MadaboutKitcars

You pays yer money and takes yer choice

Or possibly pull the top of the arch out like on Andy Sharrocks

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If you are looking for "budget" wheels Mike, how about these?

I rather like the cream - vanilla ?

Oh and the budget wheels were interesting also

Many thanks Chris for posting the photo's (yes, to answer an earlier question, it is a cream coloured gelcoat - all the better for hiding stone chips!).
It looks great, and something to show the wife!

Ref the wheels, I've had them sprayed up and 'in waiting' for a few months, so no problem there. They are BMW ones with holes around the outside, and smaller holes in between. I've also stuck on some of those 'Dunlop' stickers.

Finally a light car to photoshop...Yellow.

That definitely shows the features off better, but needs the accessories to lighten it up a bit. But brilliant to be able to see different colours. Thanks Andy.

Reading through more of the threads on here is fascinating. Now I'm starting to think that what I want is a Kobra with a 250 SWB front end (I know the width of the 250 is different) and am also very keen to see what Roadster's new front end looks like. You b**tards, it's like an Ibithan nightclub here, distractions at every turn.

Always a pleasure hence...

That really gets me inspired!

Now I'm starting to think that what I want is a Kobra with a 250 SWB front end

The bonnet narrowing is possible as per my Z300S in Short-nose configuration. Check with Chris...

Well done. I probably still prefer the hairdresser green though.

Excellent, I think the Z3 hard top works with the kobra back end configuration. Probably, sub-consciously I am re-building a Minari (or a Capuccino) on a Z3.

Not sure how the whole thing would look, but I think the 250 SWB front wings have enough volume to carry the Kobra rear. I am thinking this is going to be a Maria, but it could be a Mrs Brown. I have no experience or track record of good taste here.

I found your thread, very interesting, I'll contact Chris. Thanks

With shiny bits....

Long nose
20150510_171408 by WCA!, on Flickr

Short nose
20160508_094341 by WCA!, on Flickr

I rather like the yellow ...

Is there any merit in getting a coloured gelcoat if you plan to paint later? Apart from having something that looks a bit more attractive whilst build and fettling happens, does it help disguise stone chips to paintwork or is it substantially lost when prepping for painting?

ps this forum is great and a real boon for novice builders like me.

No advantage in the finished product but having a white gel coat is very hard to see the imperfections, I would think a darker colour would be easier for prep.

The Tribute gel coat isn't a " finished " finish , which is a shame really on a £5k panel kit.
The likes of DNA , Ultima and Westfield are a few that have well sorted molds that allow a genuine gel coat finish right out of the mold.

...that will always look exactly like a gel coat finish. Only damaged where you've scraped it while fitting the panels.

Go for a gel coat 'finish', even from an expensive manufacturer, and you'll forever be explaining to onlookers that when it's properly polished it'll look every bit as good as paint, no, really it will. They won't believe it and you won't either, deep down. Pay to have it sprayed, spray it yourself or paint it with a brush, but paint and polish it. Gel coat is for Jet Skis, not cars.

This was by far the best Gel coat finish I have seen, it would be a pity to paint it, I genuinely thought it had been painted it looked that good.

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Yes, it will polish up nicely. But, given a month in the sun, another re-polish will be needed.

Jeff, with respect, that's a very good example of what I mean.

There's no depth to the shine - you should be able to see a crisp reflection of the hall lighting in the surface, not just shapeless blobs of light. It has a matt dullness to it that'll bug you for years if you don't paint over it.

Compare that with this 250GT Pinin Farina Cabriolet under similar lighting -



You can clearly see the structure of the ceiling above the car in the bonnet and it just has that shine to it that you'll never achieve with gel coat, no matter how expensive the body was.

I know that the Ferrari I've used as an example is a multi-million pound show car, but I just tried to find the price of the Ultima body to compare with Tribute and others. I think someone else has already claimed the 'if you have to ask...' quote as they don't publish their prices, but I found one source that suggested it was something of a bargain at $59,000 U.S., and that was without an engine. Ouch. Gel coat is a very practical and durable finish on a canoe, but I still maintain that there's no place for it on a car.

A friend of mine had an old Pilgrim Buldog . It was about 10 years old when he got it. The previous owner had never given it a polish, never even cleaned it really. The gel coat was faded badly and I offered to sort out the bodywork. To be honest it was an easy task , I washed it down , went over it with 1200 wet and dry used wet. Then went over it with T Cut then polished it up with colour match polish. It went from a dull oxidised rough finish to a glass like , highly reflective finish with just a few hours work. It stayed like that until he sold it on two years later.