to smooth out the required shape.







This was then left to cure over night……………………… total disaster in the morning the clay had shrunk something rotten and cracked all over the place leaving all that work a total mess so it was all removed ready for a re-think, mind you I wasn’t really happy with how it looked anyway so nothing really lost apart from more time.



I made up some fibreglass strips in readiness for my next cunning plan..



A change of thought so as to add some shape into the bulge, I removed the board then cut it to form vents, hmm that may look better I thought so the next thing was back off to the shop.





Arrived home now armed with plasticine, that won’t dry and shrink so back with shaping, I was going to shape the plasticine into what I liked and make it a bit smaller than required, cover it with cling film and glass over, then remove the plasticine, refit and bond in the glassed shape and apply P38 over to finish and sand to blend.

Right off I went









Hmm this if starting to look like a naff American muscle car, not the image I wanted so had to have a re-think.

Ha I know, I have a intercooler scoop from a Suburu, I could incorporate that I thought, so I removed the plasticine and placed it onto the bonnet to see what I thought…





That’s it.. it will keep the looks of an old English sports car, Aston Martin, Austin Healey sort of thing, so got the old grey matter working again and made a start…

More MDF was required so back to the shop….

First cut to rough size and mark out the shape and lay in place,



Then mark out the underside of the front edge for feathering then sand the front edge down







The front edge was sanded down checking the profile at each line to check progress until about 2mm thickness of the front edge was left.

Bonnet continued

Trial fit of front board and a quick look with the scoop, starting to take shape so I think this is the way to go….





Drilled some hole and countersinks then screwed into place in readiness for sanding back the front lip of the bulge

Love the way you are so willing to experiment to get the final bonnet shape you want.

Good luck, Paul.

Thanks Paul, I would rather get it right where I can, otherwise it will annoy me forever, may as well build it how you want it I say, it's like having your heart set on a red sports car with black interior and ending up with a grey one with blue interior, not the same thing.....

Bonnet continued

Next was to prep up for adding filler, I applied filler primer around where I was to fill to give a bond surface for the main filler and allowed to dry. When it had a good day to dry I then started to apply around the open areas in the bulge and over the fixings until enough filler was in position ready for the next stage.















I left the filler to go off and started to rub it down into shape..





When enough was taken back to get the shape a coat of filler primer was sprayed over the filled areas, this shows the uniformity of the shape and imperfections..









Next when the primer has had a good time to cure I will go back over with filler to cover the areas I have missed and fill out where the shape is uneven…

Bonnet continued

Now to sort out the imperfections, more filler applied where required



Then rubbed back…





Then another coat of filler primer….











Just a few more times round I think and some pockets added to accept the scoop then it will be ready to seal, then for the mould to be made from it…

Bonnet continued

Put down some satin black to highlight the blemishes….








Rubbed back and filled the bad areas…




And a fresh coat of black..









Looking the part now, there are still some very small marks but I shall buff them out from the mould, next to get rid of the blue paint from the scoop, I used nitromors but it was a real pain, that stuff really doesn’t work like it used to, in fact it is that bad I shall not ever buy any again



Then for a coat of black…



and just to get an idea of the final thing …….





Next to shape the fixing points into the plug for the scoop then it should be ready to make the mould from it…..

Bonnet continued

Right , I hope all had a merry Christmas and received all the parts you require to finish your projects, I have sent the wife back to work and now I can continue with mine….

The scoop for the bonnet has protruding fixing points so I fettled out the plug to suit



Once completed I gave it a quick coat of satin black to find more imperfections and also sealing the bare MDF.



More filler required, so applied around areas to fill any imperfections, hmmm been here several times and getting quite fed up with chasing my tail, I have decided that any small problem areas that remain will be cleaned up from the mould, first I will only need to do some light rubbing down and second the gel coat will be more forgiving as the gel coat is a lot harder than the plug.



Final rubdown and repaint… mask around the car and plug supports and ready to go..



Applied a liberal amount of mould release agent….



Now to hope for the best, a covering of gel coat, I really hope it all releases after all this prep work….



Now the waiting game for a good few hours and then for the glass……

Fingers crossed for you, it's looking good!