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Ha ha, I remember those rock'n'roll mind control lyrics conspiracy theories - to Mr Square in the 60's anything by The Beatles played backwards sounded like !nataS evol ew ,sey hO
A quick google threw up that modern musicians are still trying to turn young people to the dark side with their subversive subtexts...
It doesnt qualify for a photograph , but Glan spent all of yesterday correcting a 5-10mm irregularity along the drivers sill area ...
Its put us a day behind where I was hoping we were going to end the year ....but it was the right thing to do ... that's another tin of filler hits the dust !! lost count a little bit but I think we are around abouts the 14th tin !!
I'm looking forward to this week coming as the bonnet will join the game !!
We need to create the bonnet shut ledge along the bulkheads width on Monday ..cutting up an old Cordite bulkhead to do that ....and , hopefully , Tuesday should see the first instalment in creating the new face ...
Towed ...Thank you ...I have a hint of Maserati entering the styling but I want skinnier front wings and an uprighted grill ...I am looking at 56 Ferrari 500 TR and the same year 290 MM at the moment for my inspiration ..or thereabouts ...no replica's here !!..I have 'borrowed' features from many mid 50's styled cars for the build ...a similar approach to the S*mmio ...You can see aspects of several cars in those little beauties ...they are kind of whatever you want them to be from that early 50's era ...
Paul ...I know , you are right ..I have to admit , it is a bit of a risk I'm taking ..a calculated risk to some degree ..but I have definitely got just the one basket full of eggs at the moment and am being stretched more than the super size , extra stretchy Stretch Armstrong , financially , right now !!
But I am feeling very good about the way the little 120 GR is shaping up ..
Your heading in the right direction Gary, if the price is right you will have a winner as the car will sell itself. Are you leaving the interior for the builder to make the decision as to how it should look, this was one of the things i liked about the Sammio.
A while ago when i was looking around for a body i kept asking for photos of the body from various angles from a couple of suppliers who were reluctant to show any photos which i now know why, as they say the camera never lies. Keep pushing on and it will be worth it in the end.
Just curious, why are you calling it the "Formosa Spyder"?
I'M NOT ...It's a Formosa 120 GR ...
Formosa translates from Italian to mean something like Curvy or wavy lined ...
120 is approx how many S*mmio's I sold ..
GR is Glan Richards - The person without whom this car would not be happening ...
Excellent, thanks for the info. Very fitting.
Really looking good, lots of effort there.
RE: Top of this page
New Project-Formosa Spyder
THANK YOU ....Yes it started as Spyder but , as the body has slightly along the way , I changed it ...
Swiftmeister .... The current plan as discussed with Mark , the tube man , is to supply the cage with two dropped floorpans and a tunnel incorporated into it ...you fit the cage , then fit a seperate fibreglass rear bulkhead against the rear goalpost section of the frame , the body then lowers over it , very much like how a toy car comes apart ...this will give you a blank canvas to create an interior ...the doorshuts will be deep enough to hide the framework should you want to go the aluminium or trimmed route ..but it will be pretty enough to leave exposed inside a flowcoated , so not obviously fibreglass bodyshell ...
Are you joining to fit an engine before shaping the front end?
Would be nice to avoid the unsightly bonnet bulges that look so much like an after though on the Sammio. Maybe start with a straight six, that way the four will have plenty of room.
Are you joining to fit an engine before shaping the front end?
Would be nice to avoid the unsightly bonnet bulges that look so much like an after though on the Sammio. Maybe start with a straight six, that way the four will have plenty of room.
There is a four cylinder in place in its stock position . Allowing for the proposed 8'' shift backwards , that is about where a 6 will sit ..roughly ...the plan is to have plenty of clearance , so any power bulges in the centre can be kept to a minimum .....any development we do in that area will be for cosmetic reasons , hopefully ...
Are you joining to fit an engine before shaping the front end?
Would be nice to avoid the unsightly bonnet bulges that look so much like an after though on the Sammio. Maybe start with a straight six, that way the four will have plenty of room.
Yes, terribly unsightly bulges and scoops. I'm ashamed of the way my car looks. I guess the crowds of people who photograph it every time I park it anywhere are only doing so because they hate it so much. I'm sure Phil and Barry are revolted by the way their cars look too.
And the inspiration, of course, also covered in unsightly afterthought scoops and bulges -
I will incorporate whatever the car needs to work ...possibly a second scoop available for the more aggressive look ..its very early days ...there will have to be some sort of bulge in the centre due to the 'inline' configuration ....
Towed , I actually love random blisters and vents , scoops etc... It shows a cars purpose and development ...the scooped vent on the drivers wing of a D24 for instance ...I love it ... the one that starts at the headlight and ends at the cowl ...never found out what its for , but I love it ...
Not lots to see this week ..but some progress made .
Glan has pretty much finished both sides up until the front cowl ...there is some door work still to be done , but both sides of the body are now straight and matching ...
We started to attack the passenger wing and bonnet area , but it became apparent , we needed to settle on final cowl shape before getting too far ahead of ourselves ... so we stepped back to the cowl area with the addition of a bulkhead panel and some levelling up of the cowl area ...
We also tackled the windscreen lip ...This car isn't going to have a seperate strip around the base of the screen , like the S*mmio , Miglia , Cordite etc....but instead a moulded in place integral lip which when combined with a heat formed , pre-bent screen , will leave very little margin for error . two slightly flatter areas in the gap between screen lip and cockpit roll , will also be shaped to accept a small screenpost , so it really couldn't be any easier to locate the screen ..
Gary - I used a similar approach for mounting my rear view mirror deflector.
I found I needed the length of metal to act as a big washer, as the holes in the perspex where near the bottom edge and I didn't want any stress cracks.
THANKS PAUL ......I am not exactly sure how the screens will be fitted yet but they shouldn't be too complicated ..
Glan has been whittling away again ..He has made foam supports to take the weight of the wing section , braced with plywood bolted to the chassis as well ...the amount of punishment these bucks get with filling , grinding , cutting and the sheer weights involved with filler and the eventual mould making , you don't want any of it moving !
On top of this , the cut sections of Z300 bonnet have been jiggled about , the grille opening separated and uprighted , the headlamp area re-shaped slightly ( I am picking my Tribute headlamp buckets up on thursday , so a sliced filler tin is in place at moment and is a bit small ..)
We have quite a lot to do regarding shaping up the wings and the valley between wing and bonnet , as well as changing the grille aperture and bonnet bulge etc..but these pictures gives an idea of where it's going .....
